Simple Order Form (Demo)

The only option for payment from Udemy is PayPal, which takes another 3% and has a positively atrocious exchange rate (another 2-3%).

Other: Get on Udemy.; Stripe only charges around 3% and pays out every business day (on a 3-day delay).

U

Use Stripe to process payments.

Has Broader

W

We can assume a manager buying seats for the whole team (and not themselves) will likely also want to delegate assigning seats.

Other: Delegates are going to get weird when there are two or more products to deal with.; This distinction only makes sense when buying two or more seats.; What if the customer is a manager and wants to buy access for their whole team (and potentially not themselves)?; What if the delegate is also not an audience member?; When there are two or more seats to allocate, create UI so the customer-manager can delegate subsequent seat assignments.

What happens if the redirect back from Stripe is disrupted?

Other: Create a resource that serves as a redirect target back from Stripe that confirms the payment and enrolls the customer.

What if a customer wants to buy access for somebody else? (e.g. as a gift?)

Has Broader: The customer and the user are not always the same person.
Has Narrower: What if the customer is a manager and wants to buy access for their whole team (and potentially not themselves)?
Other: Create a minimal infrastructure to handle one-off payments and add people to an authorization list.; Create a post-checkout interface for the customer to either select themselves or somebody else.; Gifting can be a special case of slot assignment where the quantity purchased is 1.; What if the customer wants to use a different e-mail address to log in with than the one they used for the payment receipt?

What if somebody attempts to pay who has already paid or been granted access?

Other: Create a "you're already in" interstitial page that notifies the prospective customer and gives them the option to log in or buy more seats.; Create a minimal infrastructure to handle one-off payments and add people to an authorization list.

What if the customer is a manager and wants to buy access for their whole team (and potentially not themselves)?

Has Broader: What if a customer wants to buy access for somebody else? (e.g. as a gift?)
Other: For now maybe just arrange bulk purchases manually.; Make the payment success redirect target page have $QUANTITY slots, the first of which is auto-filled with the customer's email address.; Nothing should get in the way of a customer buying the product.; We can assume a manager buying seats for the whole team (and not themselves) will likely also want to delegate assigning seats.

What if the customer wants to use a different e-mail address to log in with than the one they used for the payment receipt?

Other: Create a minimal infrastructure to handle one-off payments and add people to an authorization list.; Create a post-checkout interface for the customer to either select themselves or somebody else.; What if a customer wants to buy access for somebody else? (e.g. as a gift?)

What if the delegate is also not an audience member?

Other: We can assume a manager buying seats for the whole team (and not themselves) will likely also want to delegate assigning seats.

What if the person is already logged in?

Other: Detect if the person is logged in and substitute the login CTA for a "proceed to content" link.; Modify the marketing page to include calls to action, either buy now or log in.

What if we miss the Web hook event?

Other: Create a Web hook to monitor for asynchronous payment events.; Create a resource that serves as a redirect target back from Stripe that confirms the payment and enrolls the customer.

When there are two or more seats to allocate, create UI so the customer-manager can delegate subsequent seat assignments.

Has Broader: Create a post-checkout interface for the customer to either select themselves or somebody else.
Other: This distinction only makes sense when buying two or more seats.; We can assume a manager buying seats for the whole team (and not themselves) will likely also want to delegate assigning seats.

Why would we also need a Web hook if we were already checking payment status?

Other: Create a Web hook to monitor for asynchronous payment events.; Create a resource that serves as a redirect target back from Stripe that confirms the payment and enrolls the customer.

A

Add a couple of API endpoints to forget-passwords to interoperate with the order fulfillment infrastructure.

Add a Web hook to forget-passwords that enables us to enroll new e-mail addresses.

Add an endpoint to forget-passwords which will bypass the magic link process and produce a session cookie for a given principal.

Add the customer (the person who paid) to the "account manager" group and assignees (potentially including themselves) to the content group.

C

Can the seat allocation page just be the target of the Stripe handoff?

Catch these with a redirect shim that forwards to the login page.

Create a "you're already in" interstitial page that notifies the prospective customer and gives them the option to log in or buy more seats.

Create a minimal infrastructure to handle one-off payments and add people to an authorization list.

Create a post-checkout interface for the customer to either select themselves or somebody else.

Create a resource that serves as a redirect target back from Stripe that confirms the payment and enrolls the customer.

Create a Web hook to monitor for asynchronous payment events.

The customer and the user are not always the same person.

The customer can then confirm the slot for themselves (the base case) or assign the slot(s) they purchased.

D

Delegates are going to get weird when there are two or more products to deal with.

Detect if the person is logged in and substitute the login CTA for a "proceed to content" link.

Detect the payment from Stripe and flag the customer's email as paid.

F

For now maybe just arrange bulk purchases manually.

G

Get on Udemy.

Gifting can be a special case of slot assignment where the quantity purchased is 1.

H

How are we actually processing payments?

How do we detect the payment?

How do we get new users into the authentication database?

How does the customer (who is not necessarily one of the users) get back to this slot allocation page, e.g. to assign empty slots?

How does the customer enter the payment flow?

I

I anticipate the volume will be low enough to not go over my hosting traffic quota.

I have a fairly large network to sell into (social media + newsletter).

I have all the infrastructure already minus the actual order processing and fulfillment.

I really hate it when you have to explicitly log in when the system clearly already knows who you are.

I want the highest-value transactions to have the least friction possible.

I want to sell on-demand video lectures to retail customers.

I would like for a successful payment to automatically log the person in.

M

Make the "buy access" button visually distinct from the "sign in" button.

Make the payment success redirect target page have $QUANTITY slots, the first of which is auto-filled with the customer's email address.

Manually processing bulk purchases will be extra work, and especially extra coordination effort.

Modify the marketing page to include calls to action, either buy now or log in.

N

Nothing should get in the way of a customer buying the product.

Nothing should get in the way of the user enjoying the product.

O

The only option for payment from Udemy is PayPal, which takes another 3% and has a positively atrocious exchange rate (another 2-3%).

P

Payment processing happens in one module (admit-n) and authentication happens in the other (forget-passwords).

People are going to get confused if the login and purchase action are the same form. They will worry about being made to pay twice.

People need to put in their email for the receipt from Stripe as well as to log in.

The prospect of extra work just to buy a thing will also scare off otherwise bulk-buying customers.

S

Self-host the videos instead.

Somebody who has already paid (or an assignee) may click the purchase button anyway.

Stripe only charges around 3% and pays out every business day (on a 3-day delay).

T

This distinction only makes sense when buying two or more seats.

This will probably entail at least two authorization groups (one for the video watcher, one for the account manager).

U

Udemy can take over two months to pay out.

Udemy has its own network and can drive traffic.

Udemy takes a 63% cut for referrals in its network.

Use forget-passwords to authenticate customers.

Use Stripe to process payments.

W

We can assume a manager buying seats for the whole team (and not themselves) will likely also want to delegate assigning seats.

What happens if the redirect back from Stripe is disrupted?

What if a customer wants to buy access for somebody else? (e.g. as a gift?)

What if somebody attempts to pay who has already paid or been granted access?

What if the customer is a manager and wants to buy access for their whole team (and potentially not themselves)?

What if the customer wants to use a different e-mail address to log in with than the one they used for the payment receipt?

What if the delegate is also not an audience member?

What if the person is already logged in?

What if we miss the Web hook event?

When there are two or more seats to allocate, create UI so the customer-manager can delegate subsequent seat assignments.

Why would we also need a Web hook if we were already checking payment status?