Questions and What a Good Answer Shows
| Question for the Vendor | What a Good Answer Shows |
|---|---|
| Whose data trains and runs our segments? Is any of it pooled with, or benchmarked against, other customers’ data? | Each organization’s segments use only its own records, at every layer. |
| Does every feature carry a source tag, and how is a third-party feature approved? | A documented gate: consent for pricing use and a written reason the feature cannot be replaced. |
| Do you offer the same external data set to other customers in our industry? | Awareness of common-input risk and a record of which external data each customer uses. |
| Does any rule or model use competitor prices, or predict how competitors will respond to a price change? | No competitor-reaction logic, and competitor data excluded by default. |
| Who sets the final price? Can we override or reject every recommendation? | Pricing authority stays with the business, with no auto-accept defaults. |
| How is the reference price defined, and can the system enforce a discount-only design? | A defined baseline and a treatment direction recorded for every segment. |
| How are sensitive inferences detected before a segment goes live? | Named features and combination testing, not only a check of the data schema. |
| Can you show the exact rule, data and version that set a given customer’s price on a past date? | Reproduction of a historical decision from the stored record. |
| Is customer-facing disclosure text drawn from the production rule? How is drift checked? | Disclosure generated from, and checked against, the same record that set the price. |
| How do you describe your customer base in marketing and sales materials? | Restraint about naming competing customers in the same industry. |
| Which privacy obligations do you take on, and which remain ours? | A clear written division of responsibility, including data warranties. |
| What records do you retain, for how long, and can they support an audit conducted at the direction of counsel? | Versioned records the business controls and can produce when needed. |
From Appendix C of the whitepaper. The questions apply to any vendor, including providers of deterministic segmentation.