---
id: "concept-effort-as-payment"
type: "concept"
source_timestamps: ["¶3", "¶19"]
tags: ["willingness-to-pay", "friction", "customer-labor"]
related: ["concept-shadow-business-model", "claim-workarounds-fund-rd", "question-quantifying-effort", "counter-effort-not-wtp"]
definition: "The concept that customers expend time and labor to bridge the gap in a business model void, demonstrating a willingness to pay that companies can monetize."
sources: ["commercial"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-commercial"
originDay: 5
articleStem: "hbr-tier2-09-customer-workarounds"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/what-customer-workarounds-can-reveal-about-your-business-model"
sourceTitle: "What Customer Workarounds Can Reveal About Your Business Model"
---
# Effort as Payment

When a [[concept-business-model-void]] exists, customers do not necessarily stop using the product; instead, they *complement* the inadequate business model at their own expense. The authors frame this as customers **"paying in effort rather than money"** (see [[quote-paying-in-effort]]).

Whether it is manually exporting data, maintaining disconnected dashboards, or piping code into external chats, this labor represents a proven willingness to pay. The strategic opportunity is to formalize the [[concept-shadow-business-model]] and convert the customer's expenditure of effort into actual monetary revenue.

Two open threads attach here: how to translate hours of effort into a dollar price (see [[question-quantifying-effort]]), and the external critique that tolerating a workaround is not the same as being willing to pay cash — switching costs can explain the behavior instead (see [[counter-effort-not-wtp]]).

**Related:** [[concept-shadow-business-model]] · [[claim-workarounds-fund-rd]] · [[quote-paying-in-effort]] · [[quote-right-number-of-models]]


## Related across articles
- [[concept-subjective-value]]
- [[concept-value-anchoring]]