SaaS Business Health Diagnostic
Diagnose SaaS business health across growth, retention, unit economics, and capital efficiency. Identify red flags by urgency and get a prioritized action plan with stage-specific benchmarks.
Revenue is growing 50% YoY but you're burning cash fast and the board meeting is in two weeks. Is your business healthy, moderate, concerning, or in existential crisis? Single-metric check-ins miss the systemic picture — and by the time lagging indicators flash red, it's late.
Who it's for: CPOs and founders preparing for board meetings, operators running QBRs, finance leads prepping fundraising materials, Heads of Product assessing PMF and scaling readiness, new execs needing a 90-day business health read
Example
"Our growth is strong but we're burning cash — assess our business health before the Series A board meeting" → Full scorecard across 4 dimensions, red flags categorized Critical/High/Medium, root cause analysis on the primary issue, 30/90-day action plan with expected revenue impact, and stage-specific benchmark comparison
CLAUDE.md Template
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npx ccplaybooks add business-health-diagnostic# Business Health Diagnostic
Diagnose overall SaaS business health by analyzing growth, retention, unit economics, and capital efficiency metrics together. Use this to identify problems early, prioritize actions by urgency, and deliver a comprehensive health scorecard for board meetings, QBRs, or fundraising prep.
This is not a single-metric check — it's a holistic diagnostic that connects revenue, retention, economics, and efficiency to reveal systemic issues and opportunities.
## The Business Health Framework
Four dimensions that must work together:
1. **Growth & Retention** — Revenue growth rate, NRR, Churn rate, Quick Ratio
2. **Unit Economics** — CAC, LTV, LTV:CAC, Payback period, Gross marginGet new playbooks like this one
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What This Does
Diagnoses SaaS business health holistically across four dimensions — Growth & Retention, Unit Economics, Capital Efficiency, and Strategic Position — and produces a scorecard, categorized red flags, root cause analysis, and a prioritized action plan calibrated to your stage (Early, Growth, or Scale).
Not a single-metric check. Connects revenue, retention, economics, and efficiency to reveal systemic issues and opportunities.
Quick Start
mkdir -p ~/Documents/BusinessHealth
mv ~/Downloads/CLAUDE.md ~/Documents/BusinessHealth/
cd ~/Documents/BusinessHealth
claude
Provide metrics across the four dimensions (you can say "unknown" where you don't have data) plus stage and business model. Claude returns a diagnosis + action plan.
Stage-Specific Benchmarks
| Stage | Growth | NRR | LTV:CAC | Rule of 40 | Runway |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early (<$10M ARR) | >50% YoY | — | >3:1 | — | >12 mo |
| Growth ($10-50M) | >40% YoY | >100% | >3:1 | >40 | — |
| Scale ($50M+) | >25% YoY | >110% | >3:1 | >40 | Profitable |
Four Diagnostic Patterns
- Healthy — All dimensions meet benchmarks. Scale what's working, expand within base, improve efficiency.
- Moderate (Fixable Issues) — 1-2 dimensions problematic. Root cause analysis + 30/90-day plan. Don't scale acquisition until retention is fixed.
- Concerning (Urgent Action) — Multiple critical red flags. 90-day survival plan: triage → stop the bleeding → stabilize.
- Critical (Existential Crisis) — Runway <3 months or multiple critical failures. Emergency actions this week.
Red Flags Quick Reference
- Critical: Runway <6mo, LTV:CAC <1.5:1, NRR <90%, Magic Number <0.3, cohort degradation
- High Priority: Rule of 40 <25, Payback >24mo, Gross margin <60%, >50% revenue concentration in top 10
- Medium: NRR 90-100% flat, Magic Number 0.3-0.5, Churn stable but >5% monthly
Common Pitfalls
- Celebrating single metrics while ignoring the rest (growth alone doesn't pay bills)
- Using stage-agnostic benchmarks (early-stage burn ≠ scale-stage burn)
- Tracking only lagging indicators (by the time churn flashes red, it's late)
- Not acting on red flags fast enough — problems compound
- Trying to fix everything at once — pick the top 1-3 and sequence them