Parallax Customer Evidence

Fictional raw research packet: BenchRelay

All people, organizations, products, quotations, and events below are fictional, created for this exercise.

User request

We are considering BenchRelay, a shared handover note for bicycle repair work. Our initial idea is a $20/month subscription that every small repair operator could use. We have not charged anyone for it. Please tell us what these materials support, which customer group and offer we should explore first if any, and what the next two interviews and one small pilot should learn. Include a traceable evidence table and counts I can explain to my co-founder. We would also like to know whether these notes justify a sales claim. Use English.

The three workshop businesses are the primary research group. We also spoke to a mobile operator and a volunteer club organizer because they repair bicycles. Participants were recruited through the founder's contacts; there was no random sampling. The dates below are in 2026. Internal analysis is permitted; nobody has given permission to become a public testimonial.

Participant registry

S01 — P01 interview, 4 October

Recruiter note: The interviewer described a shared handover app before asking about problems. Asked about recent missed handovers, current tools, and possible price. No observation of the workshop was conducted.

[L1] Interviewer: What happens when someone else picks up a repair?

[L2] P01: "We lose maybe five jobs a week because the next person doesn't know what was agreed. At least, that's what it feels like when the phone rings."

[L3] P01: "We use a whiteboard for status and a paper tag for the customer's instructions. I pay $45 a month for booking reminders, and I'd only want another tool if it replaced something."

[L4] Interviewer: Would $20 a month be reasonable for the handover app I showed you?

[L5] P01: "Twenty sounds fine if the mechanics actually use it and I can stop paying for reminders. I haven't tried your app yet."

S02 — P01 follow-up message, 8 October

This is the same P01 as S01. The founder asked Dana to check the examples and numbers from the interview.

[L1] P01: "I checked our book for the last four weeks. There were two late pickups after a handover, not five lost jobs a week. Neither customer asked for a refund. Please correct that."

[L2] P01: "One was waiting for a part. For the other, nobody wrote down that the customer needed the bike by lunchtime. I still want that note visible."

[L3] P01: "The reminder company can't be cancelled until January. I wouldn't buy another subscription this month."

S03 — CRM excerpt export, 9 October

Metadata: Participant P01, organization A01. Imported from the S01 interview transcript, not a new interview.

[Row 14, text] "We use a whiteboard for status and a paper tag for the customer's instructions. I pay $45 a month for booking reminders, and I'd only want another tool if it replaced something."

[Row 14, CRM sales status] Interested

S04 — P02 interview, 5 October

Asked about the last handover, current tools, and use of a shared note. Did not ask about price or purchasing authority beyond the role noted in the registry.

[L1] P02: "Yesterday I picked up a brake job after lunch. The paper tag said 'call first', so I called before fitting the part. It worked."

[L2] P02: "When the tag is missing, I walk over and ask whoever spoke to the customer. That happened twice last week. It took a minute or two each time."

[L3] P02: "I don't want another thing to type into with greasy gloves. If the front desk writes it once and I can see it beside the job, that's useful."

[L4] P02: "Dana says the phone interruptions are worse than I think. I'm usually on the repair stand, not answering calls."

S05 — P03 interview, 6 October

Asked about the last handover, consequences, current spending, and alternatives. No product demo was shown.

[L1] P03: "There are only two of us and we overlap all day. We say the job number aloud and put the tag on the handlebars."

[L2] P03: "The last missing note I remember was in August. I called the customer back. It was awkward, but the repair still went out that day."

[L3] P03: "Our problem is finding parts, not passing notes. I wouldn't add a subscription to solve this."

[L4] P03: "We pay the card processor and that's it for software. If we hired an evening shift, I might think differently."

S06 — P04 interview after a free trial, 10 October

Asked about actual trial use, current workaround, next use, and purchasing route. The founder supplied a free prototype on 7 October; it had no checkout or payment screen.

[L1] P04: "It looks lovely, and I clicked the thumbs-up on your launch post. I put eighteen open jobs into the trial on Tuesday."

[L2] P04: "By Thursday we were back to the group chat. I was entering the same update in the booking system and your tool. I couldn't keep doing both."

[L3] P04: "Every Saturday, the morning team leaves and a different team closes. Last Saturday I called someone at home to ask whether a wheel was ready. That's the moment I want to fix."

[L4] P04: "I could arrange a Saturday test, but the owner decides about subscriptions. She hasn't seen it. I can't tell you what she'd pay."

S07 — prototype event export, 7–10 October

Provided by the founder. Organization A03 and participant P04 are linked through the prototype account. The logger captures only the events listed; it does not record calls, job completion, or users of the shared screen.

S08 — P05 interview, 7 October

Asked about recent work, customer updates, current spending, and price. Sal works alone and does not hand work to another technician.

[L1] P05: "I message customers when I'm on my way. Yesterday I forgot one update and the customer had already left for work. I drove there for nothing."

[L2] P05: "I use my calendar and ordinary messages. A reminder to send my arrival time could help. A shared job board would just be me talking to myself."

[L3] P05: "I haven't paid for a reminder tool. I would need to see it save me a wasted trip before I considered one."

S09 — P06 group message, 9 October

The founder posted a screenshot and asked for reactions. This was not a structured interview; nobody asked about a recent handover or financial consequence.

[L1] P06: "Nice idea! Our volunteers might enjoy the colored cards. Everything at the club is free, and I don't have a budget for software."