Evidence & governance
How evidence, notes, and access rules support a trustworthy operating cadence.
A model people trust is one they can question. Evidence and governance are how Canvasm keeps the map honest over time.
Evidence
Evidence is proof attached to a card or a relationship — the "why" behind a number or a link. Each evidence item has a type:
| Type | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Experiment | An A/B test or intervention and its result |
| Analysis | A data analysis supporting a value or link |
| Notebook | Working notes and exploration |
| External Research | A report or study from outside |
| User Interview | What customers actually said |
An item can also carry a summary, date, owner, a linked hypothesis, an external link, and richer written content. Attaching evidence to a relationship is powerful: it records why you believe two cards are connected, not just that they are.
Governance: keeping the map trustworthy
Governance is the set of habits that stop a model from drifting into fiction:
- Baselines before claims. Judge impact contracts against a recorded baseline, not a feeling.
- Evidence on the record. When a contract is marked won/lost/inconclusive, attach the analysis so the decision is auditable later.
- Visibility as policy, not habit. Access is expressed with groups and access tags (see Group to dashboard), so "who can see this" is a rule you can review — not tribal knowledge.
- A cadence that closes the loop. The review rhythm is where evidence gets captured and stale bets get retired.
The payoff
Three months on, a governed canvas explains itself: every important number has a source, every link has a reason, and every closed bet has a result on the record.