Org Health Diagnostic
Eight dimensions. Traffic lights. Real benchmarks. Surfaces the problems you do not know you have and shows how problems in one dimension cascade to others.
Keywords
org health, organizational health, health diagnostic, health dashboard, health check, company health, functional health, team health, startup health, health scorecard, health assessment, risk dashboard, cross-functional health, dimension cascade, stage benchmarks
The 8 Dimensions
Dimension Overview
| # |
Dimension |
C-Suite Owner |
Core Question |
| 1 |
Financial Health |
CFO |
Can we fund operations and invest in growth? |
| 2 |
Revenue Health |
CRO |
Are customers staying, growing, and recommending us? |
| 3 |
Product Health |
CPO |
Do customers love and use the product? |
| 4 |
Engineering Health |
CTO |
Can we ship reliably and sustain velocity? |
| 5 |
People Health |
CHRO |
Is the team stable, engaged, and growing? |
| 6 |
Operational Health |
COO |
Are we executing our strategy with discipline? |
| 7 |
Security Health |
CISO |
Are we protecting customers and maintaining compliance? |
| 8 |
Market Health |
CMO |
Are we winning in the market and growing efficiently? |
Dimension 1: Financial Health (CFO)
| Metric |
Green (7-10) |
Yellow (4-6) |
Red (1-3) |
| Runway (months) |
> 18 |
9-18 |
< 9 |
| Burn multiple |
< 1.5x |
1.5-2.5x |
> 2.5x |
| Gross margin |
> 70% |
55-70% |
< 55% |
| Revenue concentration (top customer) |
< 10% |
10-20% |
> 20% |
| MoM growth rate |
Above benchmark |
At benchmark |
Below benchmark |
Dimension 2: Revenue Health (CRO)
| Metric |
Green (7-10) |
Yellow (4-6) |
Red (1-3) |
| NRR |
> 110% |
100-110% |
< 100% |
| Logo churn (annual) |
< 5% |
5-10% |
> 10% |
| Pipeline coverage (next Q) |
> 3x |
2-3x |
< 2x |
| CAC payback |
< 12 months |
12-18 months |
> 18 months |
| Win rate |
> 25% |
15-25% |
< 15% |
Dimension 3: Product Health (CPO)
| Metric |
Green (7-10) |
Yellow (4-6) |
Red (1-3) |
| NPS |
> 40 |
20-40 |
< 20 |
| DAU/MAU ratio |
> 40% |
20-40% |
< 20% |
| Core feature adoption |
> 60% |
30-60% |
< 30% |
| Time to value |
Decreasing QoQ |
Stable |
Increasing QoQ |
| CSAT |
> 4.2/5 |
3.5-4.2 |
< 3.5 |
Dimension 4: Engineering Health (CTO)
| Metric |
Green (7-10) |
Yellow (4-6) |
Red (1-3) |
| Deploy frequency |
Daily |
Weekly |
Monthly or less |
| Change failure rate |
< 5% |
5-15% |
> 15% |
| MTTR |
< 1 hour |
1-4 hours |
> 4 hours |
| Tech debt ratio (% of sprint) |
< 20% |
20-35% |
> 35% |
| P0/P1 incidents per month |
< 2 |
2-5 |
> 5 |
Dimension 5: People Health (CHRO)
| Metric |
Green (7-10) |
Yellow (4-6) |
Red (1-3) |
| Regrettable attrition (annual) |
< 10% |
10-20% |
> 20% |
| eNPS |
> 30 |
0-30 |
< 0 |
| Time to fill (avg days) |
< 45 |
45-90 |
> 90 |
| Manager:IC ratio |
1:5-1:8 |
1:3-1:5 or 1:8-1:12 |
Outside range |
| Internal promotion rate |
> 30% |
15-30% |
< 15% |
Dimension 6: Operational Health (COO)
| Metric |
Green (7-10) |
Yellow (4-6) |
Red (1-3) |
| OKR completion rate |
> 70% |
50-70% |
< 50% |
| Decision cycle time |
< 48 hours |
48hrs-1 week |
> 1 week |
| Meeting effectiveness |
Clear outcomes |
Mixed |
No outcomes |
| Cross-functional initiative completion |
> 80% on time |
50-80% |
< 50% |
| Process documentation coverage |
> 70% |
40-70% |
< 40% |
Dimension 7: Security Health (CISO)
| Metric |
Green (7-10) |
Yellow (4-6) |
Red (1-3) |
| Security incidents (90 days) |
0 |
1-2 minor |
1+ major |
| Compliance status |
All current |
In progress |
Overdue/lapsed |
| Critical vuln remediation SLA |
100% in SLA |
> 90% |
< 90% |
| Security training completion |
> 95% |
80-95% |
< 80% |
| Pen test recency |
< 12 months |
12-24 months |
> 24 months |
Dimension 8: Market Health (CMO)
| Metric |
Green (7-10) |
Yellow (4-6) |
Red (1-3) |
| CAC trend |
Improving QoQ |
Stable |
Worsening QoQ |
| Organic vs paid lead mix |
> 50% organic |
30-50% organic |
< 30% organic |
| Win rate vs competitors |
Improving |
Stable |
Declining |
| Brand awareness (in ICP) |
> 40% |
20-40% |
< 20% |
| Pipeline contribution (marketing) |
> 40% |
20-40% |
< 20% |
Scoring System
Individual Dimension Score
Each dimension scores 1-10 based on weighted metrics:
Dimension Score = Sum(metric_score x metric_weight) / Sum(weights)
Traffic Light:
Green (7-10): Healthy -- maintain and optimize
Yellow (4-6): Watch -- trend matters (improving or declining?)
Red (1-3): Action required -- address within 30 days
Overall Health Score
Weighted average by company stage:
| Dimension |
Seed Weight |
Series A |
Series B |
Series C+ |
| Financial |
20% |
15% |
15% |
15% |
| Revenue |
10% |
20% |
20% |
20% |
| Product |
25% |
20% |
15% |
10% |
| Engineering |
15% |
15% |
15% |
10% |
| People |
10% |
10% |
15% |
15% |
| Operations |
5% |
10% |
10% |
15% |
| Security |
5% |
5% |
5% |
10% |
| Market |
10% |
5% |
5% |
5% |
Stage-Adjusted Benchmarks
Different stages have different healthy ranges. A Seed company with 6-month runway is normal; a Series C company with 6-month runway is a crisis.
| Stage |
Runway Target |
Burn Multiple |
Team Size |
Revenue Threshold |
| Seed |
> 12 months |
Not applicable |
2-10 |
Pre-revenue acceptable |
| Series A |
> 18 months |
< 3x |
10-40 |
> $500K ARR |
| Series B |
> 18 months |
< 2x |
30-100 |
> $3M ARR |
| Series C+ |
> 24 months |
< 1.5x |
80-300 |
> $15M ARR |
Cascade Analysis
How Dimension Failures Propagate
This is the most important part of the diagnostic. Problems in one dimension inevitably create problems in others.
| If This Is Red... |
Watch These Next... |
Why |
| Financial |
People -> Engineering -> Product |
Budget cuts -> hiring freeze -> velocity drops -> product stalls |
| Revenue |
Financial -> People -> Market |
Cash gap -> attrition risk -> positioning weakens |
| Product |
Revenue -> Market -> People |
NRR drops -> CAC rises -> top talent leaves |
| Engineering |
Product -> Revenue |
Features slip -> deals stall on missing features |
| People |
Engineering -> Product -> Revenue |
Velocity drops -> quality drops -> churn rises |
| Operations |
ALL dimensions degrade over time |
Execution failure cascades everywhere |
| Security |
Revenue (enterprise) -> Financial |
Enterprise deals blocked -> revenue impact |
| Market |
Revenue -> Financial |
Lead pipeline dries up -> sales suffers |
Cascade Risk Decision Tree
START: Dimension scores calculated
|
v
[Any dimension RED?]
|
+-- NO --> [Any dimension YELLOW with declining trend?]
| |
| +-- YES --> Monitor cascade. Check connected dimensions.
| +-- NO --> Healthy. Maintain current approach.
|
+-- YES --> [Check cascade connections]
|
v
[Are connected dimensions also Yellow/Red?]
|
+-- YES --> SYSTEMIC ISSUE. Root cause in the Red dimension.
| Address Red dimension first. Connected will improve.
|
+-- NO --> ISOLATED ISSUE. Fix Red dimension before it cascades.
Timeline: 30 days or cascade begins.
Dashboard Output Format
ORG HEALTH DIAGNOSTIC -- [Company] -- [Date]
Stage: [Seed/A/B/C] Overall: [Score]/10 Trend: [Improving/Stable/Declining]
DIMENSION SCORES
------------------------------------------------------------
Financial [G] 8.2 Runway 14mo, burn 1.6x
Revenue [Y] 5.8 NRR 104%, pipeline thin (1.8x)
Product [G] 7.4 NPS 42, DAU/MAU 38%
Engineering [Y] 5.2 Debt at 30%, MTTR 3.2h
People [R] 3.8 Attrition 24%, eNPS -5
Operations [Y] 6.0 OKR 65% completion
Security [G] 7.8 SOC 2 complete, 0 incidents
Market [Y] 5.5 CAC rising, win rate 22%
------------------------------------------------------------
TOP PRIORITIES (address in order)
[R] 1. People: attrition at 24%
Impact: Engineering velocity drops in 60 days (cascade risk)
Action: Retention audit + intervention for top 5 at-risk
Owner: CHRO + CEO | Timeline: This week
[Y] 2. Revenue: pipeline at 1.8x
Impact: Q+1 miss risk is high
Action: Add 3 qualified opps in 30 days or adjust forecast
Owner: CRO | Timeline: 30 days
[Y] 3. Engineering: tech debt at 30%
Impact: Shipping velocity slows by Q3
Action: Dedicated debt sprint plan
Owner: CTO | Timeline: 45 days
CASCADE WARNING
People [R] --> Engineering [Y] cascade risk
If attrition continues: engineering velocity drops -> product delays
-> revenue impact in 2 quarters
DATA GAPS
[!] Market: Brand awareness data needed
[!] Operations: Meeting effectiveness not measured
Graceful Degradation
Not all data is always available. The diagnostic handles partial data:
| Data Availability |
Approach |
| All metrics available |
Full scoring, all dimensions |
| Missing 1-2 metrics per dimension |
Score available metrics, flag gaps |
| Missing entire dimension |
Exclude from overall score, flag as "[data needed]" |
| Only 3-4 dimensions have data |
Partial diagnostic, clearly marked |
Diagnostic Cadence
| Frequency |
Scope |
Audience |
| Weekly |
Scorecard metrics only (2-3 per dimension) |
Leadership team |
| Monthly |
Full 8-dimension assessment |
CEO + direct reports |
| Quarterly |
Deep diagnostic with cascade analysis + benchmarks |
Board-ready report |
| Annual |
Full diagnostic + year-over-year comparison + strategy implications |
Board + investors |
Red Flags
- Any dimension Red for 2+ consecutive months -- systemic problem, not a blip
- 3+ dimensions Yellow simultaneously -- organizational strain, prioritize ruthlessly
- Overall score declining 3+ months -- strategic review needed
- Cascade warning triggered and not addressed in 30 days -- will get worse
- Data gaps persist for 2+ cycles -- measurement culture problem
- Score improving but team sentiment declining -- measurement gaming
- No dimension ever Red -- either the company is exceptional or standards are too low
Integration with C-Suite
| Dimension |
Owner Skill |
Drill-Down |
| Financial |
CFO Advisor (cfo-advisor) |
Deep financial analysis |
| Revenue |
CRO Advisor (cro-advisor) |
Pipeline and retention analysis |
| Product |
CPO Advisor (cpo-advisor) |
PMF assessment and portfolio review |
| Engineering |
CTO Advisor (cto-advisor) |
Technical health and debt analysis |
| People |
CHRO Advisor (chro-advisor) |
Retention, engagement, org design |
| Operations |
COO Advisor (coo-advisor) |
Process maturity, execution cadence |
| Security |
CISO Advisor (ciso-advisor) |
Risk register, compliance status |
| Market |
CMO Advisor (cmo-advisor) |
Positioning, channel effectiveness |
Output Artifacts
| Request |
Deliverable |
| "How healthy is the company?" |
Full 8-dimension dashboard with traffic lights |
| "What should we fix first?" |
Prioritized action list with cascade analysis |
| "Prepare health section for board" |
Board-ready health summary with trends |
| "Compare to last quarter" |
Quarter-over-quarter comparison with trend arrows |
| "Where are we at risk?" |
Cascade risk map with interconnected failures |
| "What data do we need?" |
Data gap analysis with collection recommendations |