Lesson 3 of 7 in Run and Read a Diagnosis
Why this matters
Capability areas are the parts of a business's marketing the system can check from public evidence, and the business type decides which areas apply. Reading them one at a time, by state and confidence, is what makes the diagnosis usable in the Prioritize step. The common mistake is grading: blending the areas into an impression of "good" or "weak" marketing. The report deliberately offers no overall number, so any grade you form is yours, not the evidence's.
Observed
Usable evidence was found.
Unknown
Not enough evidence to verify.
Unknown is not a low score. It marks the boundary of what the evidence can support.
When to use it
When a run is finished and you are reading what was found, and again before you accept a plan task that rests on a specific area.
Before you start
- A finished run: the cover reads "THE STATE OF YOUR MARKETING" with an "Assembled" date.
- The business type is correct. Areas read under the wrong type answer the wrong questions, so fix that first.
Do this
- 1Start with "Public evidence coverage" ("Evidence coverage" in the section index). Every area for this business type is labeled with a confidence level when observed, or "Unknown".
- 2Read the note under the chart: confidence is labeled, not converted into magnitude, and the shape does not rank business performance.
- 3Read "Findings at a glance": one lead finding per observed area, tagged with the area name and its confidence.
- 4Open each area's own section. The heading shows "Observed" with a high, medium, or low confidence. The findings below describe what exists (a newsletter, a booking page, a listing), never a judgment of its quality.
- 5Check "How we read your business": "Areas observed", "Sources cited", "Vertical model", and "Snapshot date". The vertical model should match the business.
- 6Mark the areas you will verify another way before acting on them. Read Unknown without a negative judgment covers the rest.
What you should see
Every area for the business type appears in the coverage chart, observed or not; only observed areas get their own section. If the run could draw only on direct scans, a banner above the report reads "This is a direct-evidence map, not a full research read" (see Read citations and source-bound claims).
How to judge it
For any area, you can state its state, its confidence, and one finding in the report's own words. If your summary contains "strong", "weak", or a number the report did not show, you have added a grade the evidence does not support.
What it does not mean
Confidence describes how well the evidence supports what was observed, not how well the marketing performs. "High confidence" means the finding is well supported; it does not mean the area is healthy. Presence is not performance, and the count of observed areas measures research coverage, not the business.
Try it in Signal & Science
Open a finished diagnosis and read the state, confidence, and findings for one capability area.
Open in Signal & Science