Are you ready to choose a CMS?
Take our free 2-minute assessment to find out.
Most organizations rush into selecting a content management system without the foundational clarity needed to make a comprehensive decision. This assessment tells you where you stand—and what to fix—before you commit to a vendor.
CMS projects fail for predictable reasons
You’ve probably heard the stories: months of vendor demos, a six-figure contract, a painful implementation, and a year later the CMS still doesn’t work the way anyone hoped.
The problem usually isn’t the technology. It’s that organizations select their CMS before they’re ready—before they have content strategy clarity, governance frameworks, stakeholder alignment, or content models.
When you skip readiness work, you either choose the wrong vendor or implement the right one poorly.
This assessment tells you whether you’re ready to move forward—and if not, exactly what gaps to address first.
A strategic readiness report, not a vendor recommendation
This isn’t a “take our quiz, get a list of CMS vendors” tool.
This is a strategic assessment of your organization’s readiness to select and implement a CMS successfully.
Your report includes:
✔ Scored assessment across 6 critical dimensions
Content strategy readiness — Do you understand what you’re trying to accomplish?
Content design readiness — Do you know what content you need and how it should be structured?
Content operations readiness — Do you have clarity on roles, governance, and workflows?
Content engineering readiness — Is your content systematized and modeled?
IT readiness — Do you have technical capacity and buy-in?
Stakeholder alignment — Are the right people involved and aligned?
✔ Pattern-based risk warnings
Identifies common failure modes based on your specific response patterns—like attempting multi-channel delivery without structured content, or implementing with multiple teams but no documented governance.
✔ Personalized recommendations
For each dimension, you’ll get prioritized next steps based on your score: what to do if you’re ready, what gaps to close if you’re not.
✔ Clear guidance on next steps
Should you move forward with vendor selection? Do you have foundational you should do first? Where should you focus effort?
Format: Web-based report with PDF download option
Delivery: Immediate access after purchase
Start with the free assessment
Not sure if you need the full evaluation?
Start with our free 2-minute readiness check.
The free version gives you:
A quick readiness score across 3 key dimensions
Your strongest and weakest areas identified
Immediate results (no waiting)
If it’s useful, upgrade to the full 30-question assessment for:
All 6 dimensions evaluated in depth
Pattern-based warnings (Abstraction gap, Governance gap, and more)
Detailed recommendations for each dimension
Comprehensive readiness report
How it works
30 questions, 10 minutes. Actionable insights.
Step 1: Complete the assessment
Answer 30 questions about your content, governance, technical readiness, and stakeholder involvement. Takes no more than 10 minutes.
Step 2: Get your scored report
Receive a detailed readiness report with scores, warnings (if needed), and recommendations tailored to your responses.
Step 3: Address gaps or move forward
Use the recommendations to close readiness gaps before vendor selection—or confidently proceed if you’re already in good shape.
Who is this for
This assessment is for organizations that …
Are considering a new CMS or planning to migrate
Have been burned by CMS implementations before and want to avoid repeat mistakes
Have heard horror stories about CMS implementations
Want to make a confident vendor decision backed by strategic clarity
Are facing internal disagreement about CMS direction or requirements
Suspect they might not be ready but don’t know what they don’t know
Value expert guidance but aren’t ready for a full consulting engagement yet
This is especially valuable if:
Multiple teams or departments will use the CMS
You’re planning omni-channel content delivery (web, mobile, API, AI)
You’re currently using makeshift tools (Google Docs, spreadsheets) and need to scale up
Your organization is at an inflection point (acquisition, rebrand, new product line)
Stake holders have competing priorities or different visions for what the CMS should do
Why trust this assessment
Built on 30 years of content experience
I’m John Collins, and I’ve spent three decades helping organizations manage content at scale—including leading the content and localization team at Rosetta Stone and creating the senior content architect role at Atlassian, where I guided the company’s move to a headless CMS and composable digital experience platform (DXP).
I’ve seen CMS implementations succeed and fail. I’ve helped navigate vendor selection, stakeholder conflicts, migration complexity, and governance challenges. I know what separates teams that implement successfully from those that struggle.
This assessment captures patterns I’ve observed across many implementations. It’s not generic advice. It’s pattern-matching based on real organizational dynamics that make or break CMS projects.
I created this because most organizations don’t know what they don’t know. They think they’re ready when they’re not, or they focus on the wrong things. This assessment gives you an honest, expert view of where you actually stand.
Credentials
30 years of content experience
Former senior content architect and content designer at Atlassian
Team lead of the Technical Communication and Localization team at Rosetta stone
Contentful Certified Professional
Publisher of Model Thinking newsletter
Cited in multiple books:
Technical Communication and the Discipline of Content: Considerations for Research, Training, and Career Readiness, by Carlos Evia Puerto, PhD and Rebekka Anderson, published by Routledge (Sept. 2025).
The Content Advantage: Succeed at Digital Business with Effective Content, Third Edition by Colleen Jones, published by Content Science® Publications (Nov. 2024).
From Solo to Scaled: Building a Sustainable Content Strategy Practice by Natalie Marie Dunbar, published by Rosenfeld Media (June 2022).
Guest on several content industry podcasts
This isn’t just another CMS quiz
CMS selection tools focus on features:
Do you need multilingual support? Check. Do you need APIs? Check. Here are 47 vendors.
This assessment focuses on organization readiness:
Do you have documented content models? Do your stakeholders agree on requirements? Do you have governance policies in place? Have you involved IT and Legal?
The difference matters because:
A feature checklist can’t tell you if you’ll implement successfully.
Vendor demos don’t reveal whether your organization is ready. They care about the sale.
Most CMS failures stem from organizational gaps, not technology limitations.
This assessment tells you what vendor comparison tools can’t: whether you’re actually ready to choose—and if not, what to do about it.
Frequently asked questions
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Choose Your CMS was a free tool focused on vendor recommendations. This is a paid strategic assesment focused on organizational readiness. It’s much deeper (30 questions v. 8), covers dimensions not addressed in the free tool and provides expert analysis rather than algorithmic matching. Choose Your CMS taught us a lot and influenced a lot of what is in this tool.
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No. This assessment evaluates your organization’s readiness, not which vendors should be on your shortlist. If you want vendor recommendations, we can discuss that during a findings call (optional add-on).
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It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to answer the assessment questions. Your assessment report is available immediately.
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You can add a 45-minute findings call to your bundle for a total of $1,200. During the call, we can walk through your specific scores, dig into your situation, and create a concrete action plan.
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No. The assessment is valuable for any organization considering a CMS. The recommendations adapt based on your organization size, and the insights provide value to any size organization.
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This assessment is still valuable. It may surface gaps you haven’t considered, validate your direction, or identify risks that would emerge during implementation. Better to discover readiness gaps before signing a contract than after!
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Yes, absolutely. The report is designed to be shareable with stakeholders. It can help build internal buy-in for foundational work or validate that you’re ready to proceed.
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A low score is valuable data, not a failure. The report will tell you specifically which gaps to address and how to prioritize them. You can retake the assessment after doing preparatory work to measure progress.
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Yes. I offer targeted engagements for content strategy, content operations and governance, content modeling, and stakeholder facilitation. We can discuss your needs during a findings call or schedule a separate consultation.
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The free 2-minute assessment evaluates 10 of 30 questions across 3 of 6 readiness dimensions. It gives you a quick score and identifies your strongest and weakest areas. The full assessment covers all 6 dimensions, includes pattern-based warnings that reveal hidden risks, and provides detailed recommendations for each dimension. Start with the free version—if it surfaces gaps you hadn’t considered, you’ll know the full assessment is worth it.
Pricing
CMS readiness assessment
$750
Includes:
30-question strategic assessment
Scored report across 6 readiness dimensions
Pattern-based risk warnings
Personalized recommendations
Web report (PDF download coming soon!)
Immediate delivery
Findings call
$500 if purchased later (or $450 if bundled now)
45-minute consultation to:
Walk through your specific scores and what they mean
Discuss your organizational context in greater depth
Start tailoring recommendations even more granularly
Map out a realistic action plan
Discuss which preparatory work would have the most impact
Don’t rush into CMS selection! Know where you stand first.
A CMS is a multi-year commitment with signifant costs: vendor fees, implementation services, migration effort, training, infrastructure, and ongoing maintenance. Getting it wrong is expensive—not just in dollars, but in team frustration, lost productivity, and time.
For $750, you get expert clarity on whether you’re ready to choose confidently—and what gaps to address first.
Most organizations spend 10x this amount on CMS implementations—and then find out they weren’t ready. This assessment puts you ahead.
Testimonials
Start free assessment | Full assessment ($750) | Schedule consultation ($500)
Question? Email me.
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Privacy: Your assessment data is confidential and used only to generate your report.