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HQ Score is a proprietary operational maturity assessment developed by Headroom HQ, built specifically for professionals working in mid-market companies.

HQ Score Measurement Criteria

30 questions. 10 dimensions. 0–100 total score. The ten dimensions and their meanings are listed below:

D1) Process Documentation: Are your critical operational processes documented in a form that anyone could follow independently?

D2) Key Person Redundancy: If your three most operationally critical people were unavailable tomorrow, what happens?

D3) Vendor Contract Quality: Do your vendor contracts protect your interests at the clause level that actually matters?

D4) Team Structure Clarity: Does every person on your operations team know exactly which decisions they can make without asking?

D5) Measurement Sophistication: Does your operations dashboard include leading indicators or only lagging financial metrics?

D6) Technology Coherence: Is your technology stack architecturally intentional, or has it accumulated through ad hoc problem-solving?

D7) Decision Rights Clarity: Is decision authority explicitly documented, or does every significant decision require an informal negotiation about who has the authority to make it?

D8) Meeting Design Quality: Do your operational meetings consistently produce documented decisions with named owners or primarily produce updates?

D9) Onboarding Effectiveness: Could a competent new hire follow your documented processes independently on their first day?

D10) Operational Leverage: Are your operational costs growing more slowly than revenue or faster?

HQ Score Result Assessment

0–30: Informal Operations

The company runs on specific people, not documented systems. Future growth will strain the company before it strains the market.

31–50: Early Systematization

Some processes are documented, and a few systems exist, but coverage is inconsistent and key-person dependency remains high.

51–70: Developing Maturity 

Formal systems are in place for most critical functions. The primary challenge is consistency of use and measurement.

71–85: Operational Maturity

Documented systems, distributed authority, and measurement sophistication are present. The company can absorb growth without operational crisis.

86–100: Institutional Excellence

This is rare at the mid-market stage. The operations function operates as a strategic competitive advantage, not just a support function.

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To learn more about the HQ Score, visit https://www.theheadroomhq.com/hq-score/