Rules (35)
- ruleRULE: Lead WordPress migration sales with a $1,250 fixed-price Migration Audit. Quote the build fixed-price only after the audit completes.
- ruleRULE: Every Candid developer gets paid Claude Code + Cursor (or Copilot). ~$30-40/mo/person is not a real number against the productivity lift.
- ruleRULE: Capture an archive snapshot (Perma.cc / archive.org) at the moment of citing any web source. Quote verbatim.
- ruleRULE: Every objective claim in Candid content carries a named source + date + verbatim quote ≤25 words + confidence label
- ruleRULE: Every public Candid artifact carries a visible "last updated" stamp. Living-document discipline beats one-shot publication.
- ruleRULE: Foundation research before article, article before marketing page. Never write the marketing page first.
- ruleRULE: Treat a deliberate data layer as a privacy-compliance accelerator, not a privacy risk. The scattered alternative is harder to comply with.
- ruleRULE: Don't bend the client's business model to a generic CRM. Either find vertical SaaS that fits, or add a custom data layer on top.
- ruleRULE: Own a single customer_id primary key that joins across your vertical SaaS + QuickBooks + email + ads.
- ruleRULE: Every Candid data product carries source attribution per the [[attribution-checklist-by-source]]. Mis-attribution terminates the licence.
- ruleRULE: Build Candid client data products on official open-data feeds — never on scraped sources
- ruleRULE: For content-heavy SEO/AI-critical clients (~$10k+ budget), default proposal is headless WordPress + Astro on Cloudflare Pages
- ruleRULE: Stop quoting Elementor / Divi / WPBakery as the default for new Candid client builds. Block themes lead the pricing menu.
- ruleRULE: The LCP image always has explicit width/height + fetchpriority="high" + no lazy-loading
- ruleRULE: Defer or delay every third-party script until user interaction, except those required for first paint
- ruleRULE: Performance budgets enforced in CI. Build fails on budget violation. Documented budgets without CI enforcement do not work.
- ruleRULE: Accessibility is architecture, not an overlay. Never sell or install an accessibility overlay widget.
- ruleRULE: Plugin count is the WordPress security surface. Audit quarterly; one-in, one-out rule.
- ruleRULE: Design every Candid client site for a 10-year operational horizon. Rebuild is a choice, not a forced move.
- ruleRULE: Mega menu hover delay 500ms before show, 100ms reveal. Mobile uses accordion / sequential, not the same mega menu.
- ruleRULE: 4-15-person service businesses use hub-and-spoke IA, not enterprise matrix. Don't pretend to be Dentons.
- ruleRULE: Forms under ~7 fields stay single-step. Multi-step only when total fields cross the threshold.
- ruleRULE: Every vertical page carries substantively vertical-specific content (case studies, regulations, vocabulary). Generic content gets folded.
- ruleRULE: Don't use audience-based primary nav unless audience categories are mutually exclusive, jargon-free, with substantially unique content
- ruleRULE: Default to /industries/<slug>/ for multi-vertical service business URLs. Never /for-audience/ as primary IA.
- ruleRULE: A platform that cannot produce a clean export today is a hostage situation. Treat it as such.
- ruleRULE: Standard agency contract includes a written exit-transition clause naming deliverables and timelines
- ruleRULE: Require a working database export on Day 1 of any engagement. Test it. Re-test quarterly.
- ruleRULE: Always list the business (not the agency) as the domain Registrant. Step 1 of every engagement.
- ruleRULE: Never publish a tool or library name without a citation that can be verified by a reader.
- ruleRULE: Every non-trivial claim carries a named source with author/institution + date + URL. Confidence flag honest.
- ruleRULE: Lead paragraphs with the direct answer. Aim for 40–60 words. Make every paragraph self-contained.
- ruleRULE: Every page ships with a publish date and a last-updated date. Refresh quarterly minimum.
- ruleRULE: Always server-render or statically generate content for AI crawlers. Never ship client-side-only HTML.
- ruleRULE: Always ship schema as hygiene. Never expect it alone to move AI citations.
Reference entries (42)
- referenceMigration objection-handling map — sourced answers to every common client fear about migrating off WordPress
- referenceCMS workflow decision matrix — Sanity/Storyblok (weekly editors, visual preview); Keystatic (monthly, technical-adjacent); Markdown-in-Git (engineers only)
- referenceWhen NOT to migrate a client off WordPress — the honest counter-cases Candid Creative will refuse
- referenceAI-assisted dev productivity 2026: published evidence ranges from 21-28% speedup (GovTech) to 19% slowdown (METR RCT) — honest ceiling is 1.3-1.7× for fluent users
- referenceResearch brief: Candid Creative 2026 Build-Standards — web stack decision framework for SMB marketing sites & lightweight apps (piece 16)
- referenceCANDID REFERENCE: how the 15-brief foundation roadmap connects — the throughline from strategic frame to editorial layer
- referenceCANDID REFERENCE: 7-label confidence taxonomy — Verified / Industry-consensus / Single-source / Estimated / Author's view / Contested / Stale
- referenceResearch brief: Confidence Levels, Sources, and Dated Claims — why every statement on a credible site should be verifiable (piece 15 of 15)
- referenceReference: research-first cadence by operation type — 1 piece/month to bimonthly print
- referenceReference framework: audience layering — foundation research vs public article vs marketing page (3-column comparison)
- referenceReference framework: Research-first workflow — 5 stages (Capture → Foundation → Synthesis → Article → Marketing page → Maintain)
- referenceResearch brief: Research Before Pages — methodology for KB-backed websites (piece 14 of 15)
- referenceIllustration: what "modeling the actual business" means for Boucher & Jones fuel distribution (in-development, NOT delivered)
- referenceReference: operational data map by industry — what gets generated, stranded, and unlockable for 5 service verticals
- referenceReference: the 5-stage Data Maturity Curve — from stranded data to data as product
- referenceReference: minimum viable data stack for a $1M-$10M Canadian service business (2026, C$100-C$500/month)
- referenceResearch brief: The Dataset is the Product — when a service business should own its data (piece 12 of 15)
- referenceReference: underexploited Canadian open data by industry — highest-leverage starts for KW SMB clients
- referenceResearch brief: Public data as a private moat — building proprietary intelligence from government open data (piece 11 of 15)
- referenceCandid Creative page-builder transition roadmap: 4 stages over 12 months
- referenceReference: alternative-stack recommendations by use case and budget (Candid 6-tier framework)
- referenceReference: what page builders cost a small-business site — 10 categories ranked by long-term impact
- referenceResearch brief: The Case Against Page Builders (piece 10 of 15)
- referenceReference: 2026 performance budget — SMB marketing site (Candid default targets)
- referenceResearch brief: Page Speed as a Moat — why CWV separates the agencies from the freelancers (piece 9 of 15)
- referenceReference framework: 10-year cost model — rebuild-every-3-years vs foundation-first (Canadian SMB, CAD)
- referenceReference framework: which website dimensions decay vs compound over 10 years (12-dimension matrix)
- referenceOrbit Media: average website lifespan across Inc 5000 is 2y4mo; under continuous care, 6y4mo
- referenceResearch brief: Built to Last — why most SMB sites rebuild every 3-4 years (piece 5 of 15)
- referenceBoucher & Jones IA recommendation: Pattern A + hub-and-spoke, NOT enterprise matrix
- referenceReference: which IA pattern to use, by business shape (decision matrix)
- referenceGartner: typical B2B buying group is 6-10 decision-makers; ~95% revisit earlier decisions (CSO Update, 2019)
- referenceGartner: B2B buyers complete "six buying jobs" in non-linear "looping" order
- referenceResearch brief: Information architecture for service businesses with multiple verticals (piece 6 of 15)
- referenceOwnership Checklist: what an SMB must be able to walk away with at agency separation
- referenceGoogle Workspace: cannot transfer file ownership to external accounts; client separation requires IMAP+DNS migration
- referenceAgency-as-Registrant "domain hostage" pattern — practitioner-documented but rarely litigated
- referenceDoctorow: "enshittification" — the three-phase decay pattern of platforms (Word of the Year 2023 + 2024)
- referenceResearch brief: Owning your stack — why agency-managed platforms cost more than they save (piece 4 of 15)
- referenceResearch brief: The knowledge-base-backed website (piece 3 of 15)
- referenceResearch brief: What makes a marketing site do something (piece on brochure vs platform)
- referenceResearch brief: Structured content as a competitive advantage (piece 2 of 15)
