Founders
How to separate the buyer from the daily user of AI code review tools
AI code review tools: Map buyer, daily user, champion, administrator, and approver separately.
Map buyer, daily user, champion, administrator, and approver separately. One person may hold several roles, but that is something to establish in interviews. Enthusiasm from a user does not establish budget, and approval from an executive does not establish daily adoption.
Start with the decision
Follow one real purchase process from request through implementation. Ask each participant what they decide, what information they need, and what could stop the project. Put unresolved roles on the map instead of assuming a title implies authority.
The illustrative scenario
This is an educational workbook. The company or fund and all numerical inputs below are fictional. They are not ADIN results, customer claims, market benchmarks, or a forecast.
The fictional service suggests review comments on pull requests for an engineering team. Maintainers remain responsible for accepting a finding and deciding whether a change is ready. Review traffic varies with release cycles.
Too many plausible but unhelpful comments can increase reviewer work. A severity label has little meaning unless the team agrees which findings require action.
Turn the scenario into an evidence decision
Consider a review of AI code review tools in which a confident explanation arrives before the supporting records. Start with the first question in the table. Write down what an answer would change: the next interview, the experiment's scope, a request for specialist review, or a decision to wait. A question without a consequence can produce a longer document while adding little understanding.
Next, inspect the record named in the table and record its date, owner, permission boundary, and limitations. Keep a labeled sample of true defects, false alarms, dismissed suggestions, and defects missed by both workflows. Record repository and change type so aggregate numbers remain interpretable. If the record contradicts the explanation, preserve both accounts and ask which definition, period, or workflow differs. Do not silently select the version that makes the opportunity look strongest.
Finish with a conditional statement: if the specified evidence supports the claim under these conditions, take the named next step; otherwise investigate the unresolved question. The map is useful when it changes the next conversation or experiment. A missing administrator may explain implementation delays; a missing budget owner may explain why a well-liked demo never becomes a purchase. This worked exercise is about the decision process. It does not assert that a fictional company has met a real diligence standard or that a template can authorize an investment.
| Item | Illustration |
|---|---|
| Decision question | Who feels the pain? |
| Case-specific constraint | Too many plausible but unhelpful comments can increase reviewer work. A severity label has little meaning unless the team agrees which findings require action. |
| Record to inspect | Keep a labeled sample of true defects, false alarms, dismissed suggestions, and defects missed by both workflows. Record repository and change type so aggregate numbers remain interpretable. |
| Comparison to preserve | Compare actionable findings and reviewer effort on similar changes. A tool that produces more comments is not automatically finding more consequential problems. |
| Unresolved case question | What makes a finding actionable? |
Use this worksheet
Answer the questions with a source, date, owner, and next action. Mark an unknown as unknown. Use public or permissioned information and involve a qualified specialist when a question requires expertise beyond the team’s competence.
- Who feels the pain?
- Who controls the budget?
- Who configures the system?
- Who can block rollout?
- Who measures the outcome?
Questions specific to this scenario
- What makes a finding actionable?
- Which changes are excluded?
- Who adjudicates reviewer disagreement?
Keep a labeled sample of true defects, false alarms, dismissed suggestions, and defects missed by both workflows. Record repository and change type so aggregate numbers remain interpretable.
A concrete next test
Ask two maintainers to label the same permissioned set independently before looking at the tool's findings. Investigate disagreements about severity and actionability. A shared rubric gives the next comparison more meaning than counting comments that nobody would act on.
Interpret the result
The map is useful when it changes the next conversation or experiment. A missing administrator may explain implementation delays; a missing budget owner may explain why a well-liked demo never becomes a purchase.
Compare actionable findings and reviewer effort on similar changes. A tool that produces more comments is not automatically finding more consequential problems.
Sources and method
These primary resources provide background for the concepts. The fictional scenario, calculations, and worksheet are ADIN educational examples; the sources do not report or validate those invented results. Reviewed October 11, 2026.