Product-Dev Alignment Scorecard
Score six things that either happen or do not, then see what the gaps are costing you in engineering payroll every month.
What this calculates
This scores six observable behaviours between product and engineering, converts the gap to a share of engineering payroll, and reports what that share is worth. The conversion is a heuristic rather than an accounting measurement. It exists to make friction arguable in a budget meeting, not to appear in a set of accounts.
A B2B SaaS team scoring 62 out of 100 on product and engineering alignment, with $220,000 of monthly engineering payroll, is losing an estimated $71,060 a month to rework and unclear direction, of which $291,720 a year is recoverable at a score of 75.
Your numbers
Score what happens, not what should
The cost base
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Alignment and what it costs
LiveAlignment score
62/100
healthy from 75
Monthly waste
$71,060
of engineering payroll, directional
- Lost productivity
- 32%
- Recoverable per year at a score of 75
- $291,720
- Weakest dimension
- Discovery
Watch
Discovery is your lowest-scoring dimension, and it is the cheapest one to fix because it costs a meeting rather than a reorganisation. Engineers who see the problem before the solution is chosen catch the expensive mistakes while they are still free. Treat the waste figure as directional. It is an estimate of friction, not an accounting entry.
Pressure-test this against your real numbers
Thirty minutes on the weakest dimension and what changing it actually looks like on a Monday.
No email required to see your result. The field above exists only if you want a copy.
How is this calculated?
Six statements, each scored from one to ten, summed and expressed out of a hundred. The gap between your score and a perfect one is converted to a share of engineering payroll using a factor of 0.85, with a floor of ten percent because no team runs at zero friction. The recoverable figure is the difference between your current waste and the waste at a score of 75, annualised.
Formula
Alignment score = (sum of six ratings ÷ 60) × 100 Lost productivity = max(10%, (100 − score) × 0.85) Monthly waste = engineering payroll × lost productivity Recoverable per year = (waste now − waste at a score of 75) × 12 The 0.85 factor and the 10% floor are heuristics, not measurements. They are stated here so you can argue with them.
- The six statements describe behaviour you can observe in a sprint, not opinions about the team. Score what happened last month, not what is supposed to happen.
- Payroll is fully loaded engineering cost only. Product and design salaries are excluded, because the waste being measured is engineering time spent on work that changed shape.
- The floor of ten percent exists because coordination overhead is real even in a team that scores perfectly. A tool that reported zero waste at a perfect score would be lying.
- The recoverable figure targets a score of 75 rather than 100, because the last quarter of any scorecard costs more to reach than it returns.
- Nothing here measures output. A well-aligned team building the wrong thing scores highly and still wastes the money.
When this number misleads
This is a self-assessment, and self-assessments are optimistic in exactly the places where the problem is. The founder scoring it usually sits on the product side of the boundary being measured, which is the side that experiences less of the friction. Have two engineers score it independently and compare. A gap of more than two points on any single statement is a more useful finding than the total.
Questions founders ask about this
Where does the 0.85 factor come from?
It is a heuristic, and it is printed in the formula so you can replace it. It says that most but not all of the alignment gap turns into wasted engineering time. If you have measured rework in your own team, use your own number and read the score alone.
Is the waste figure something I can put in a board pack?
Put it in with the word directional attached, and put the score next to it. The score is the defensible part. The money is the part that makes people pay attention to the score, and it will not survive an argument with a finance director on its own.
Why six statements rather than ten?
Because the six here are behaviours somebody could check by reading a sprint board. Longer questionnaires drift toward attitudes, and attitudes score well in teams that ship nothing. Every statement in this list is either true last month or it is not.
Do you store what I enter?
No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is transmitted. Your last inputs are saved in your own browser so the page remembers them when you return. If you use the email field, only the result summary and your address are sent.
Book a 30-minute product strategy session
Bring your weakest dimension. We will work out what changing it looks like on a Monday morning.
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