Illustrative Example — Not a Real Client

See exactly what you'll get

This is a realistic sample deliverable for a fictional 120-person B2B SaaS company. Every audit is unique to your stack — but this shows the depth, format, and clarity you can expect.

Real frameworks, real toolsActionable, not genericTailored to your stack

Example scenario

Meet “ScaleMetrics” — a fictional SaaS company

We created this example to show you the exact depth and format of our deliverables. The company is fictional, but the problems are real — we see them in nearly every scaling SaaS team.

Stage

Series B

$18M ARR

Team

120 people

3 data engineers

Stack

PostgreSQL + Metabase

No warehouse

Pain

Nobody trusts the data

5-day request queue

The situation: ScaleMetrics has grown from 30 to 120 people in 18 months. Their data stack was set up early on by an engineer who has since left. Analytics queries hit the production database directly, dashboards show conflicting numbers, and the data team spends 80% of their time on ad-hoc requests instead of building infrastructure. The VP of Engineering wants to hire 2 more data engineers — but the CTO isn't sure that's the right move before understanding what's actually broken.

↗

Sound familiar? Most SaaS teams between 50–500 people face some version of this. See how your stack compares →

Free Audit
Delivered within 1 business day

Sample findings from a Free Audit

The free audit identifies your top 3 priorities with enough context to act immediately. Here's what ScaleMetrics' free audit uncovered:

01

No central data warehouse

Critical

Analytics queries run directly against production PostgreSQL, causing latency spikes during business hours. This is the single biggest bottleneck.

02

Metric definitions are inconsistent

High

"Monthly Active Users" has 3 different definitions across product, marketing, and finance. Board reporting uses a blend of all three.

03

Dashboard sprawl causing mistrust

Medium

12 Metabase dashboards exist, but only 4 are actively used. The rest show stale or conflicting data, eroding team confidence in analytics.

Free audit summary

ScaleMetrics has strong product-market fit but is flying blind on data. The #1 priority is standing up a central warehouse to stop querying production. A Deep Dive Audit would map the full data flow, assess all tooling, and produce a detailed 90-day plan to get from here to a mature, trusted data stack.

Get findings like these for your stack

Free · 1-day turnaround · No commitment

Before & after

What changes after acting on the audit

Data Maturity scores on our 5-dimension framework (1–5 scale). These are illustrative outcomes based on typical improvements we see when teams execute on audit recommendations.

Before — Current State
Infrastructure
1.5
Governance
1
Analytics
2
Culture
1.5
Roadmap
1
Overall maturity1.4 / 5
After — 90 Days
Infrastructure
4
Governance
3.5
Analytics
4
Culture
3.5
Roadmap
4
Overall maturity3.8 / 5
+171%improvement in overall data maturityfrom 1.4 → 3.8 in 90 days
⬡

Infrastructure

1.5 → 4

Before

5 disconnected data sources, no central warehouse. Engineers manually export CSVs from production DB for analytics.

After 90 days

Centralized Snowflake warehouse with automated ingestion from all 5 sources. Production DB no longer touched for analytics.

◈

Governance

1 → 3.5

Before

No data ownership. 3 different definitions of 'active user' across teams. No access controls beyond admin/non-admin.

After 90 days

Documented metric definitions in dbt. Data owners assigned per domain. Role-based access with row-level security.

△

Analytics

2 → 4

Before

12 Metabase dashboards, 4 abandoned. Finance uses spreadsheets because they don't trust the dashboards.

After 90 days

3 canonical dashboards (exec, product, finance) with certified metrics. Finance uses live dashboards for board reporting.

○

Culture

1.5 → 3.5

Before

Data requests go through engineering. Average wait time: 5 days. Teams have stopped asking.

After 90 days

Self-serve analytics for product and marketing. Engineering handles infra only. Wait time: same-day.

□

Roadmap

1 → 4

Before

No data strategy document. Tool purchases driven by individual preferences. $47K/yr in overlapping tool spend.

After 90 days

12-month data roadmap aligned with product milestones. Consolidated tooling saves $28K/yr.

Recommendations

3 concrete next steps

Every audit includes actionable recommendations — not vague advice. Here's the level of specificity you can expect.

01

Stand up a cloud data warehouse within 30 days

What to do

Migrate analytics workloads from production PostgreSQL to Snowflake (or BigQuery). Use Fivetran or Airbyte for automated ingestion from your 5 core sources: production DB, Stripe, HubSpot, Intercom, and Google Analytics.

Why it matters

Eliminates production impact from analytics queries, enables joins across data sources, and establishes a single source of truth.

Effort

2–3 weeks with a senior data engineer

Impact

High — unblocks every other improvement

02

Define and codify your 10 core metrics in dbt

What to do

Create a dbt project with documented models for your key business metrics: MRR, churn rate, active users, CAC, LTV, NPS, pipeline velocity, expansion revenue, support ticket volume, and feature adoption.

Why it matters

Ends the 'whose numbers are right?' debate. Every dashboard and report pulls from the same tested, version-controlled definitions.

Effort

1–2 weeks with a data analyst + stakeholder alignment

Impact

High — builds trust in data across the org

03

Consolidate to 3 canonical dashboards

What to do

Replace 12 fragmented dashboards with 3 certified views: Executive (MRR, churn, runway), Product (activation, retention, feature adoption), and Finance (revenue recognition, CAC payback, cash flow). Archive the rest.

Why it matters

Fewer, trusted dashboards get more usage than many uncertain ones. Finance stops maintaining parallel spreadsheets.

Effort

1 week to build, ongoing curation

Impact

Medium — visible quick win that rebuilds confidence

Action plan preview

Example 90-day action plan

The Deep Dive includes a complete, prioritized action plan. Here's a condensed preview showing the structure and specificity.

Days 1–30— Foundation

Provision Snowflake account and configure networking

Data Eng

Set up Fivetran connectors for Postgres, Stripe, HubSpot

Data Eng
!

Draft and align on 10 core metric definitions with stakeholders

Data Lead

Create dbt project skeleton with initial staging models

Data Eng
Days 31–60— Build

Build dbt marts for executive, product, and finance domains

Data Analyst

Implement data quality tests in dbt (not-null, unique, accepted values)

Data Eng

Build 3 canonical Metabase dashboards from dbt marts

Data Analyst

Set up role-based access in Snowflake (admin, analyst, viewer)

Data Eng
Days 61–90— Adopt

Run 2 training sessions for self-serve analytics (product + marketing)

Data Lead

Archive deprecated dashboards and document data catalog

Data Analyst
!

Decommission direct production DB access for analytics

Data Eng

Present data roadmap to leadership for next quarter

Data Lead
Quick win|!Critical|Standard

Full plan included in the Deep Dive

See what's included
Days 91–120— Scale

Return on investment

Why teams invest in the Deep Dive

The $1,500 Deep Dive typically pays for itself within weeks. Here's a realistic value breakdown based on ScaleMetrics' scenario:

$28K/year

Saved in tool consolidation

Redundant tools identified and eliminated

40hrs/month

Engineering time recovered

From ad-hoc requests to self-serve analytics

5→0 days

Data request wait time

Teams get same-day answers, not week-long queues

The math: $28K in annual savings + recovered engineering time = the Deep Dive pays for itself within the first month.

Deep Dive Audit — $1,500

Everything above, plus

The free audit gives you the headlines. The Deep Dive gives you the complete playbook. Here's what the $1,500 engagement adds:

Full infrastructure diagram with data flow mapping
Vendor-by-vendor tooling assessment with cost analysis
Data governance maturity review with compliance gaps
Team structure and hiring recommendations
Executive-ready presentation deck (10–15 slides)
Complete 90-day action plan (not just the snippet above)
30-minute walkthrough call to discuss findings
DeliverableFree Audit$0Deep Dive$1,500
Top 3 findings with severity ratings
High-level recommendation summary
Next-step suggestion
Full infrastructure mapping—
Data governance review—
Tooling assessment + cost analysis—
Detailed recommendations with effort/impact—
90-day prioritized action plan—
Executive presentation deck—
30-minute walkthrough call—

Built by practitioners

Our team has designed data architectures from seed stage through IPO. We know what scales and what doesn't.

5-dimension framework

A structured, repeatable methodology — not ad-hoc opinions. Every assessment uses the same rigor.

SaaS-focused

We work exclusively with SaaS companies scaling past $10M. Every recommendation is calibrated for your stage.

About this example

ScaleMetrics is a fictional company created to illustrate the depth and format of our audit deliverables. The findings, recommendations, and action plan are representative of what we deliver — but every real audit is tailored to your specific stack, team, and challenges. No two audits are the same.

Ready to see what's actually going on with your data?

Start with a free audit — we'll review your stack and send you a clear summary within 1 business day. If you want the full analysis, the $1,500 Deep Dive has you covered.

No sales calls required. Free audit is genuinely free — no credit card, no catch.