> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dacard.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Scoring frameworks

> The three frameworks that power Dacard.ai scoring

# Scoring frameworks

Dacard.ai scores products across three frameworks. Each measures a different surface (team, process, product) and together they form one read.

## Three frameworks, one read

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Team Operations" icon="signal-bars" color="#3ECF8E">
    How capable is your **team** at building intelligent products? 27 dimensions across 6 functions. Composite 27-135.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Development Lifecycle" icon="arrows-spin" color="#F59E0B">
    How mature is your **build process**? 6 stages, 36 tasks, from spec to compound learning.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Product Assessment" icon="robot" color="#60A5FA">
    How deep is intelligence in your **product**? 27 dimensions across UX, architecture, data flywheel, and business model.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Team Operations">
    ## Team Operations Framework

    The flagship framework. Evaluates a product team's operational capability across **27 dimensions** organized into **6 functions**, each scored 1 to 5, for a composite score of **27 to 135**.

    ### Five maturity stages

    | Stage           | Score   | What it means                                                 |
    | --------------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | **Foundation**  | 27-48   | Basic or absent capabilities. Most work is manual and ad hoc. |
    | **Building**    | 49-70   | Emerging practices, inconsistently applied across functions.  |
    | **Scaling**     | 71-91   | Systematic processes in place with measurable outcomes.       |
    | **Leading**     | 92-113  | Practices deeply embedded in the team's operating model.      |
    | **Compounding** | 114-135 | Self-improving systems. Every cycle makes the team better.    |

    ### Six functions, 27 dimensions

    <AccordionGroup>
      <Accordion title="Strategy (4 dimensions)">
        Market Intelligence, Decision Quality, Roadmap Discipline, Competitive Positioning
      </Accordion>

      <Accordion title="Design (4 dimensions)">
        Research and Discovery, Prototyping Speed, Experience Design, Design-Dev Handoff
      </Accordion>

      <Accordion title="Development (4 dimensions)">
        Architecture and Systems, Spec and Context Quality, Build vs Buy, Delivery Velocity
      </Accordion>

      <Accordion title="Operations (4 dimensions)">
        Customer Signal Synthesis, Product Analytics, Data Strategy and Flywheel, Feedback Loop Quality
      </Accordion>

      <Accordion title="GTM (4 dimensions)">
        Positioning and Messaging, Launch Execution, Adoption and Expansion, Pricing and Packaging
      </Accordion>

      <Accordion title="Intelligence (4 dimensions)">
        Quality and Experimentation, Team Orchestration, Process Iteration, Cost and Token Economics
      </Accordion>
    </AccordionGroup>

    <Card title="Deep dive: Team Operations" icon="signal-bars" href="/knowledge-base/framework-maturity">
      Full 27-dimension definitions, scoring criteria, and stage progression guide.
    </Card>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Development Lifecycle">
    ## Development Lifecycle Framework

    Maps the six stages of building intelligent products with 36 tasks across stages. Development Lifecycle uses a self-assessment model rather than automated URL scoring.

    ### Six lifecycle stages

    <Steps>
      <Step title="Specify">
        Define the problem with clear constraints. Establish what the model can and cannot do before building.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Context">
        Assemble the knowledge layer the model needs. RAG pipelines, embeddings, grounding data.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Orchestrate">
        Wire up models, agents, and pipelines. Connect inference to product surfaces.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Validate">
        Test quality at machine speed. Automated evals, human review, and prompt tuning.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Ship">
        Deploy and manage inference costs. Token budgets, latency targets, and model selection.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Compound">
        Close the feedback loop. Usage data flows back into model and product improvement.
      </Step>
    </Steps>

    ### Cross-cutting concerns

    Three forces span all stages and must be managed continuously:

    <CardGroup cols={3}>
      <Card title="Token Economics" icon="coins">
        The cost per inference. Every stage has a token budget impact.
      </Card>

      <Card title="Role Fluidity" icon="arrows-left-right">
        The shift from specialist to generalist as model capability collapses role boundaries.
      </Card>

      <Card title="Cognitive Debt" icon="brain">
        Accumulated prompt complexity, model coupling, and evaluation gaps.
      </Card>
    </CardGroup>

    <Card title="Deep dive: Development Lifecycle" icon="arrows-spin" href="/knowledge-base/framework-lifecycle">
      Full stage definitions, 36 tasks, and operations stack categories.
    </Card>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Product Assessment">
    ## Product Assessment Framework

    Evaluates how deeply intelligence is embedded in the **product itself** across **27 dimensions**. Where Team Operations measures the team, Product Assessment measures the product: architecture, UX, data flywheel, and business model.

    ### Key assessment areas

    | Area                     | What it evaluates                                               |
    | ------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | **Integration Depth**    | How central machine intelligence is to the product's core value |
    | **Personalization**      | Adaptive experiences that learn from user behavior              |
    | **Automation**           | Intelligent workflows that reduce manual effort                 |
    | **Data Flywheel**        | Whether usage data improves the product over time               |
    | **Interaction Patterns** | Interface patterns designed for model-led interactions          |
    | **Cost Architecture**    | Token economics and inference cost management                   |

    ### Product Assessment scoring

    Product Assessment uses the same 1-5 dimension scoring as Team Operations. It runs as a separate assessment via the `/api/score/product` endpoint or through the platform UI on any scored product's **Product Assessment** tab.

    <Card title="Product Assessment API reference" icon="code" href="/api-reference/scoring/product-assessment">
      Score a product using the Product Assessment framework.
    </Card>
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

***

## How scoring works

When you submit a URL to the scoring API (`POST /api/score`), Dacard.ai:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Crawl">
    The platform visits the URL and reads up to 6 pages, extracting signals from the product's public-facing presence, documentation, and UX patterns.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Evaluate">
    Each of the 27 Team Operations dimensions is assessed on a 1-5 scale based on observable signals.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Generate">
    A composite score (27-135), maturity stage, dimension-level insights, and coaching moves are produced.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Store">
    The result is saved with a shareable link at `/r/{id}`.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  Scores can also be generated anonymously without authentication, subject to rate limits. See [Rate Limits](/api-reference/rate-limits).
</Note>

## Reading the three frameworks together

When all three frameworks score well, the team, the build process, and the product reinforce each other. Common mismatches:

| Scenario                 | Interpretation                                                           |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| High Team, low Lifecycle | Strong team, weak process. Talented team shipping inconsistently.        |
| High Product, low Team   | Capable product, weak ops. Impressive surface, unsustainable operations. |
| High across all three    | Aligned. The target state.                                               |

## Learn more

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Score a URL" icon="signal-bars" href="/api-reference/scoring/score-a-url">
    API reference for the Team Operations scoring endpoint.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Get a result" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/api-reference/scoring/get-a-scoring-result">
    Retrieve stored scoring results.
  </Card>

  <Card title="DAC chat" icon="message-bot" href="/api-reference/scoring/ai-coaching-chat">
    Ask DAC for moves based on your scores.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>