R7 — Match the working-surface capability to the business type: booking + live availability for trades, calculator / assessment for consulting, queryable products + account for retail

Rule: When recommending a working-surface capability for a client, match it to the business type and intent profile, not to a checklist.

The default matches:

• Trades (HVAC, contractors, plumbers, electricians) — Capability 2 — interactive functionality: the visitor supplies input and the site returns a computed or looked-up result (calculator, quote, search, booking, configurator) (booking) + Capability 3 — live or frequently-updated data: content whose value depends on currency (availability, pricing, status, hours, inventory) refreshed on a cadence rather than written once (availability / status). Customers are largely transactional / local; AI Overviews appear rarely on local-intent queries.
• Consultancies / professional services — Capability 2 — interactive functionality: the visitor supplies input and the site returns a computed or looked-up result (calculator, quote, search, booking, configurator) (calculator / assessment) + Capability 1 — structured, queryable data: content stored as records with fields, types and relationships so it can be filtered, sorted, searched, and assembled on demand (case-study library). Customers are research-heavy; AI citation matters.
• Retailers — Capability 1 — structured, queryable data: content stored as records with fields, types and relationships so it can be filtered, sorted, searched, and assembled on demand (queryable product data) + Capability 4 — account / state: the site remembers who the visitor is and what they have done (login, saved items, order history, progress) so returning visitors resume rather than restart (cart, order history). Catalogue depth + repeat-customer state.
• B2B with long sales cycles — all four often apply; sequence: structured catalogue first, calculator / configurator second, account third, live data fourth.

Why: Where the findability / citability case is strongest vs weakest — informational / B2B research queries vs purely transactional / local intent — the findability / citability case is strongest for informational / B2B research queries and weakest for purely transactional / local. The four capabilities cover the spectrum; the specific lever differs by business type.

How to apply:

• Pair with R1 — Most businesses benefit from AT LEAST ONE of the four working-surface capabilities, NOT all four; match the capability to acquisition / service mode — these are defaults, not requirements.
• The first proposal slide for any working-surface project: "your customers do X; we recommend capability Y because it serves X."