How to Separate Discovery Hypotheses From Confirmed Business Needs
Confirmed needs come from attributable, current participant statements; hypotheses are reasoned possibilities that still require validation.
Separate hypotheses from confirmed needs by recording provenance, evidence status, owner and freshness for every statement. A confirmed need is explicitly supplied or revalidated by an authorised participant and includes current operational detail. A discovery hypothesis is an inference from complementary signals. It can justify private validation, but it must never be presented as committed demand.
A four-state evidence model
Use visible labels and controlled transitions so promising inferences cannot silently become facts.
| Dimension | What to examine | Decision rule |
|---|---|---|
| Observed | A participant supplied a current need, offer or constraint. | Record source, owner and verification date. |
| Inferred | The system identified a plausible relationship between observed signals. | Label it as a hypothesis and explain the reasoning. |
| Validated | An authorised participant confirmed that the inferred condition is relevant. | Preserve the scope and time of the confirmation. |
| Expired or rejected | The participant withdrew, contradicted or failed to refresh the statement. | Remove it from active matching until revalidated. |
Example: inferred demand is not a purchase request
Repeated unused capacity and a nearby production bottleneck suggest a possible service need.
The platform may ask the company to validate that hypothesis, but cannot describe it as an active procurement requirement beforehand.
Illustrative scenario, not a customer claim or guaranteed outcome.Evidence labels in FoundBefore
FoundBefore distinguishes participant-provided conditions from machine-generated discovery suggestions.
Evidence and consent must be refreshed when circumstances change.
Limits and responsibilities
- Confirmation can become stale.
- An authorised statement may still be incomplete.
- Validation does not guarantee budget or transaction approval.
FoundBefore does not guarantee a match, buyer, supplier, partnership or completed deal. Identity disclosure requires mutual consent, and the controlled pilot does not replace procurement, contracting or human review.
Provenance and status labels keep useful discovery from becoming misleading certainty.