A structured 12-dimension assessment of your hardware commercialization engine. You answer twelve questions. We score the motion, write a diagnosis, and return a prioritized fix list. The output tells you which engagement tier is the right next move — or that the next move is no outside help at all.
Your motion graded across twelve dimensions on a 0-to-5 scale. Color-coded by severity. The dimensions where you are strong, the dimensions where you are bleeding pipeline, the dimensions you have not addressed at all.
Three to five pages identifying the top three structural gaps in your motion. Pattern-matched against twenty years of hardware go-to-market data. Specific, not generic.
Ranked by leverage, not effort. The fix that would unlock the most pipeline for the least change comes first. The fix that requires a six-month rebuild is named but not prescribed for week one.
Whether the next move is a Tier 1 Sprint, a Tier 2 Engine Build, an in-house hire, or no outside help at all. With reasoning, not a sales pitch. Some founders take the diagnostic and never engage further. That is a fine outcome.
Twelve scored questions plus three free-text. Written diagnosis with a prioritized fix list lands in your inbox in 10-14 days.
The diagnostic scores twelve structural dimensions of your go-to-market motion. Most stalled hardware companies are weak in three to five of these. The fastest path back to compounding pipeline is closing the worst three. The diagnostic finds those three.
Can you describe the product so a 5 year old understands it, under 50 words, zero jargon? The fastest read on whether your customer language has been built yet.
When buyer feedback last surprised you, did you change the build, the narrative, or the motion? Or defend the product? A hard gate on the diagnostic.
Does a regulator gate your first commercial sale? FDA and defense-certification paths the four-stage method does not fit cleanly. A hard gate on the diagnostic.
Did named buyer demand come before the build, or did you raise against assumed demand and go looking for buyers later? The single most expensive sequencing error in hardware.
Do you know your true landed gross margin after freight, duty, warranty, RMA, install, and channel, refreshed this quarter? Or is the spreadsheet still carrying bill-of-materials cost?
Does your story survive the journey from technical champion to chief financial officer to procurement? Or does it die at the handoff?
Can you name the full buying coalition for your last deal, with each role's decision criteria? Or do you sell to one persona? The hardware buyer is a committee, not a person.
In your last pipeline review, who was the loudest voice, who got talked over, and who did not speak at all? Whether your organization can hear its own pipeline reality.
Are you structuring pilots so they can convert to production budgets? Or are you closing pilots that die at the innovation-to-business-unit handoff?
Is your account-executive comp built for a 9-to-18-month hardware cycle and your actual landed margin? Or imported from SaaS and burning hires before the first close?
Could a new VP of Sales run the motion from documented systems alone, without you in the room? Or does the engine live entirely in the founder's head?
Does whoever holds decision-influence over the company carry direct hardware operating experience? Or does every review default to SaaS heuristics that do not transfer?
The diagnostic scores all twelve dimensions, surfaces the worst three, and returns a prioritized fix list. Drop your email and we'll route you to the intake form with email pre-filled.
Each question is scored 0 to 5. The anchors show what a 0 looks like (motion is broken) and what a 5 looks like (motion is operating). Every score in between is interpolated against the same scale. Two questions are hard gates. Q02 (founder posture) and Q03 (category fit) can route an engagement to a referral regardless of the total score. The diagnostic does not just rank you. It pattern-matches your scores against twenty years of hardware engagement data, surfaces the structural gaps the profile predicts, and tells you which tier is the next move.
Drop your email and the questions appear instantly. You will also join the Forge Friday list. Forge Friday is the hardware go-to-market newsletter, launching soon. Unsubscribe anytime.
Plus three free-text questions. What is your buyer actually trying to solve. What is the deal that has been stuck the longest and why. What does your sales hire roadmap look like for the next 12 months. The free-text answers shape the diagnosis as much as the scored ones.
The questions are the diagnostic. The diagnosis is the deliverable — three to five pages of pattern-matched analysis against twenty years of hardware engagement data, with a prioritized fix list ranked by leverage.
Twelve scored questions plus three free-text questions about your buyer, your stuck deals, and your hire roadmap. Roughly 45 minutes of your time. Submit and you are done.
Your responses go through the same diagnostic lens that scored every prior engagement. Strengths, gaps, anomalies, sub-sector adjustments. No template. Each diagnosis is written, not auto-generated.
Three to five pages. Specific to your motion, your sector, your stage. The top three structural gaps with prioritized fixes. The tier recommendation with reasoning.
Diagnosis delivered as a PDF and a shareable working document. Optional 30-minute walkthrough call available, no extra charge. Some founders take it. Some read the diagnosis and decide on their own.
Enter your email below. You will be sent to the 12-question intake form with your email pre-filled. Diagnosis arrives in 10-14 days from submission.
$4,500 · 10-14 DAYS · WRITTEN DIAGNOSIS + TIER RECOMMENDATION