State How Strong the Evidence Is Before a Claim Drives a Decision
The User Evidence Ladder
Companion to You Are Not the User · Updated 2026-09-29
Use this when a claim about users is about to drive a decision and nobody has said how strong the evidence behind it is. Worked in “Label the Evidence Before You Argue About It.”
The User Evidence Ladder, with room to label the claims in one document or one meeting.
| Level | Name | What counts | Claims at this level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Opinion | What someone believes, with no evidence offered | |
| 1 | Anecdote | One user, one story, one conversation | |
| 2 | Repeated independent reports | The same issue raised separately by users who didn’t hear each other | |
| 3 | Behavioral evidence (telemetry) | What users did in the product, counted | |
| 4 | Observed user research | What users were seen doing in their real work | |
| 5 | Validated intervention | A change tested with real users on real work, with the result measured |
Opinion belongs on the ladder; it just can’t be stated as a higher level. If most of the claims behind a major decision sit at Levels 0 and 1, the next step is a test, not a vote. A claim can carry a UAT Distance label as well as a level.