# What should the controlled trial measure?


Use a compact evidence ledger rather than a feature popularity contest. The following are proposed measurement definitions; set the acceptance thresholds for your own recruitment task before testing.

| Measure | Suggested recording method | Guardrail |
|---|---|---|
| **Additional supported answers** | Record the recruitment question, incumbent answer, supplier contribution and supporting evidence | Distinguish new evidence from reinterpretation, confirmation and faster retrieval |
| **Usable coverage** | Count distinct usable matches against expected completed matches within a frozen scope and date | Report missing video, missing fields and late delivery separately; do not publish a percentage without a denominator |
| **Time to an acceptable answer** | Record active staff time and elapsed time, including verification and reconciliation | Separate onboarding from repeated use; log assistance and trial order |
| **Identity quality** | Record wrong matches and unresolved matches separately against reviewed records | Do not treat a plausible name match as verified identity |
| **Traceability** | Count checked material claims with supporting records and list unsupported claims | A linked source must support the specific statement, not merely mention the player |
| **Operational burden** | Log manual steps, support requests, exceptions and recurring maintenance | Do not convert every hour released into a cash saving |

Keep results separate for materially different competitions, evidence types and workflows. Do not let strong results in one tested setting conceal an untested priority market.

Label findings **verified within this sample**, **partial**, **supplier-claimed**, **unknown** or **failed**. A small diagnostic trial should not become a platform-wide completeness claim.