WHW-PORTFOLIO-EVIDENCE-METHOD-2026-08-26 · ready-for-evidence-intake
Evidence before investment or pruning
Current result: no portfolio decision has been issued. No private analytics or maintenance evidence has been imported and no product decision has been issued under this method. The method is live now so future decisions can be compared, challenged and reversed instead of being justified after the fact.
Evidence-method JSON · Blank decision card · Portfolio manifest
Five evidence families stay separate
The five evidence families remain separate; a single weighted score cannot authorize a decision. No product may be de-emphasised, noindexed, archived, merged or removed only because it falls below a traffic percentile.
search-demand
Search demand and discoverability
non-identifying impressions and clicks · query-theme coverage · indexed-route health
direct-use
Aggregate actual use or service
useful-session completion · aggregate return cohorts · caregiver-reported utility collected with consent
reliability-quality
Reliability, correctness and quality
release checks · reproducible defect rate · rule-fixture conformance · material corrections
maintenance-burden
Maintenance burden
dependency and asset risk · hours required for critical fixes · release regressions · unowned operational work
strategic-option-value
Strategic fit and option value
shared capability · distinct audience job · knowledge-engine contribution · reversible learning value
Hard vetoes come first
An open veto blocks investment and may require remediation regardless of traffic. AI and automated validators cannot certify that a veto is truly clear.
- child-safety: Unresolved child-safety or safeguarding risk
- correctness: Repeated or material correctness failure
- privacy-security: Unresolved privacy or security risk
- critical-accessibility: Critical accessibility barrier
- unsupported-claims: Unsupported educational, institutional, expert or compliance claim
- ownerless: No accountable owner
Evidence grades
| Grade | Meaning |
|---|---|
| A | Multiple recent, directly relevant and independently checkable evidence sources cover all five families, with limitations recorded. |
| B | Recent, directly relevant evidence covers all five families, but one material limitation or validation gap remains. |
| C | Some relevant evidence exists, but one or more evidence families are materially incomplete; only maintain, freeze or evidence-gathering changes are supported. |
| D | Evidence is absent, stale, non-comparable or largely inferred; no portfolio reduction or investment claim is supported. |
Allowed actions
| Action | Decision meaning |
|---|---|
| invest | Increase bounded development or distribution against a named hypothesis and rollback trigger. |
| maintain | Keep the product live with defined reliability and review obligations. |
| freeze | Accept critical fixes only while gathering evidence or resolving a veto. |
| merge | Move a product job or route into a named successor while preserving redirects and a rollback snapshot. |
| de-emphasise | Reduce catalogue prominence without changing indexability or deleting the route. |
| noindex | Keep the route accessible while requesting search engines not index it. |
| archive | Preserve a readable record and source snapshot while ending active maintenance. |
| remove | Remove the public route only after a preserved snapshot, successor or rationale and explicit rollback plan. |
Reversibility ladder
step 1
snapshot
Record the current route, source revision, dependencies and public discovery state.
step 2
freeze
Stop feature work but retain critical safety, privacy, security and correctness fixes.
step 3
de-emphasise
Reduce promotion for a defined observation window without hiding the route.
step 4
noindex
Preserve direct access and monitor indexing changes with a rollback trigger.
step 5
archive
Keep a public record, reason, successor where applicable and recovery snapshot.
step 6
merge-or-remove
Require evidence grade A or B, a named owner, migration checks and a tested rollback path.
Data and automation boundary
- Use aggregate route-week evidence only; child behaviour tracking is prohibited.
- Private raw metrics do not belong in the public record.
- The validator checks completeness and internal consistency, not whether evidence is true or an owner is authorised.
- A validated card cannot automatically change the live site. Indexing, discovery and archive changes remain separately tested releases.