R1 — Convert every judgment into an observation or counting task

Rule: Every widget question must pass this test — could the owner answer it correctly by looking at something or counting, without making a quality judgment about themselves? If not, redesign it.

Why: Pulls together the four strongest findings in this brief: (a) item-specific > agree/disagree on data quality (Saris et al. 2010 — item-specific response options far outperform agree/disagree on data quality); (b) concrete-target moderation of the better-than-average effect (The concrete-target moderation — the design lever against overplacement); (c) BARS-style behavioral anchoring outperforms abstract scales (BARS (Smith & Kendall 1963) — anchoring scale points to concrete observable behaviors); (d) competition-neglect literature — owners under-weight competitors when JUDGING but can COUNT them when directed.

How to apply: For every candidate question, write the JUDGMENT form and the OBSERVATION form side-by-side. Always ship the observation form. The widget supplies the evaluation (the tier); the owner supplies the observation.