How scoring works

Our 27-dimension scoring methodology, signal blending, and the receipts we hand back.

We score every product across 27 dimensions in 6 functions. Each dimension lands 1-5. The composite (27-135) places you on a 5-stage maturity ladder. Connect integrations to ground the score in operational data.

How scoring works

We score products by reading observable signals across 27 dimensions in 6 functions. Each dimension scores 1-5. Your composite (27-135) places you on a 5-stage ladder.

The five steps

1. Crawl

   We visit the URL and pull up to 6 pages, extracting signal from your product’s public surface, docs, pricing, and UX patterns.

2. Analyze

   We score each of the 27 dimensions against the rubric for each stage. Signal includes architecture tells, business model, UX patterns, and operational indicators.

3. Score

   Every dimension lands a score from 1 (Foundation) to 5 (Compounding). The 27 scores sum to a composite total of 27-135.

4. Classify

   The composite places you on the maturity ladder (Foundation through Compounding).

5. Recommend

   We surface dimension-level reads, your strengths, your gaps, and the next move we’d take. The receipts live at /r/{id}.

Five maturity stages

Stage	Score	Read
Foundation	27-48	Basics missing or absent. Capability is not yet part of the product’s core.
Building	49-70	Emerging practice, applied unevenly. Features exist; advantage doesn’t.
Scaling	71-91	Systematic, measured, repeatable. Capability is a real lever.
Leading	92-113	Deeply integrated. Pull it out and the product breaks.
Compounding	114-135	Capability compounds across product, data, ops, and business model. The flywheel runs itself.

27 dimensions across 6 functions

Strategy (4 dimensions)

Market intelligence - how well the team collects and synthesizes market signal

Decision quality - evidence behind product and strategic decisions

Roadmap discipline - how well the roadmap reflects strategic priorities and tracks outcomes

Competitive positioning - clarity and defensibility of market position

Design (4 dimensions)

Research and discovery - depth and consistency of user research

Prototyping speed - how fast the team goes from idea to testable artifact

Experience design - quality of interaction patterns and UX craft

Design-dev handoff - efficiency and fidelity of the design-to-build handoff

Development (4 dimensions)

Architecture and systems - depth of technical integration

Spec and context quality - quality of PRDs, tickets, and context handed to builders

Build vs buy - decision rigor on model and infrastructure choices

Delivery velocity - speed and consistency of shipping improvements

Intelligence (5 dimensions)

Customer signal synthesis - quality of customer feedback collection and synthesis

Product analytics - depth and use of product usage data

Data flywheel - whether data creates a defensible compounding advantage

Feedback loop quality - whether usage data flows back to improve the product

Knowledge management - how well institutional knowledge is captured, organized, and surfaced

GTM (4 dimensions)

Positioning and messaging - clarity and resonance of market messaging

Launch execution - consistency and quality of launches

Adoption and expansion - how the product drives usage growth and expansion

Pricing and packaging - whether pricing reflects value and supports growth

Operations (6 dimensions)

Quality and experimentation - rigor of testing, evaluation, and quality processes

Team orchestration - how the team coordinates work across people and systems

Process iteration - how fast the team improves its own ways of working

Cost and token economics - how the team manages inference and infrastructure costs

Security and compliance - how the team manages security and compliance risk

Reliability and resilience - how features handle failure and maintain availability

Signal bars

We surface scores as signal bars in a traffic-light system. They appear throughout the dashboard, reports, and portfolio views.

Dimension score	Color	Read
1 (Foundation)	Red	Gap. This dimension is capping your composite.
2 (Building)	Amber	Developing. Targeted move pays off fast.
3 (Scaling)	Green	Strong. Maintain and extend.
4-5 (Leading / Compounding)	Green	Exceptional. Defensible capability.

Signal-score blending

When you connect integrations (GitHub, Linear, PostHog, others), your scores get signal-grounded. We blend two sources:

1. Surface assessment - our read of your public surface
2. Adapter signals - operational ground truth from connected tools (deploy frequency, PR cycle time, sprint velocity, others)

How we blend

Each integration produces metrics mapped to specific dimensions. We convert those metrics into 1-5 signal scores using calibrated thresholds, then blend with the surface read.

Factor	Effect
Signal count	More signals, higher blending weight (5 minimum to activate, up to 0.4 weight at 20+)
Confidence	High-confidence signals (from well-established adapters) carry more weight
Weight cap	Adapter signal never exceeds 60% weight; surface read stays the primary input

The result: connected teams get measurably tighter scores because dimensions reflect both observable surface quality and live operational data.

Wire up GitHub and Linear first. They cover the most dimensions and produce the highest-confidence adapter signal.

Scoring practice

Score your own product first

Start with your own URL to calibrate. Then score 2-3 competitors to see where you sit. Each URL score costs 10 credits.

Teach DAC before scoring

Click Add context before you score to drop a brief read on what your product does and who it serves. We use that to ground products with thin public surface.

Re-score after a ship

Scores are point-in-time. Re-score after a major ship or quarterly to trace trajectory. We preserve score history automatically.

Connect adapters for tighter accuracy

URL-only scoring leans on the public surface. Wiring GitHub, Linear, and PostHog adds operational ground truth that materially improves both accuracy and confidence.

Share with stakeholders

Every score has a shareable URL at /r/{id}. Send it to leadership, investors, or your team without making them sign in.

Anonymous scoring

Anyone can score at app.dacard.ai/try without an account. Anonymous scores are rate-limited (1 per hour per IP) and don’t unlock the full report.

When you sign up after an anonymous score, we can link the anonymous score to your new account. Your history travels with you.

Related

Read your report

Walk through the report section by section.

Team Operations deep dive

Full 27-dimension definitions and scoring rubric.

Connect integrations

Pull live operational signal into scoring.

Score your first product

Step-by-step walkthrough for first-time users.