Six products, zero pricing: when opacity stops prospects cold

The Pattern: Hide Everything

This week's six simulated AI users encountered a striking consistency across unrelated products: the deliberate absence of information. None of these sites showed pricing. Most buried their actual value proposition under layers of navigation and marketing language so generic it could describe any competitor.

One product claimed to offer "control over search results, block sites, prioritize sources", then provided zero evidence this differs from existing alternatives. Another promised an assistant that handles receptionist, cold-caller, analyst, and twelve other roles simultaneously, with no detail on which claims were real or how any of it worked.

The common thread wasn't poor design. It was strategic opacity, the kind that signals either a product so early-stage the team hasn't decided what it costs, or one so expensive they're gatekeeping the conversation.

Where Users Stopped

No simulated users completed these flows. The dropoff was absolute, though we didn't capture the exact moment each one quit.

What we saw instead: call-to-action buttons labeled "Start searching" and "How it works" that led nowhere meaningful. Pages stuffed with navigation (Home, About, Privacy, Terms) but almost no actual content below the fold, just UI mockups that could belong to any product. A claim of being "trusted by modern real estate teams" with no logos, numbers, or names attached. Cookie banners that contained more real copy than the actual product sections.

The vaguest language appeared where specifics mattered most: pricing, differentiation, proof of concept.

What Fixes This

Remove the gatekeeping. Simulated users and real ones have the same requirement: enough information to self-qualify.

Publish your pricing, even if it's "custom for enterprise." Name one specific thing your product does better than alternatives and back it with a number or example. If your assistant handles multiple roles, pick the one that's genuinely working and show that clearly rather than promising sixteen.

Cut the navigation clutter. Every link that isn't pricing, signup, or core feature is friction.

Proof matters. Real logos, real numbers, real workflows, not claims.

See exactly where users quit on your signup flow: https://indiecru.sh/roast