What to ask your agency about build versus buy

The advice here is unglamorous, which is probably why it gets skipped. If you are briefing an agency or a freelancer on build versus buy, these questions are worth asking early.

Strategy work is mostly deciding what not to do, and writing it down so it stays decided. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.

Questions worth asking

• Who will actually do this work, and have they done it before?
• How will we know afterwards whether it worked?
• What happens if it needs changing in a year?
• What are you assuming that we have not confirmed?

What a good answer sounds like

Build what makes you different, buy the rest. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it. If it only works because one person remembers to do something, it does not work yet.

Count ongoing maintenance in the build column. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.

What this looks like day to day

Clear scope protects the client at least as much as it protects the agency. Three things worth confirming about build versus buy before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Off-the-shelf is cheaper until the customisation starts — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you are not sure where your systems currently stand on this, it takes us about an hour to find out.