Why competitor research should be a list of claims
A summary tells you what a set of pages seemed to say. A claim list tells you what was asserted, by which source, and when. The second is the one you can audit, so it is the one worth keeping.
What makes a claim atomic
An atomic claim states one thing. “Meridian prices per seat and has a 10-seat minimum” is two claims: a pricing model and a minimum. Splitting them lets one be supported while the other is contradicted, which happens often when a vendor changes only one part of its pricing.
| Summary sentence | Atomic claims |
|---|---|
| Meridian is an affordable, easy-to-adopt tool for small agencies. | Meridian lists a Team plan at $49 per seat per month. Meridian lists a 10-seat minimum. Three reviewers describe setup as quick. One reviewer reports a three-week migration. |
What a summary drops
- Which source said which sentence.
- Where two sources disagreed.
- How old each statement is.
- What was searched for and not found.
What a claim list lets you do
- Compare Fieldnote and Meridian one claim at a time instead of paragraph against paragraph.
- Spot claims that rest on a single vendor page.
- Re-check only the claims whose sources have aged.
- Reuse a claim in a later research run without re-reading the page.
Where extraction goes wrong
Claim extraction, whether done by a person or a model, can misread a page. Two habits limit the damage. Keep the source excerpt next to every claim so the reader can check it in seconds. Put a review step between claims and anything that leaves the workspace.
Rules of thumb for writing claims
- Name the subject. “Meridian lists…”, not “It lists…”.
- State a fact about the source or about the world, and say which. “Meridian advertises” and “Meridian supports” are different claims.
- Include the date or version when the fact can change.
- Leave interpretation for insights.
Claims in Sigblaze
Sigblaze extracts claims from stored sources and keeps the excerpt beside each one. Claims carry a status (unverified, supported, contested or rejected) and a list of supporting, contradicting and contextual evidence.
This piece contains no external statistics. Fieldnote and Meridian are fictional companies, and the figures in the examples are synthetic.