Decide whether to build, buy, or partner for a capability
A side-by-side recommendation on building in-house, buying a vendor tool, or partnering, with total cost and risk.
The prompt
Help me decide whether to build, buy, or partner for a product capability.
Capability needed: [e.g. in-app payments, search, identity verification]
Why we need it: [CUSTOMER PROBLEM OR STRATEGIC GOAL]
Is it core to our differentiation? [MY VIEW AND WHY]
Vendors or partners under consideration: [NAMES, PRICING IF KNOWN]
Build estimate: [TEAM, TIME, ONGOING MAINTENANCE - or "unknown"]
Constraints: [budget, deadline, compliance, data residency, tech stack]
Compare the three options on:
- Time to first customer value.
- 3-year total cost (build: team time plus maintenance; buy: license, usage fees, integration, switching cost).
- Control over roadmap and user experience.
- Differentiation: does owning this make us meaningfully better?
- Risks: vendor lock-in, vendor viability, security and compliance, data ownership, team capacity diverted from core work.
- Exit plan if the choice turns out wrong.
Return:
1. A comparison table with a short verdict per row.
2. A recommendation with the 2-3 deciding factors.
3. What would have to be true to change the recommendation.
4. Questions to ask vendors before signing (pricing at scale, SLAs, data export, roadmap commitments).
Use only the costs I provide; where numbers are missing, show the formula and mark [ADD ESTIMATE]. Have legal and security review any vendor contract.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Business Strategy & Startups prompts
What to fill in
- e.g. in-app payments, search, identity verification
- CUSTOMER PROBLEM OR STRATEGIC GOAL
- MY VIEW AND WHY
- NAMES, PRICING IF KNOWN
- TEAM, TIME, ONGOING MAINTENANCE - or "unknown"
- budget, deadline, compliance, data residency, tech stack
- ADD ESTIMATE
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
Related prompts
- Plan how to start a nonprofit organizationA step-by-step launch plan for a nonprofit: mission, legal setup, board, first funding, operations, and measuring impact.
- Research a company in depthA company profile: business model, financials, strategy, leadership, risks, and recent news.
- Review the health of my consulting or agency businessA quarterly review of revenue, client concentration, rates, utilization, and pipeline, with the few changes that matter most.
- Screen a company I might acquire for strategic fitA structured first-pass screen of an acquisition target covering rationale, fit, valuation logic, integration risk, and deal-breakers.