Capability Assessment · 6 capabilities · 18 questions
What can your marketing team actually do?
AI made execution cheap and connective work scarce. This assessment scores your team across the six capabilities that now matter, and shows the gap against what the work requires. Four minutes, no sign-up to see your result.
Answer for the team as it is, not as you'd like it to be.
What the assessment measures
AI made execution cheap. What became scarce is connective work - the judgement that links systems, data, journeys and revenue together. This marketing capability assessment scores your team across the six capabilities that now decide whether a marketing function compounds or stalls, and shows the gap against the benchmark the work requires. It is the same diagnostic I run at the start of a fractional CMO engagement in Australia, condensed into eighteen questions.
Systems fluency
Can the team configure the platform, or only request changes to it?
Benchmark 80/100
Coach or hire? Coachable. 8-12 weeks with real platform access and a live problem to solve.
Data & measurement
Can they define a taxonomy, build a report, and challenge a number that looks wrong?
Benchmark 85/100
Coach or hire? Coachable. 8-12 weeks with real platform access and a live problem to solve.
Funnel & lifecycle
Do they think in journeys and states, or in campaigns and sends?
Benchmark 80/100
Coach or hire? Coachable, but needs live campaigns to practise on rather than a course.
AI direction
Knowing when output is subtly wrong, and when not to use AI at all.
Benchmark 75/100
Coach or hire? Partly coachable. The mechanics take a day; the judgement takes exposure to enough wrong answers.
Commercial literacy
Can they connect activity to revenue and hold their own with a CFO?
Benchmark 85/100
Coach or hire? Hard to coach quickly. Usually hired or borrowed.
Craft
Writing, design judgement, taste - more valuable now, not less.
Benchmark 75/100
Coach or hire? Hire for it. Taste improves at the margins but rarely appears where it wasn't.
How the scoring works
Each capability carries three questions, each answer worth 0 to 3. Your capability score is that total as a percentage, and your overall score is the average across all six. Three bands apply:
- 0-33 Gap. Nobody on the team can currently lead this capability.
- 34-66 Developing. The capability is present but not dependable - usually one person deep.
- 67-100 Strong. Someone can lead it, teach it and be held to it.
The eighteen questions
Nothing is hidden. Here is every question you will be asked, so you can decide whether it is worth four minutes before you start.
1. Systems
When a change is needed in your marketing platform - a new field, a new workflow - what happens?
2. Systems
How well does your team understand how your core platforms connect?
3. Systems
When did you last switch on a feature you were already paying for?
4. Data
Who defines your campaign and source taxonomy - UTMs, naming conventions?
5. Data
A report shows conversions jumped 40% overnight. What does your team do?
6. Data
Can your team answer a new business question with data, unaided?
7. Funnel
How does your team describe its work?
8. Funnel
What happens to a lead that doesn't convert?
9. Funnel
Who owns the handover between marketing and sales?
10. AI
How does your team use AI today?
11. AI
How often does someone reject AI output as not good enough?
12. AI
Could your team explain where AI should not be used in your marketing?
13. Commercial
Can your team explain how marketing activity connects to revenue?
14. Commercial
When the budget is challenged, what does your team bring?
15. Commercial
Who could build a business case for a new investment?
16. Craft
How strong is the writing your team produces without AI assistance?
17. Craft
Who has final say on creative quality?
18. Craft
Looking at last quarter's work, how much is genuinely distinctive?
Questions about the assessment
What is a marketing capability assessment?
A marketing capability assessment is a structured diagnostic that scores what a marketing team can actually do - not what it produces. This one rates six capabilities that determine whether a modern team compounds or stalls: systems fluency, data and measurement, funnel and lifecycle, AI direction, commercial literacy and craft. You answer 18 questions and get a score out of 100 per capability, benchmarked against what the work now requires.
How long does the assessment take?
About four minutes. Eighteen questions, one screen each, four options per question. You see your full radar chart and capability scores immediately - no sign-up is required to view your result. You only enter an email if you want the written report sent to you as a PDF.
Who should take it?
CEOs, founders, CMOs and marketing leaders in Australia who own a marketing team of any size - from a team of two to a department of forty. It is most useful before a hiring decision, an agency review, a martech investment or a restructure, because it tells you whether the gap is capability, capacity or direction.
How is the score calculated?
Each of the six capabilities has three questions. Each answer scores 0 to 3, so a capability score is your raw total as a percentage of the maximum. Scores of 0-33 are a gap (nobody can currently lead it), 34-66 are developing (present but not dependable), and 67-100 are strong (someone can lead it). Your overall score is the average across all six capabilities.
Which capabilities can be coached and which need hiring?
Systems fluency, data and measurement and funnel design are coachable in 8-12 weeks given real platform access and a live problem. AI direction is partly coachable - the mechanics take a day, the judgement takes exposure. Commercial literacy is hard to coach quickly and is usually hired or borrowed. Craft is a hire: taste improves at the margins but rarely appears where it wasn't.
What happens to my data?
Your answers are scored in your browser. If you request the written report, your name, email and scores are stored so the report can be generated and sent, and you can ask for that record to be deleted at any time. The assessment is run by Neil Collins, a fractional CMO and marketing consultant based in Sydney, Australia.
If the result points to a leadership gap rather than a skills gap, that is what my marketing consulting services are for - including fractional CMO work in Sydney and marketing consulting in Sydney.
Want the AI lens instead?
This assessment measures what your team can do. If the question is how AI-mature your organisation is - leadership, workflows, governance, data and proof - take the AI Marketing Maturity Benchmark. Free, 18 questions, instant score and a 90-day plan.
Take the AIMMB assessment