Diagnose in elements, not brands.
Why a fractional gets more out of this than we do
A fractional CTO or CFO carries the same argument into six companies a quarter. The hard part of a stack review has never been knowing that a client pays for two things that do the same job — it is proving it in a language the client cannot wave away. "You are paying for two coding agents" is an opinion. "Elements 5 and 6 are both staffed, and here is the dated evidence for each holder" is a finding. The element layer is what turns your judgment into something a founder can check, and it is the same layer across every client you have.
What is free, and how to use it
| What | Use it for |
|---|---|
| The dataset | Every element, group, price band, maturity phase and current holder as JSON. Drop it into your own spreadsheet or intake form. |
| The 58 dossiers | A ranked top five per element with dated evidence and the whole field, graveyard included. This is the part you would otherwise spend a week rebuilding per client. |
| The poster | One sheet, 36×24in, vector. Put it on the wall of the room you run the review in. |
| The stack builder | Send it before a first call. The client arrives with a shape, and you start the meeting one step in. |
| The field guides | 24 verdict-first answers to the buying questions clients ask mid-review, so you do not have to litigate each one from memory. |
The method, in five verdicts
Every line the client pays for gets exactly one of these, with a number attached. Nothing else is a finding.
- Keep
- It holds its element, the price is in band, and nothing else on the ledger is doing the same job. Say so explicitly — a review that only cuts reads as a cost exercise and gets ignored.
- Cut
- Nothing is staffed by it, or the job it does was real last year and is not now. Attach the annualised amount and the renewal date.
- Consolidate
- Two or more lines land on the same element. Name which one keeps the seat and what the other one costs to leave.
- Replace
- The element is right and the holder is wrong. This is the only verdict that needs migration effort priced into it, so price it before you recommend it.
- Watch
- The evidence is not there yet — a contract too far out, a vendor mid-acquisition, a category still moving. A dated "watch" is a finding; a silent omission is not.
The one rule that makes the method hold: map to the element the tool is actually serving in that company, not the one its marketing claims. A workflow tool used only to move files between two apps is not staffed at Workflows; it is a line item.
Common questions
Can I use the elems table with my own clients?
Yes, and you do not need permission. The taxonomy, all 58 element dossiers, the markdown twins and the poster are published under CC BY 4.0 — use them in a client deliverable, put them on a slide, quote the verdicts. The licence asks one thing: cite elems.ai.
What does the audit method actually consist of?
Take every line the client pays for, normalise it, map each one onto the element it is really serving, and then apply five verdicts: Keep, Cut, Consolidate, Replace, Watch. The value is not the framework — it is that two tools landing on the same element is a conversation the client cannot argue with.
Do you compete with me for that work?
On 2 engagements a month, barely. That ceiling is the point: the table is worth more to us used by a hundred practitioners than delivered by one. If you want the work, take it.
Does listing or licensing affect the table?
No. Practitioners are not vendors, do not appear on the table, and cannot buy a seat, a rank, or a mention on an element page. The charter covers them exactly as it covers vendors, or it means nothing.
If you want more than the free layer
Two things are not published: a co-brandable report template, and a commercial licence for putting the taxonomy in deliverables under your own mark rather than ours. Both exist; neither has a price, because we have not sold enough of them to know what one should be, and inventing a number here would be the same sin as a vendor inventing a benchmark. Tell us how many clients you carry and what you would actually use, and that conversation sets the price honestly for both of us.
Nothing above requires an email. This one does — it is a conversation, not a download.
Talk about licensing the method →