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Top-3 Factors and the "Why" Line

Every lead in kenbun now carries a one-line, plain-language summary of why their score is what it is. This guide explains where the "Why" line shows up, how to read each phrase, and the rules kenbun follows when it picks the three factors that matter most.

This guide is for marketing operations, sales managers, and revenue operations practitioners. No engineering background required.

What Is the "Why" Line?​

The "Why" line is a short, human-readable sentence that sits beneath a lead's name on every list, page, and notification where the lead appears. It is built from the lead's own scoring data, so two leads with the same score can still tell very different stories.

A typical "Why" line looks like this:

Strong fit: VP at SaaS. Hot intent: pricing page 3 times this week. Recent: demo request 2 days ago.

The line is generated automatically. There is nothing to edit, no template to maintain, and no copy to write. As soon as a lead's events and profile data are scored, the "Why" line reflects the current state.

Where the "Why" Line Appears​

The same plain-language summary surfaces in four places:

  • Analyze > Leads. Beneath each lead's name in the lead list.
  • Analyze > Accounts. On the account detail page, in a "Why this account matters" card that aggregates across the buying committee.
  • Analyze > Segments. On each segment detail page, alongside every lead in the segment-leads table.
  • Slack and Microsoft Teams notifications. Milestone and sequence trigger messages include the "Why" line so reps see context the moment a lead surfaces in their channel, without clicking back into kenbun.

This means a rep skimming Slack on their phone, an SDR working Analyze > Leads at their desk, and an account executive opening an account page all see the same plain-language reason the lead is scored where it is.

How to Read Each Phrase​

The "Why" line is built from up to three short phrases joined by periods. Each phrase uses one of six templates:

  • "Strong fit: ..." A profile or account match with a heavy contribution to the score. Example: Strong fit: VP-level role.
  • "Solid fit: ..." A profile or account match with a smaller contribution. Example: Solid fit: based in North America.
  • "Hot intent: ..." An engagement event in the last 7 days with two or more occurrences. Example: Hot intent: pricing page 3 times this week.
  • "Recent: ..." An engagement event in the last 14 days, or up to 30 days if it has happened often enough to stay relevant. Example: Recent: demo request 2 days ago.
  • "Slow burn: ..." An engagement event 30 or more days old that has half-decayed but still contributes meaningfully. Example: Slow burn: ebook download 6 weeks ago.
  • "Disqualified: ..." When a lead is hard-disqualified, the "Why" line is the disqualification reason and overrides everything else. Example: Disqualified: no email address on file.

The first four templates can mix and match. A single lead might show one Strong fit phrase, one Hot intent phrase, and one Recent phrase. A different lead might show three Strong fit phrases if their score is driven entirely by profile attributes.

Aggregation Rules​

kenbun follows two simple rules when it picks which three things to surface.

Per-lead. kenbun ranks every contribution on a lead's score by absolute weight, then takes the top three. Engagement, profile, and account contributions are all eligible. Negative contributions are eligible too, which is why a lead with a strong negative signal will see it called out.

Per-account. When the "Why" line is generated for an account, kenbun looks across every contact in the buying committee. If the same factor matched on multiple contacts, kenbun keeps the single largest contribution rather than averaging them. This protects the signal from being diluted: one engaged person on a 10-person committee will still have their pricing-page visit show up on the account, instead of being washed out by nine quieter contacts.

Disqualified contacts are excluded from account aggregation entirely, so an account's "Why" line never reflects a lead who has been removed from the pipeline.

Privacy and Trust​

The "Why" line is composed entirely from the lead's own data and your scoring rules. Specifically:

  • No large language model. No external lookups. No third-party calls.
  • The output is deterministic. The same inputs produce the same output every time.
  • Every phrase traces back to the underlying matched rule, so the "Why" line is audit-ready and defensible if a sales leader, a compliance officer, or a customer asks how a score was reached.

If your tenant is subject to GDPR Article 22 obligations around automated decisions, the "Why" line strengthens your compliance posture rather than weakening it: every phrase is a deterministic restatement of a rule the tenant configured.

V1 Limitations​

A few honest notes on what is not yet in V1:

  • Mobile card view is not wired. The "Why" line appears on the desktop table view of Analyze > Leads. The mobile card layout will follow in a later release.
  • Slack and Microsoft Teams toggle is always-on. V1 always includes the "Why" line in milestone and sequence trigger messages. If your tenant wants minimal notifications without the "Why" line, file a feature request and we will prioritize a per-trigger toggle.
  • Phrase polish for self-named rules. When a profile rule is named after the property it matches (for example, a rule called "plan equals enterprise" that matches the value "enterprise"), the resulting phrase reads plan equals enterprise: enterprise. This is cosmetic, not incorrect, and is tracked as a follow-up phrase polish.
  • Hard Disqualification. When a lead is hard-disqualified, the "Why" line surfaces the disqualification reason and overrides every other phrase.
  • Half-Life Decay. Engagement contributions decay over time. The "Why" line reflects the current decayed values, which is why a Slow burn phrase can drop off as the contribution falls below the lead's top three.