Standards

The Acceptance Rubric.

This website is specified before it is built and accepted only when demonstrated. Every area of the product — positioning, pricing, technical foundation, trust, design, conversion, and compliance — is scored against a published 1000-point rubric, and no criterion is marked done until its acceptance condition is met in the working product.

The rubric is our own working standard, written from engineering-specification practice and graduate business-school method. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any institution, and it binds us, not you: the educational content on this site is not financial advice.

01

Specification rigor

Every criterion carries a verifiable acceptance condition. A feature is specified before it is built, and nothing is marked done until it is demonstrated in the working product — not promised, not drafted.

02

Business-development clarity

Every page must answer the buyer's questions: who this is for, what it costs, what happens if it is not right. Objections — price, risk, cancellation — are answered before they are asked, in plain English.

03

Financial verification

No claim without a named source or an explicit illustrative label. Savings are stated as estimates, the arithmetic is shown, and every piece of content carries a last-reviewed date.

How scoring works

Done — Implemented and verified in the working product.

Partial — In place, but with a named gap that is being closed.

Needs measurement — Requires an external measurement — a device, Lighthouse, or an accessibility pass.

Needs input — Awaits an owner decision; nothing is invented to fill the gap.

The rubric — 1000 points

1 · Positioning & Value Proposition

150 points

1.1The ten-second test: who it is for, what they get, the price, and the next step — all above the fold

40 pts

Done only if: A first-time visitor can state the offer, the price, and the next step after ten seconds on the page.

1.2One H1, one primary action, one secondary path per page

20 pts

Done only if: No page competes with itself, and the primary action is the same wherever it appears.

1.3'What we do / Who it is for / What it is not' stated explicitly

30 pts

Done only if: All three questions are answered in plain English, and the 'not' is stated, not implied.

1.4Six-module program with a verifiable outcome per module

30 pts

Done only if: Every module names its outcome, and the outcome is checkable in the product itself.

1.5One executive-briefing voice across every page and email

30 pts

Done only if: Register is uniform site-wide: no hype, no unexplained jargon, no prohibited claims.

2 · Pricing Transparency

100 points

2.1One plan card: $1.99/month, cancel anytime, full feature list

30 pts

Done only if: Price, cadence, and the cancel path are visible without leaving the card.

2.2Trial terms identical wherever they appear

30 pts

Done only if: Length, price, charge date, and cancel path match verbatim across the site, emails, and legal copy.

2.3The full cost is computable before payment

20 pts

Done only if: Tax, fees, the first charge date, and renewal are all visible before checkout.

2.4Refund policy and subscription terms one click from the price

20 pts

Done only if: Both documents are reachable from the pricing card in one click.

3 · SEO & Technical Foundation

150 points

3.1Canonical URL set to the custom domain

25 pts

Done only if: Every page's canonical points to the custom domain, never the platform host.

3.2Crawler-accessible rendered content

35 pts

Done only if: Crawlers receive a fully rendered version of every page.

3.3Unique title, description, OG and Twitter tags, and preview image per page

20 pts

Done only if: Tags are verified per URL; descriptions are under 160 characters.

3.4Structured data: Organization, FAQPage, Product/Offer, Person

15 pts

Done only if: Each schema is present, valid, and built only from supplied facts.

3.5sitemap.xml, robots.txt, clean URLs, custom 404

15 pts

Done only if: All routes are crawlable and a full internal-link pass has been run.

3.6Mobile performance: Lighthouse 95+, passing LCP, CLS, INP

30 pts

Done only if: Measured from a real device profile, not assumed.

3.7HTTPS everywhere, security headers, no mixed content

10 pts

Done only if: No http:// references; the security scan returns no findings.

4 · Trust & Credibility

150 points

4.1Leadership content built only from owner-approved facts

35 pts

Done only if: No invented credentials; sample material is marked as such and awaiting the owner's decision.

4.2Legal entity, address, support email, and billing descriptor wherever required

30 pts

Done only if: Published in the footer, checkout, and every billing email; empty fields stay hidden.

4.3A clear regulatory status statement

20 pts

Done only if: Educational-only status is stated in the footer of every page and every email.

4.4Published editorial standards

15 pts

Done only if: The standards are on the record and enforced by a recurring claims sweep.

4.5Plain-English privacy summary with one-step deletion

20 pts

Done only if: Collection, use, no-sale, and deletion are summarized; deletion takes one confirmed step.

4.6Partner and affiliate disclosures next to relevant content

10 pts

Done only if: Any relationship is disclosed beside the content it touches.

4.7Real proof only, never manufactured

20 pts

Done only if: No testimonials, ratings, or logos unless owner-supplied; examples are labeled illustrative.

5 · Design, Content & UX

200 points

5.1One premium editorial design system, applied without exception

40 pts

Done only if: Palette, typography, eyebrows, hairlines, and numbered sections everywhere; no emoji, no icon-based navigation.

5.2Homepage in the specified ten-section order

30 pts

Done only if: Sections render in the fixed order with alternating surfaces.

5.3Responsive 320–2560px with 44px touch targets

30 pts

Done only if: No horizontal scroll on any device, verified on physical devices, not just emulators.

5.4WCAG 2.2 AA: contrast, keyboard, focus, landmarks, alt text, reduced motion

40 pts

Done only if: A full keyboard and screen-reader pass has been run and documented.

5.5Interactive calculators: validated inputs, clear results, nothing stored

25 pts

Done only if: Inputs are validated; results render as text; no calculator writes to the database.

5.6Scannable copy at an 8th–10th grade reading level

15 pts

Done only if: Short paragraphs, a consistent heading rhythm, and measured readability.

5.7Zero placeholders, zero broken images, consistent spacing

20 pts

Done only if: A content sweep confirms nothing unfilled or unresolvable renders.

6 · Conversion Flow

150 points

6.1Signup in three steps or fewer with email verification

25 pts

Done only if: Register, verify, reach the first screen — with no dead ends.

6.2Trial flow with informed consent and a stored consent record

30 pts

Done only if: The exact billing terms are consented to and retrievable on the record.

6.3Lifecycle emails with working cancel paths

25 pts

Done only if: Welcome, reminder, receipt, and cancellation emails each carry a working cancel or account link.

6.4One-step cancellation within two taps of the dashboard

25 pts

Done only if: No retention script, phone requirement, or dark pattern anywhere in the flow.

6.5A first result within five minutes of onboarding

20 pts

Done only if: The starting snapshot and score are produced in the first onboarding steps.

6.6Analytics at every funnel stage

15 pts

Done only if: CTA, calculator, FAQ, trial, conversion, cancellation, and scroll-depth events all fire and are consent-aware.

6.7Error, empty, and loading states on every screen

10 pts

Done only if: No screen renders blank, stuck, or unexplained.

7 · Compliance & Disclosures

100 points

7.1Auto-renewal disclosed at signup, in the confirmation email, and in the terms

30 pts

Done only if: Length, price, billing date, cancel method, and refund policy appear in all three.

7.2All legal pages published and linked from the footer

20 pts

Done only if: Terms, privacy, cookies, subscription terms, and regulatory disclosures are one click away.

7.3Cookie consent with reject-all and re-openable preferences

15 pts

Done only if: Analytics fire only after accepted consent.

7.4Disclaimer on every page and every generated PDF

10 pts

Done only if: The regulatory disclaimer renders site-wide and is written into each download.

7.5Prohibited-claims sweep: no guarantees, unsourced statistics, or school names

15 pts

Done only if: A full-text sweep runs, and every exception is tracked to zero.

7.6Data deletion and export with confirmation

10 pts

Done only if: One-step deletion with a confirmation dialog; JSON export of all stored data.

The same discipline governs our published work: the working papers state their assumptions and show their arithmetic, the results register documents outcomes to a published standard, and the corrections log records every change of substance.