The "earned tier" — credibility comes from showing the inputs that produced the result

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.

Source: Maturity-model design literature (CMM lineage, NACC).

Confidence: Industry-consensus.

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.