Research Audit
The Reality Gap in PMF Origin Stories
The Founder's Memory
Timeline Compression
"We knew in Month 3." (Ignoring 6 months of flat growth).
Signal Amplification
Remembering the one happy customer, forgetting the 40 churned ones.
Hindsight Bias
Re-writing desperate pivots as "strategic iterations" in retrospect.
The Behavioral Evidence
Cohort Gradients
Measured month-by-month evolution of the flat retention tail.
Aggregate Signals
Evidence from the entire user base, not just power users.
Auditable Briefs
Data-backed documentation that resists narrative distortion.