Establish the evidence baseline before deciding what to change.
6 min read
The Diagnostic Intelligence Assessment is an evidence-led investigation of the organisation’s wider Organic Search and Discovery Environment.
It identifies material risk and opportunity, evaluates evidence confidence, interprets commercial consequence and recommends the appropriate governance pathway.
The Diagnostic Intelligence Assessment is a paid, defined-scope engagement that establishes what is happening, why it matters, how reliable the evidence is, who may own the response and what decision is proportionate.
What the Assessment is not
Suitable conditions
What is actually happening in the wider search environment, why does it matter, how reliable is the evidence, who should own the response, and what decision is proportionate now?
Scope definition, evidence collection and qualification, human interpretation, materiality and ownership, and an executive findings session, drawn from the eight investigation areas below.
Possible scope
Scope follows the business decision and material exposure.
Eight investigation areas, drawn on as the decision requires.
Search Environment Baseline
Organic Search, category presence, market movement, result ownership, source occupation.
Customer Decision Progression
Uncertainty, required evidence, Exposure, Encounter, Search Moment hypotheses, decision state, commercial action.
Commercial Intent
High-value demand, demand creation, capture, leakage, switching, action pathways.
Trust Architecture
Product proof, claims, credentials, reviews, reputation, reassurance, source consistency.
Competitive Displacement
Competitor gains, aggregator control, publisher influence, AI recommendation advantage, authority movement.
Technical Integrity
Search Eligibility, crawlability, indexability, rendering, performance, journey integrity, network degradation, release risk.
AI Narrative Integrity
Inclusion, omission, accuracy, citations, competitive framing, narrative drift, source weakness.
Reporting and Governance
Reporting completeness, evidence quality, ownership, decision rights, escalation, action tracking, governance maturity.
The Assessment process
Six stages, each with a defined output.
Define business decision, products, markets, audiences, competitors, sector context, evidence and limitations, executive sponsor.
Capture search results, ranking and visibility data, AI outputs, reviews, comparisons, publishers, competitors, owned content, technical systems, analytics, reports, agency and customer evidence, interviews.
Classify Observed, Inferred, Modelled, Validated, Unknown. Record source, date, scope, method, limitation and confidence.
Evaluate change, competing explanations, market context, customer consequence, commercial proximity, organisational relevance, uncertainty, response.
Determine consequence, urgency, confidence, owner, decision authority, execution owner, escalation.
Present decision, evidence, interpretation, limitations, findings, risk and opportunity, ownership, response, governance options.
Deliverables (depending on scope)
Executive Diagnostic Report structure
Depending on scope: Commercial Outcome Baseline, Organic Search Portfolio Scorecard, Competitor Displacement Record, Loss-Avoidance Register, Product and Service Improvement Record, Revenue Contribution Record design, Value Realisation Record and Value Classification Record, the measurement foundation for Mobilisation and Annual Governance.
Why a condition is considered material, which evidence and competitor set were used, how the baseline was defined, which assumptions are modelled, and what evidence would show improvement. A good assessment welcomes those questions.
Executive Findings and Decision Session
Converting evidence into organisational decisions.
Attendees
Only stakeholders required to understand, own or decide: executive sponsor, relevant C-suite, Marketing or Digital, Product, IT, Risk or Compliance, execution lead, agency where appropriate.
Decisions
Decision record
Evidence, confidence, materiality, owner, decision, rationale, action, due date, escalation, review date.
Client responsibilities
Search Intelligence responsibilities
FAQs
Must the agency be replaced?
No.
Can the Assessment focus on one product?
Yes.
Will Search Intelligence implement everything?
No.
Will it produce a financial estimate?
Only where evidence supports a responsible observed or modelled estimate with assumptions.
Does it guarantee annual engagement?
No.
What happens when no material problem is found?
A valid outcome \u2014 the Assessment states what was examined and why no material intervention is recommended, with anything to monitor.
Indicative timing?
A focused Assessment may complete over several weeks; a complex multi-market or multi-product Assessment may need longer \u2014 the proposal states intended timing and dependencies.
Establish the evidence before creating the long-term scope.
The purpose is not a longer recommendation list. It is a defensible basis for deciding what happens next.
Do not publish invented pricing or delivery periods, scope, evidence access, deliverables and terms are defined per proposal.