---
id: "quote-paying-in-effort"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["¶3"]
tags: ["willingness-to-pay", "customer-behavior"]
related: ["concept-effort-as-payment", "concept-shadow-business-model"]
speaker: "Donna Henrike Bohrer, Karolin Frankenberger and Joakim Wincent"
speakers: ["Donna Henrike Bohrer", "Karolin Frankenberger", "Joakim Wincent"]
quote: "By the time a workaround exists, customers have already built the prototype, proven willingness to pay, and pulled a new business model into existence. They are paying in effort rather than money."
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"
---
# "Paying in effort rather than money"

> "By the time a workaround exists, customers have already built the prototype, proven willingness to pay, and pulled a new business model into existence. They are paying in effort rather than money."
>
> — [[entity-donna-henrike-bohrer|Donna Henrike Bohrer]], [[entity-karolin-frankenberger|Karolin Frankenberger]] and [[entity-joakim-wincent|Joakim Wincent]] (¶3)

The defining articulation of [[concept-effort-as-payment]] and the seed of the [[concept-shadow-business-model]] idea. Note the critique that observed effort ≠ cash willingness to pay (see [[counter-effort-not-wtp]]).

**Related:** [[concept-effort-as-payment]] · [[concept-shadow-business-model]] · [[concept-customer-workaround]]