You know you need support. The question is: what kind?
Most executives we talk to fall into one of these buckets:
- Doing $50/hour work when they should be focused on strategy
- Tried a virtual assistant who disappeared after six weeks
- Spending more time managing their “help” than the help is actually helping
This executive assistant quiz cuts through that.
In about five minutes, you’ll see exactly where your time is going, what kind of support actually matches your workload, and whether you need someone managing your inbox or acting as your chief of staff.
What This Executive Assistant Quiz Helps You Do
You’re spending hours on work that doesn’t move the needle.
Calendar chaos, inbox overwhelm, meeting prep that eats your morning – these are costing you focus time.
This quiz identifies three things:
- Where your time is actually going (not where you think it’s going)
- Which tasks need executive-level support versus basic admin help
- The exact support tier that matches your current workload and goals
The average tech CEO works 4,200 hours per year, but research shows that 70% of that time is sub-optimal, with nearly a third consumed by meetings and another 30% lost to email management.
When you factor in wasted meeting time, most executives are operating far below their potential.
But not every executive needs the same solution. A board director managing three portfolios has different bottlenecks than a startup founder wearing ten hats.
The quiz takes about five minutes. You’ll answer questions about your typical week, decision-making load, and what’s falling through the cracks.
How the Quiz Works
Six questions. Each one targets a specific part of your workload that tells us what you need.
- Question 1 – Current Workload Assessment: Are you drowning in basic admin tasks? Need help prioritizing what matters? Or looking for someone who can represent you and manage complex initiatives? This reveals whether you need task delegation, strategic support, or full executive partnership.
- Question 2 – Support Type Needed: Simple scheduling and inbox management? Project coordination and communication? Strategic partnership and decision support? Or continuous, high-level executive coordination? This determines your support level.
- Question 3 – Timezone Coverage: Some executives work fine with async communication. Others need real-time availability for urgent issues and time-sensitive coordination. This determines whether you need same-timezone coverage or if async works for you.
- Question 4 – Technology Comfort Level: Are you comfortable mixing automation with human support? Prefer experienced professionals handling all tech operations? Or need a reliable partner for everything? This affects which ProAssistant we match you with.
- Question 5 – Monthly Budget: Under $1,000 means focused task help. $1,000-$3,000 gets part-time strategic support. $3,000-$6,000 provides significant bandwidth for complex coordination. $7,000+ is full executive partnership territory.
- Question 6 – Primary Goal: Free up time by delegating simple tasks? Stay organized and focused on priorities? Get strategic, consistent executive-level coordination? Or build a completely in-sync partnership? Your goal determines everything else.
Your answers get scored across the five performance multipliers from our book, The 29-Hour Work Day.
We’re looking at whether you need someone functioning as a:
- Business partner (strategic input),
- Chief of staff (single point of contact),
- Project manager (ownership of initiatives),
- Assistant/scheduler (calendar and inbox mastery), or
- Personal assistant (life admin and family coordination).
The results show you which combination of these you actually need and at what intensity level.
Then we map that to one of three support profiles based on bandwidth: 1/3 of a ProAssistant’s full-time capacity, 1/2 capacity, or 2/3 capacity. More on that in your results.
What Your Personalized Support Breakdown Includes
Your results page is specific to what you told us about your actual workload.
First, Your Support Profile
You’ll see which of the five performance multipliers you need and at what level.
Maybe you need strong project management and chief of staff functions, but your calendar’s already under control.
Maybe you need all five, but at different intensities. The profile shows exactly where support creates the most leverage for you.
Second, What Shifts Off Your Plate
We spell out the specific tasks, projects, and responsibilities a ProAssistant at your level would handle.
Not in abstract terms, in concrete examples.
If your profile shows you need operational support, your results might say:
“Your ProAssistant would manage your Q1 product launch from kickoff through delivery. They’d coordinate your marketing director and dev lead, track milestones, send weekly status reports, and flag decisions that need your input. You’d spend 30 minutes in a weekly sync instead of five hours managing moving parts.“
If you need strategic support, it looks different:
“Your ProAssistant would act as your single point of contact for direct reports, handle your personal staff coordination, draft responses to your board members, provide input on candidate evaluations, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks across your business and personal priorities.“
Third, Estimated Time Reclaim
Based on your workload, we show you how many hours per week typically shift off executive plates at each support level.
It’s based on what we’ve seen with clients working with ProAssistants.
- At 1/3 capacity (our most common starting point), executives typically reclaim enough time to focus on one major strategic initiative they’ve been putting off.
- At 2/3 capacity, they’re getting back a full day or more per week. It’s time that goes directly to revenue-generating work, strategic planning, or actual time off.
Fourth, the ProAssisting Match
You’ll see which service tier aligns with your needs (1/3, 1/2, or 2/3 of a ProAssistant’s full-time bandwidth) and what that looks like in practice.
Pricing, response times, scope – everything’s spelled out.
The results give you language to articulate what you actually need.
When you schedule a consultation with us, you’re not starting from “I think I need help.” You’re starting from “here’s exactly where I have gaps and here’s what solving them looks like.”
Built for Executives, Not Entry-Level Admin Searches
Let’s talk about why most virtual assistant models don’t work for executives.
The typical VA company pays assistants $18 per hour to support eight to twelve clients.
Think about that.
Your assistant is tracking eight different executives, each with their own priorities, communication styles, and expectations.
And they’re making $18 an hour.
What happens? They burn out. They leave for stable full-time jobs. Or they hit their breaking point and just disappear.
We hear the stories constantly.
A prospect told me last week: his first VA had family issues and was out between 11 AM and 2 PM most days, then eventually went dark.
The company couldn’t even reach her. They assigned him a replacement. She was great for seven weeks. Then she left for a full-time position that actually valued her.
The model is broken. And it’s been broken since before we started ProAssisting in 2018.
Clients aren’t the problem. Assistants aren’t the problem. The model is the problem.
When you pay someone $18/hour to juggle twelve executives, you get exactly what you’d expect: inconsistent support, high turnover, and assistants who can’t build any real knowledge about your business.
That’s why we built ProAssisting differently.
- Every ProAssistant is Limited to Three Clients Maximum: Not eight. Not twelve. The ideal client-to-assistant ratio for personalized support is 3:1. When your assistant is only supporting two other executives, they have the bandwidth to actually learn your business, anticipate your needs, and build the institutional knowledge that makes them invaluable over time.
- We Pay ProAssistants More Than 75% of What You Pay Us: The industry standard for VA companies is maybe 30-40%. We flip that. Fair compensation means we attract career executive assistants who command six-figure salaries in major cities. People who have supported C-suite leaders through acquisitions, IPOs, and scaling challenges. They’re not treating this as a stepping stone. This is their career.
- Experience Matters: Every ProAssistant has at least five years of executive-level support experience. Many have worked at companies like J.Crew, Fidelity, Target, Oracle, NBC Sports, or JPMorgan Chase. They’ve been in the room with demanding executives. They understand pace, discretion, and judgment.
Here’s what that experience difference looks like in practice for executive vs virtual assistant:
A VA manages your calendar. A ProAssistant protects it.
They’ll decline meetings that don’t fit your priorities, bunch similar calls together so you get uninterrupted focus time, and fix conflicts before you even see them.
A VA sends emails you write. A ProAssistant writes them for you.
They handle the back-and-forth, and only pull you in when you need to make a decision.
A VA books your flight. A ProAssistant plans your whole trip.
Backup flight if your meeting runs late. Car service timed to the minute. Dinner reservation at the place
The difference is ownership.
ProAssistants don’t wait for instructions. They anticipate. They solve problems before you know they exist. They represent you with the kind of poise and emotional intelligence that makes people think they’re talking directly to you.
That’s what C-level support actually looks like. And it’s what this quiz is designed to identify that you need.
Why Clarifying Your Support Level Is Essential
Managers spend nearly one full day each week on administrative tasks alone, according to McKinsey research. That’s 18% of their time on work that doesn’t require their expertise.
The dividing line is simple. Anything under $100 per hour should come off your plate:
- Calendar management
- Inbox organization
- Travel booking
- Meeting prep
- Routine follow-ups
Anything over that threshold is where your focus belongs.
When executives tell us they don’t have time for strategic work, they’re usually spending 10 to 15 hours weekly on sub-$100/hour tasks. That’s a support gap, not a time management problem.
The cost of wrong-fit support:
- Hire basic admin help for complex needs? You end up micromanaging.
- Hire a high-level EA, but only give them inbox work? They get bored and leave.
- Either way, you lose 60 to 90 days to onboarding and start over.
This quiz identifies whether your bottlenecks are administrative, operational, or strategic.
The goal: find the right executive assistant at the right level so you’re not still drowning in $50/hour work three months from now.
How ProAssisting Delivers the Support Your Profile Calls For
Your quiz results show what you need.
And here’s how our fractional executive assistant model works:
The first step is consultation and matching.
We discuss your specific situation (industry, team structure, communication preferences).
Then we match you with a fractional ProAssistant who fits your support level and working style.
We move to onboarding afterwards.
You fill out a questionnaire about your preferences. How you like your calendar managed, who your key people are, and what systems you use.
Yes, it takes time up front. But it means your ProAssistant already knows your style from day one instead of figuring it out over three months.
- By day one, they understand your priorities.
- By week one, they’re handling routine coordination.
- By month one, they’re anticipating needs without constant check-ins.
Communication in your time zone.
Your ProAssistant works U.S. hours in your time zone. You’ll get responses within an hour during the day.
If something comes up in atypical situations, they’ve got you covered. You communicate however works best (email, Slack, text, calls) for you.
What you won’t pay for?
No equipment costs, benefits, payroll taxes, onboarding fees, or long-term contracts. Month-to-month with a 20-day cancellation notice.
And if your ProAssistant leaves (It’s rare – our rigorous hiring process screens for career commitment), they document all processes, systems, and context related to your account.
If they’re able to participate in the transition, they’ll train your new ProAssistant directly. ProAssisting absorbs the cost of this handoff. You’re not starting from scratch.
Plans start at $3,300 per month for 1/3 capacity.
Ready to see which support level matches your needs? Take the quiz and schedule your consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here’s what executives typically want to know about the quiz and how we use your responses:
Is Any Personal or Sensitive Information Required?
No. The quiz asks about your workload, time allocation, and support needs. You won’t be asked for financial information, sensitive business details, or anything beyond what’s needed to assess your support requirements.
We collect your name and email to send results. That’s it. Your contact information is used only to deliver your personalized support breakdown and follow up with next steps if you’re interested in scheduling a consultation.
We don’t sell or share your data. You can review our full privacy policy here.
How Accurate Is the Assessment in Identifying Support Gaps?
The quiz is based on workload patterns from hundreds of executives we’ve worked with.
Your results reflect what you tell us, so if you’re honest about where your time goes, the assessment will accurately identify your gaps.
How Does This Tool Differ from Traditional Hiring Guides?
Most hiring guides focus on what to look for in a candidate – skills, experience, and interview questions. This quiz focuses on what you actually need before you start looking.
The difference matters.
Traditional hiring advice assumes you know your requirements. You’re looking for “an executive assistant” or “project management support.” But those categories are broad. An EA role at a startup looks nothing like an EA role supporting a board director.
Can This Assessment Replace a Discovery Call with ProAssisting?
No, but it makes the discovery call more productive.
The quiz identifies your support profile. The discovery call builds your implementation plan. During the consultation, we discuss your specific situation – industry context, team structure, communication preferences, and any specialized requirements your ProAssistant needs to handle.
We also address questions the quiz can’t answer.
What does onboarding look like? How do you transition work to your ProAssistant? What happens if your needs change six months in? How do you measure whether the partnership is working?
