How the roll-up gate works
How the Can You Explain Your Own App gate works
This tool grades each area of your app on whether you can name the answer and have actually seen it. It reads 9 areas and rolls them into one verdict — the worst, never the average — then a gate that can only make it worse.
The 9 areas
01A-01 · The browser linecan name it · has seen itYOU CAN EXPLAIN IT
02A-02 · The rules on your tablescan name it, but has never seen itGOING ON BELIEF
03A-03 · Who is allowed to do whatcannot name the answerCANNOT EXPLAIN IT
04A-04 · The money paththis app takes no paymentsDOES NOT APPLY
05A-05 · Keys and secretscannot name the answerCANNOT EXPLAIN IT
06A-06 · Test mode and live modecan name it · has seen itYOU CAN EXPLAIN IT
07A-07 · The shape of your datawhether you can name it was not foundCANNOT EXPLAIN IT
08A-08 · Accepting changesfix firstseen-it not foundGOING ON BELIEF
09A-09 · What you hold about peoplecan name it, but has never seen itGOING ON BELIEF
YOU KNOW YOUR OWN APP
every area that applies is named and seen
YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW
an area you cannot name — an honest blank
GOING ON BELIEF
you can name an answer you have never actually seen
Named-but-unseen · worsen-only
An answer you can state but have never looked at is worse than an honest blank. A blank you know about gets checked; a belief you are confident in does not. So GOING ON BELIEF sits below CANNOT EXPLAIN IT, and an area whose seen-it answer could not be found resolves to belief rather than knowledge.
GOING ON BELIEFWhy: Three of nine areas are answers this founder can state but has never actually looked at — and that ranks below the three they simply cannot answer, because a blank you know about gets checked and a belief does not. Two areas are genuinely known. One does not apply to this app and never counts against it. 3 of 9 on belief · 3 honest blanks · worst-not-average.
Fix firstA-08, accepting changes — whether you have ever actually seen it could not be found, so it resolves to belief rather than knowledge
No single area is the crisis — the clustering is. The roll-up takes the worst, the gate escalates when trouble compounds, and it names the one thing to fix first. Grades what you can account for about your own app, never a person. It reads back what you tell it, using rules you can see.