// 01
Where the evidence comes from
Two streams, kept strictly separate.
Public testimony — reviews on G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, the app stores. Public discussion on Reddit and industry forums. Earnings transcripts, analyst write-ups, news coverage, indexed help center content. Anything a third party could verify independently.
Engagement context — materials you share under NDA, plus observations Pierce/Co makes using your product.
Scoring is produced from public testimony alone. Engagement context informs interpretation but never enters the scoring layer.
Why the public layer matters more than it used to
Public testimony is no longer just what your prospects read, it’s what LLMs are trained on and retrieve from when someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity about your product. The answer a buyer gets is assembled from the same sources we score: your Trustpilot reviews, your Reddit threads, your G2 testimony. That makes the public layer a direct acquisition channel, and measuring what it says about you is no longer optional.
// 02
What gets measured
Nine dimensions of buyer psychology, organized into three tiers.
Tier 1, Foundations.
These are the dimensions a buyer expects without thinking about them. Their presence goes unnoticed; their absence is disqualifying. A weakness here surfaces as a failure flag in the scorecard.
Tier 2, Performance.
These are the dimensions buyers actively evaluate and compare. Strength here drives conversion, retention, and willingness to pay.
Tier 3, Delighters.
These are the dimensions buyers don’t expect but remember. Strength here drives word-of-mouth, advocacy, and switching resistance.
Each dimension is scored against your evidence and traced back through the organizational systems producing it, the teams, policies, and technical decisions that generate the buyer experience. The full rubric, dimension definitions, weighting, system schemas, scoring criteria, evidence patterns by vertical, is documented in the deliverable you receive at the end of the engagement.
// 03
The four phases
Every Assessment moves through four phases. AI does the volume work inside each phase; Pierce/Co overrides at the seam between them. The italicized line under each phase below is the formal checkpoint where that override happens, written into the methodology, not optional.
- 1
Source mapping
Every public platform with relevant signal is logged. Scope is confirmed with your team before scoring begins.
- 2
Dimension scoring
Each of the nine behavioral dimensions is scored against the evidence, with confidence tiers reflecting how much signal supported it. Pierce/Co reviews every score against the underlying evidence before Phase 3 begins.
- 3
System tracing
Each finding is traced back through the team, policy, or technical decision producing it. Pierce/Co confirms or reassigns every system trace based on what we know about how your organization operates.
- 4
Hypothesis and recommendation
Diagnostic hypotheses are generated from the prior phases. Pierce/Co interrogates each one against your product and business context. Hypotheses that don’t survive are set aside. Every recommendation is authored by Pierce/Co, AI is never the author of the action plan.
// 04
Where AI is used, and where it isn’t
Claude does the volume work, cataloguing sources, structuring evidence, scoring dimensions against the rubric, generating diagnostic hypotheses. Every prompt is versioned and every output is critiqued by a second AI pass before Pierce/Co reviews it.
AI doesn’t write recommendations. Distinguishing a genuine failure from a pattern users are misreading requires product context AI doesn’t have. So hypotheses pass through Pierce/Co. We validate each one and write the recommendation, or set it aside.
You get the throughput of AI where consistency matters and senior judgment where being wrong is expensive.
// 05
Data handling
Agreements. Mutual NDA and DPA in place before any materials are exchanged. The NDA covers business confidentiality; the DPA covers personal data handling under GDPR, CCPA, and equivalent regimes.
Storage. Engagement data is stored in Supabase, scoped to your engagement and access-restricted to the Pierce/Co engagement lead.
AI provider. Claude (Anthropic) is the only AI used. Anthropic’s API terms commit to not training on customer inputs or outputs.
Platform access. You receive access to Enargea, the platform your engagement is delivered through, for one year from kickoff. Export your data as JSON or Markdown at any point during that window. Access can be extended through a quarterly or annual rescore engagement; otherwise, your data is automatically deleted at the end of the year.
Engagement isolation. Nothing you share gets surfaced inside any other engagement, not the materials, not the analysis. Every engagement is self-contained.
Deletion. Available on request, anytime.
// 06
Frequently asked questions
Does Enargea use AI to write my audit?
AI does the volume work — cataloguing sources, structuring evidence, scoring dimensions against the rubric, and generating diagnostic hypotheses. AI does not write recommendations. Every hypothesis is reviewed by Pierce/Co, and every recommendation in your action plan is authored by Pierce/Co directly.
How is my data handled and stored?
Engagement data is stored in Supabase, scoped to your engagement and access-restricted to the Pierce/Co engagement lead. Claude (Anthropic) is the only AI used, and Anthropic’s API terms commit to not training on customer inputs or outputs. Mutual NDA and DPA are signed before any materials are exchanged. Deletion is available on request, anytime.
Who actually does the work — AI or a person?
Both, at different layers. AI handles the high-volume, repeatable work inside each of the four phases. Pierce/Co reviews at the seam between phases — every score against the underlying evidence, every system trace, and every hypothesis before recommendations are written. You get AI throughput where consistency matters and senior judgment where being wrong is expensive.
What if my company doesn’t have much public testimony yet?
Source mapping happens before scoring begins, and scope is confirmed with your team. If public evidence is thin in some areas, those dimensions are scored at lower confidence tiers and flagged explicitly in the deliverable. The audit reflects the signal that exists; it doesn’t manufacture signal that doesn’t.
Does Enargea work for my vertical?
Enargea currently supports B2B SaaS and Retail. The nine-dimension rubric applies across verticals, but evidence patterns shift — what “Trust” looks like in fintech is different from what it looks like in apparel retail. Additional verticals are added as the evidence base for each is built out. If you’re outside our current verticals, email hello@pierceand.co before booking and we’ll tell you honestly whether the methodology fits today.
Who reviews my engagement?
Jonathan Pierce, personally. Every score, every system trace, every hypothesis. No associates, no offshore team, no handoff.
What happens if I disagree with a finding?
Bring it up. Engagement context — what you know about your product and customers that public evidence can’t see — is exactly what Phase 4 exists to incorporate. Hypotheses that don’t survive your pushback are set aside before recommendations are written.
Will my data be used to improve scoring for other clients?
No. Engagements are isolated. Nothing you share — materials, observations, scores, or analysis — gets surfaced inside any other engagement.
Can I export my data?
Yes, as JSON or Markdown, at any point during your one-year access window.
How long does an engagement take?
Enargea is delivered in 10 business days from signed SOW. Enargea + Behavioral Strategy is delivered in 4 weeks.
Questions about the methodology?
For methodology-specific questions, source selection, scoring, vertical applicability, anything not covered above, email hello@pierceand.co. Responses typically within one business day.