{"id":2074,"slug":"earned-tier-credibility-mechanism","title":"The \"earned tier\" — credibility comes from showing the inputs that produced the result","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["tier-design-principles"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Tiers feel earned when each band is explicitly defined and visibly derived from the user's inputs. Reputable maturity-model and diagnostic-assessment design (Australian NACC integrity-maturity self-assessment; Capability Maturity Model lineage) defines each level with concrete, observable criteria and ties the result to evidence the respondent supplied. **A tier with no shown derivation reads as arbitrary or made up.**\n\n**Source:** Maturity-model design literature (CMM lineage, NACC).\n\n**Confidence:** Industry-consensus.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** Single biggest credibility lever for the widget. The output must list the 3-5 inputs that drove the tier (\"Your market has many established competitors; your category has high search volume; your site is new\"). Without this, the tier is a lead-gen score; with it, the tier is a diagnosis.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-smb-widget-presenting-tiers-june-2026","title":"Research brief: SMB widget presentation layer — tiered results without overclaiming (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"rule-four-tiers-with-visual-scale-and-drivers","title":"Rule — 4 tiers max, plain labels, visual scale, drivers shown","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"blastland-2020-five-rules-evidence-communication","title":"Blastland et al. 2020 (Nature) — five rules for evidence communication","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"self-generated-anchors-debias-anchoring","title":"Self-generated anchors + \"consider the opposite\" — debiasing techniques","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:03.420Z","updated_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:03.420Z"}