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Why feature matrices lie
Every vendor ticks every box, because every box can be ticked with enough effort. 'Supports customer-specific pricing' is true of nearly all of them and tells you nothing about whether it takes a checkbox or a three-week plugin. The matrix measures marketing, not effort.
Exercise one: the ugly three
Write down the three requirements your own people cannot fully explain — the pricing exception, the weird approval, the article that behaves differently. Make every vendor demo those in their system, live. Half the shortlist disappears in an afternoon.
Exercise two: the leaving test
Ask each vendor, in writing: if we leave in three years, what exactly do we take with us, and in what format? The answers will differ enormously and tell you more about your future negotiating position than any pricing page.
Exercise three: call two of their customers
Not the reference the vendor gives you. Find a shop running the system, find its e-commerce manager on LinkedIn, and ask what broke last year. Twenty minutes of that is worth more than the entire evaluation process you were about to run.
- Feature matrices measure marketing, not effort.
- Demo the three requirements nobody can fully explain.
- Ask in writing what you take with you when you leave.
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