SpotCheck methodology
Version spotcheck-methodology-2026-07. Owner: SpotDev engineering. Last reviewed: 29 Jul 2026. SpotCheck produces deterministic audit findings first, then adds clearly labelled non-scored advice where evidence is sufficient.
How scoring works
A score is produced from deterministic checks only. Each provider defines its evidence surface, category weights, rule version and score contract. Missing or unavailable evidence is disclosed and, where the score basis is incomplete, SpotCheck withholds comparison claims rather than treating missing categories as perfect.
- HubSpot portal audits use read and search operations through OAuth-authorised scopes.
- Website audits sample public pages, public performance sources and browser-rendered observations.
- AI advice never changes the score, grade, benchmark, trend or deterministic roadmap.
- AI hypotheses require manual verification before they become confirmed remediation work.
Evidence coverage and limitations
SpotCheck reports show the checks that ran, checks that were skipped or unavailable, and the evidence IDs behind current deterministic findings. The system does not execute HubSpot workflows, mutate pipelines, infer unavailable conditional fields, assess paid ads/social platforms, or claim public traffic/ranking data that it has not collected. Website audits do not perform active vulnerability scanning.
Roadmap and action priority
The roadmap uses a versioned deterministic prioritisation model based on severity, business impact, indicative effort, confidence, applicability and simple dependency ordering. It distinguishes mandatory defects, risk reduction and growth experiments, and every current item carries an expected outcome and verification step.
Change log
- 2026-07: Added AI verification states, action-workspace links, roadmap outcomes and dependency metadata.
- 2026-07: Added current deterministic score-contract disclosure and evidence-led report validation.
- 2026-07: Added website audit partial-assessment disclosure for missing evidence categories.