What is evaluation timing?

Evaluation timing is a concept in personal epistemology: Evaluation has its place — after you have thoroughly observed.

Example: A product team runs a usability test. The designer watches a participant struggle with the checkout flow and immediately says, 'We need to simplify that form.' The team spends two sprints redesigning the form. Post-launch metrics show no improvement — because the real issue was unclear shipping cost language that appeared after the form, which three other participants also flagged. The designer's premature judgment directed the team's attention toward a plausible cause and away from the observations that would have revealed the actual one. Had the team first compiled all observations across all sessions before evaluating any of them, the pattern would have been obvious.

This concept is part of Phase 5 (Observation Without Judgment) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for observation without judgment.