Capacity planning and pricing tiers in No-Code - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Capacity Planning and Pricing Tiers

📖 Scenario: You are helping a small online service decide how to organize its pricing plans based on user capacity needs. The service wants to offer three pricing tiers: Basic, Standard, and Premium. Each tier supports a different number of users and has a set monthly price.This project will guide you through setting up the data for these tiers, configuring a user capacity threshold, applying logic to select the right tier based on user needs, and completing the pricing plan setup.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple capacity planning model that matches user needs to the correct pricing tier. You will create the data for pricing tiers, set a user capacity threshold, write the logic to pick the right tier, and finalize the pricing plan.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary with pricing tiers and their user capacities and prices

Set a variable for the minimum number of users needed

Write logic to find the first pricing tier that meets or exceeds the user capacity

Complete the setup by assigning the selected tier to a final variable

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Many online services use capacity planning and pricing tiers to offer plans that fit different customer needs and budgets.

💼 Career

Understanding how to organize and select pricing tiers is useful for product managers, business analysts, and developers working on subscription-based services.

1

Create the pricing tiers data

Create a dictionary called pricing_tiers with these exact entries: 'Basic' with capacity 10 and price 5, 'Standard' with capacity 50 and price 15, and 'Premium' with capacity 200 and price 50. Each entry should be a dictionary with keys 'capacity' and 'price'.

No-Code

# Create the pricing_tiers dictionary with the specified entries
# Your code here

Hint

Use a dictionary where each key is a tier name and each value is another dictionary with 'capacity' and 'price'.

2

Set the user capacity threshold

Create a variable called user_need and set it to 30 to represent the number of users the service expects.

No-Code

pricing_tiers = {
    'Basic': {'capacity': 10, 'price': 5},
    'Standard': {'capacity': 50, 'price': 15},
    'Premium': {'capacity': 200, 'price': 50}
}
# Set the user_need variable to 30
# Your code here

Hint

Just assign the number 30 to the variable user_need.

3

Find the suitable pricing tier

Write a for loop using variables tier and info to iterate over pricing_tiers.items(). Inside the loop, use an if statement to check if info['capacity'] is greater than or equal to user_need. When this condition is true, assign tier to a variable called selected_tier and use break to exit the loop.

No-Code

pricing_tiers = {
    'Basic': {'capacity': 10, 'price': 5},
    'Standard': {'capacity': 50, 'price': 15},
    'Premium': {'capacity': 200, 'price': 50}
}
user_need = 30
# Find the first tier with capacity >= user_need
# Your code here

Hint

Loop through pricing_tiers.items(), check capacity, assign selected_tier, and break.

4

Complete the pricing plan setup

Create a variable called final_plan and assign it a dictionary with keys 'tier' and 'price'. Set 'tier' to selected_tier and 'price' to the price from pricing_tiers[selected_tier]['price'].

No-Code

pricing_tiers = {
    'Basic': {'capacity': 10, 'price': 5},
    'Standard': {'capacity': 50, 'price': 15},
    'Premium': {'capacity': 200, 'price': 50}
}
user_need = 30
for tier, info in pricing_tiers.items():
    if info['capacity'] >= user_need:
        selected_tier = tier
        break
# Create final_plan dictionary with tier and price
# Your code here

Hint

Use the selected_tier to get the price and create the final_plan dictionary.

Practice

1. What is the main purpose of capacity planning in a business?

easy

A. To ensure resources meet customer demand

B. To set prices for products

C. To advertise products to customers

D. To hire more employees regardless of need

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand capacity planning

   Capacity planning is about matching resources like staff, equipment, or space to what customers need.

2. Step 2: Identify the main goal

   The goal is to avoid having too few or too many resources, so customers get good service without waste.

3. Final Answer:

   To ensure resources meet customer demand -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Capacity planning = matching resources to demand [OK]

Hint: Capacity planning matches resources to customer needs [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing capacity planning with pricing
• Thinking it is about marketing
• Assuming it means hiring without planning

2. Which of the following is a common feature of pricing tiers?

easy

A. Only one fixed price for all customers

B. Random pricing for each customer

C. Clear levels based on usage or features

D. Prices that change daily without notice

Solution

1. Step 1: Define pricing tiers

   Pricing tiers are set levels of prices that vary by usage, features, or customer type.

2. Step 2: Identify the correct feature

   They offer clear choices so customers can pick what fits their needs and budget.

3. Final Answer:

   Clear levels based on usage or features -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   Pricing tiers = clear levels by usage/features [OK]

Hint: Pricing tiers have clear levels for different needs [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Thinking pricing tiers are random
• Believing there is only one price
• Assuming prices change unpredictably

3. A company offers three pricing tiers: Basic ($10), Standard ($20), and Premium ($30). If a customer uses features only in the Standard tier, which price should they pay?

medium

A. $10

B. $20

C. $30

D. $0

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify the tier used

   The customer uses features in the Standard tier, which costs $20.

2. Step 2: Match usage to price

   Customers pay for the tier that covers their usage, so $20 applies here.

3. Final Answer:

   $20 -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   Usage in Standard tier = pay $20 [OK]

Hint: Pay for the tier matching your feature use [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Choosing the lower Basic price
• Assuming Premium price applies always
• Thinking no payment is needed

4. A business plans capacity for 100 users but expects 150 users next month. What is the main issue with this plan?

medium

A. Overcapacity leading to wasted resources

B. Perfect capacity matching demand

C. No impact on service quality

D. Undercapacity causing poor customer experience

Solution

1. Step 1: Compare planned capacity and expected users

   The plan is for 100 users but 150 are expected, so capacity is less than demand.

2. Step 2: Understand consequences of undercapacity

   Undercapacity means resources are insufficient, causing delays or poor service.

3. Final Answer:

   Undercapacity causing poor customer experience -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   Capacity < demand = poor experience [OK]

Hint: Capacity less than users causes poor service [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Thinking overcapacity is the problem here
• Assuming no effect on quality
• Believing capacity matches demand

5. A SaaS company wants to create pricing tiers based on storage: Tier 1 offers 10GB for $5, Tier 2 offers 50GB for $15, and Tier 3 offers 100GB for $25. If a customer needs 60GB, which tier should they choose and why?

hard

A. Tier 3, because it covers 100GB needed

B. Tier 1, because it is the cheapest

C. Tier 2, because it covers 50GB

D. None, because no tier fits exactly

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify customer storage need

   The customer needs 60GB of storage.

2. Step 2: Match need to tier capacity

   Tier 1 (10GB) and Tier 2 (50GB) are too small; only Tier 3 (100GB) covers 60GB.

3. Step 3: Choose the correct tier

   The customer must pick Tier 3 to have enough storage, even if it costs more.

4. Final Answer:

   Tier 3, because it covers 100GB needed -> Option A

5. Quick Check:

   Need 60GB -> choose tier ≥ 60GB [OK]

Hint: Pick tier with capacity equal or above your need [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Choosing cheapest tier without enough capacity
• Picking tier that is too small
• Thinking exact match is required