LockedIn Labs Field Research Observatory

Build the benchmark
in the field.

A multi-cohort research program designed to learn what Forward Deployed Engineers actually do, what employers need, how firms deliver, and which evidence predicts durable work—not test-taking fluency.

Explore the study program Inspect the assessment pilot Read the research protocol

Protocols are being designed. Recruitment has not opened and no survey result is published.

Research thesis 01

“The role cannot be defined by the companies selling it, the people claiming it, or the employers hiring it alone. The benchmark has to resolve all three against the work.”

Triangulated formation

Employer demand × practitioner practice × observable work and outcomes.

Multi-cohort field program

One benchmark. Seven vantage points.

Each cohort answers a different part of the validity argument. No single survey is allowed to define the field.

FDE-R02 · Executive hirers

FDE Hiring Observatory

What work are leaders actually hiring an FDE to own—and what would make the hire succeed or fail?

Design: Stratified executive survey + structured follow-up interviews
Sampling frame: Hiring executives and technical leaders across firm size, industry, regulation, geography, and deployment stage

Planned research outputs

Demand taxonomy
Decision-use map
Outcome criteria
Failure-mode register

Sample size, quotas, stopping rules, exclusions, and analysis must be registered before fielding.

Research operating system

Every finding earns a receipt.

Claims move through a declared chain from question design to public release. Missing provenance stops publication.

01
Frame
Define the population, role contexts, intended uses, and claims that the research may support.
In progress
02
Listen
Interview practitioners and executives; inspect critical incidents and real work products.
Not started
03
Pretest
Cognitively test survey questions, exercises, rubrics, and accessibility before fielding.
Not started
04
Register
Freeze samples, measures, exclusions, stopping rules, and confirmatory analyses before data.
Not started
05
Field
Run stratified surveys, work samples, rater studies, and longitudinal outcome collection.
Not started
06
Publish
Release methods, denominators, uncertainty, null findings, limitations, corrections, and reusable artifacts.
Not started

Protocol

Sample

Instrument

Analysis

Claim receipt

Research method spine

Standards before slogans.

These sources govern how the studies are designed and reported. They are design inputs—not claims of conformance.

01 / VALIDITY

AERA · APA · NCME Testing Standards

Intended-use arguments, validity evidence, reliability, fairness, and consequences.

02 / SELECTION

SIOP Principles

Job analysis, selection validation, rater evidence, documentation, and responsible use.

03 / SURVEYS

AAPOR Transparency Initiative

Population, sampling, recruitment, question text, weighting, disposition, and limitations disclosure.

04 / PRETEST

U.S. Census Quality Standards

Cognitive interviewing, instrument pretesting, mode effects, burden, and respondent comprehension.

05 / MIXED METHODS

NIH OBSSR Best Practices

Intentional integration of interviews, surveys, artifacts, and quantitative outcomes.

06 / QUALITATIVE

COREQ reporting guidance

Transparent reporting for interviews, focus groups, researchers, analysis, and findings.

Next publication gate

Complete the job analysis before asking the market to trust a score.

The first releaseable empirical package is a documented practice analysis with verified participants, tested instruments, coded evidence, dissent, limitations, and source-to-capability traceability.

Review job-analysis protocol Read benchmark paper

Research desk8 research and product surfaces