Run an external polyrepo design-partner validation cycle

[codeforester]

Goal

Run a structured external validation cycle with real GitHub-centric polyrepo teams before expanding Base's command surface further.

Background

Base has strong internal dogfooding and public interest, but current evidence is insufficient to distinguish a broadly valuable product from an exceptionally polished maintainer-specific workflow. The highest product risk is continuing feature expansion without learning which outcomes external teams repeatedly value.

This issue should turn product-market uncertainty into measured evidence rather than another implementation backlog.

Scope

• Recruit approximately five external teams that actively work across multiple independent repositories.
• Record their starting workflow, repository topology, environment tooling, and onboarding pain without collecting secrets.
• Run a consistent Base evaluation covering install, project/workspace adoption, readiness checks, trust, onboarding, and handoff.
• Measure time-to-ready, setup failures, time to first successful validation or project PR, repeated onboarding questions, and 30/60-day continued use.
• Capture objections, abandoned paths, and tools Base would displace or duplicate.
• Publish an anonymized findings summary and create follow-up issues only for repeated evidence.

Acceptance Criteria

• At least five qualified design partners complete an initial evaluation, or the issue documents recruiting failure and why.
• Each evaluation uses the same core outcome and measurement template.
• Findings separate one-off preferences from repeated product gaps.
• The report identifies the highest-value wedge, adoption blockers, and commands or features with little demonstrated value.
• Follow-up product changes cite observed evidence rather than assumptions.

Validation

• Review the evaluation template against current Base privacy and trust boundaries.
• Record anonymized evidence and aggregate metrics in a durable product document or linked report.
• Reconcile conclusions with docs/product-requirements.md, docs/why-base.md, and docs/product-assessment.md.
• git diff --check for any committed documentation.

Non-Goals

• Do not add hosted telemetry.
• Do not require partners to expose private repositories or secrets.
• Do not implement every requested feature during the study.
• Do not treat stars, clones, or downloads alone as retained adoption.

Project Fields

• Status: Backlog
• Priority: P1
• Size: M
• Area: Product
• Initiative: Adoption Polish

Agent Assignment

Human-owned. External recruitment, interviews, and product judgment should not be delegated to a coding agent.