# Companion Pipeline / Project Model v0.1

**Date:** 2026-07-04  
**Status:** Product layer / source of truth  
**Workspace area:** `02-product/sales-companion/`  
**Based on:** `00-governance/CLAUDE_STRATEGY_HANDOVER_2026-07-04.md` and the Claude strategy discussion handover.  
**Related files:** `mobile-field-companion-principle-v0.1.md`, `mobile-capture-flow-v0.1.md`, `route-intelligence-flow-v0.1.md`, `market-map-layer-v0.1.md`, `company-insight-layer-v0.1.md`, `competitive-differentiation-v0.1.md`

## Core Shift

The strongest differentiation of Companion is no longer pure capture.

Pure voice-to-report capture is becoming commodity in adjacent tools.

The stronger product core is the ability to resolve fragmented field conversations into a living project pipeline for the Interior / Contract market.

> Companion does not just remember visits. It resolves field conversations into projects.

## Why This Matters

In the Contract-Interior market, the most important business object is often not a single visit, a lead or a CRM account.

The real object is the project.

A project may be mentioned first by a planning studio, later by a contract dealer, and again by an architecture office or an existing customer.

A classic CRM tends to flatten these moments into separate notes, separate opportunities or disconnected contact records.

Companion should connect them without inventing facts.

## The Contract-Interior Triangle

The differentiated market structure is a triangle:

1. **Auftraggeber / Client** — the organisation that initiates or owns the project.
2. **Spezifizierer / Specifier** — the interior architect, planning office, architecture office or consultant who defines products, categories or requirements.
3. **Käufer / Ausführende / Contract Dealers** — the dealers, furnishing houses or execution partners who prepare offers and may compete for the same project.

This structure matters because several dealers can bid on the same project while the specifier may have already shaped the product category or even the brand preference.

## Specification Status

A project can be specified in different ways:

- **Closed specification** — a specific brand or product is required or strongly preferred.
- **Open specification** — category, function or style is defined, but alternative brands are allowed.
- **Unknown specification** — Companion has signals but not enough evidence yet.

The difference is commercially important.

A closed specification may create protection.

An open specification creates competition.

## New Core Object: Project

A Project is separate from Visit, Lead and Contact.

A Project can contain multiple contacts, visits, roles, signals and competing offers.

### Project Fields

- Project name / working title
- Auftraggeber / client
- Project type
- Region / city
- Project scale
- Project phase
- Specifier
- Specification status
- Product categories involved
- Brand/product fit
- Involved dealers
- Dealer offer statuses
- Competing alternatives
- Confidence level
- Open uncertainties
- Last field signal
- Next action
- Stagnation risk

## Project Types

The model should support at least:

- Office / Workplace
- Hotel
- Serviced Apartment
- Retail
- Hospitality
- Public Space
- Education
- Healthcare
- Residential Development
- Mixed / Unknown

## Project Phases

The first Companion Pipeline should use a Kanban-like view, but not a normal CRM pipeline.

Recommended phases:

1. **Specification emerged**
2. **Specifier engaged**
3. **Offer phase**
4. **Award / decision**
5. **Realisation**
6. **Closed / lost / archived**

## Why It Is Not A Standard CRM Pipeline

A standard CRM pipeline usually assumes:

```text
one deal = one card = one buyer = one linear close path
```

The Contract-Interior market often behaves differently:

```text
one project = one client + one or more specifiers + multiple dealers + multiple competing offers
```

Therefore, a Project card in the offer phase should include an embedded mini-list of involved dealers and their individual offer statuses.

## Example Project Card

```text
Project: Serviced Apartments Vienna West
Type: Serviced Apartment
Region: Vienna
Phase: Offer phase
Specifier: Planning Studio A
Specification: Open / Pedestal suitable
Product fit: Pedestal TV stands + Power
Dealers involved:
  - Contract Dealer 1: offer requested
  - Contract Dealer 2: pricing discussion
  - Contract Dealer 3: unknown status
Next action: clarify whether Pedestal is part of all offers
Confidence: likely same project, needs confirmation
```

## Reference Resolution

The key technical risk is reference resolution.

Companion must detect when separate field inputs may refer to the same project.

Example:

- Visit 1: an interior architect mentions a hotel refurbishment.
- Visit 2: a contract dealer mentions an offer for a hotel refurbishment in the same area.
- Visit 3: another dealer mentions a competing quote for a similar project.

Companion should not automatically merge these as fact.

It should surface a possible connection and ask for confirmation.

## Matching Signals

Possible project-linking signals:

- same client name
- same project location
- same project type
- same specifier
- same timing
- same product category
- same dealer network
- same project size
- same description fragments
- repeated competitor or alternative product mentions

## Confidence And Uncertainty

Companion must distinguish:

- confirmed same project
- likely same project
- possible same project
- unverified signal
- separate project

No project relation should be treated as true without enough evidence or user confirmation.

## Practical Value For The Sales Manager

The Companion Pipeline should replace the manual Excel project pipeline often used today.

It should help the Sales Manager answer:

- What projects are currently active?
- Which projects are stuck?
- Which specifier shaped the project?
- Which dealers are involved?
- Which offer status is unclear?
- Where does Pedestal / the brand fit?
- Which competing products are appearing?
- What should be followed up next?
- What should I know before the next visit?

## Practical Value For The Company

The company should not receive individual surveillance.

It should receive project-market intelligence:

- which project types are emerging,
- which product categories are requested,
- where open specifications exist,
- where closed specifications are being won or lost,
- which regions generate project momentum,
- which alternatives appear repeatedly,
- where sales support or assets are missing,
- and where the brand is specified early enough.

## Relationship To Company Insight Layer

The Company Insight Layer should aggregate project intelligence.

It should not expose individual-person drilldowns.

Technical aggregation thresholds are required before any brand pilot.

The guardrail remains:

> Company insight must come from field support, not field burden.

## Relationship To HVH Differentiation

The updated strategic conclusion is:

> HVH bedient den selbstständigen Handelsvertreter als seinen eigenen Chef. Companion bedient den angestellten Sales Manager im Zusammenspiel mit seinem Arbeitgeber, der Marke dahinter.

This is a phase-one go-to-market priority, not a permanent structural boundary.

The deeper differentiation is not the target group alone.

The deeper differentiation is the Contract-Interior project model and the aggregation architecture behind it.

## MVP Priority

The recommended MVP priority is:

> Companion Pipeline for an employed Sales Manager working with one brand.

The first MVP should test:

- project object creation from field input,
- linking visits to projects,
- Kanban-style project overview,
- embedded dealer offer statuses,
- uncertainty handling,
- stagnation detection,
- and lightweight next-action prompting.

## First User Test

Test with 2–5 real users.

Focus less on visual polish and more on the key risk:

> Can Companion recognise that an architect visit and a later dealer visit may belong to the same project?

This is the riskiest and most valuable capability.

## Parked Idea: Companion Portfolio / Profile

For independent representatives, a separate idea emerged:

**Companion Portfolio / Profile** — a cross-brand market picture owned by the independent representative, potentially usable as acquisition capital toward new complementary brands.

This is conceptually interesting but unvalidated.

It should be parked until real conversations prove that independent representatives actually want this.

## Fashion Expansion Note

Capture Flow, Relationship Memory and Market Map may transfer to other industries.

The project/tender model does not automatically transfer to classic Fashion wholesale.

It may only fit Fashion subsegments with real tender logic, such as corporate fashion, workwear or store fitout projects.

Unreflected expansion would weaken the HVH differentiation.

## Product Sentence

> Companion turns fragmented field conversations into a living project pipeline for the Interior Contract market.