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incentive-design skill

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/plugins/referral-program-orchestration/skills/incentive-design

This skill helps design referral incentives by aligning objectives, structuring rewards, and modeling economics for scalable, compliant programs.

npx playbooks add skill gtmagents/gtm-agents --skill incentive-design

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

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SKILL.md

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---
name: incentive-design
description: Use when structuring payouts, tiers, and eligibility for referral programs.
---

# Referral Incentive Design Skill

## When to Use
- Launching new referral or affiliate programs.
- Revisiting incentive structures after performance reviews.
- Adapting rewards for new personas, products, or regions.

## Framework
1. **Objective Alignment** – tie incentives to desired behavior (lead quality, revenue, product adoption).
2. **Structure Options** – choose between cash, credits, swag, tiered multipliers, or charitable donations.
3. **Economics** – model CAC/LTV impact, cap payouts, and define clawback rules.
4. **Compliance** – account for tax reporting, regional regulations, and contractual clauses.
5. **Experimentation** – define hypotheses, guardrails, and measurement cadence.

## Templates
- Incentive matrix (persona → action → reward → cap → notes).
- Budget planner comparing reward scenarios vs target outcomes.
- A/B test brief for incentive experiments.

## Tips
- Keep tiers simple; too many options create friction.
- Pair with finance/legal early to avoid rework.
- Document changes with effective dates for auditability.

---

Overview

This skill helps design referral and affiliate incentive programs by structuring payouts, tiers, and eligibility to drive the right behaviors. It provides a practical framework, templates, and guardrails to align incentives with business objectives while controlling economics and compliance. Use it to launch, iterate, or scale referral programs with predictable outcomes.

How this skill works

The skill inspects program objectives and maps them to reward types and structures (cash, credits, swag, tiers, charity). It models economic impact including CAC/LTV tradeoffs, payout caps, and clawback rules, and produces templates like incentive matrices, budget planners, and A/B test briefs. It also surfaces compliance items and a measurement cadence to run experiments and iterate.

When to use it

Launching a new referral or affiliate program and defining rewards and eligibility
Revising incentives after a performance review or when KPIs shift
Expanding programs to new customer personas, products, or regions
Evaluating tradeoffs between reward types (cash vs credits vs swag)
Designing experiments to optimize referral conversion and cost

Best practices

Align every reward to a clear objective (lead quality, revenue, or product adoption)
Keep tiers and options simple to reduce friction for referrers
Model economics up front: CAC impact, payout caps, and break-even timelines
Involve finance and legal early to address tax, reporting, and contracts
Document changes with effective dates and audit trails for clarity

Example use cases

Create a tiered referral program that rewards both referrer and referee with outcome-based payouts
Run an A/B test comparing cash payouts vs account credits to measure retention impact
Build a budget planner to compare different reward scenarios against target new ARR
Define clawback rules and eligibility windows for high-value signups
Adapt incentive structure for regional compliance and tax requirements

FAQ

How do I choose between cash and non-cash rewards?

Prioritize alignment with desired behavior: use cash for simple acquisition boosts, credits to drive product usage, and swag or donation options to appeal to high-engagement or values-driven audiences.

What economic checks should I run before launching?

Model incremental CAC vs LTV, set per-referral caps, define payback windows, and simulate worst-case payout scenarios to ensure program sustainability.