Decision tool · Should you build it?

Build, Buy, or Skip?

Build, Buy, or Skip? is a free, private decision tool. Most AI projects fail, and the failures share a shape: the decision was made backwards — technology first, problem later, evidence never. This is the decision run forwards. Nine questions, about three minutes, on one specific build — something you're about to spend real money or real weeks on, whether you're building it, hiring it out, or being pitched it.

One rule: answer from evidence, not intention. The counted number, not the felt one. What's actually happened, not what's supposed to. The gap between those is where the 95% live. You'll leave with one of five verdicts, the specific answers that produced it, and the next move that follows. It runs entirely in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.

Setup

What are we deciding on?

Name the build — the app, the workflow, the thing you're about to spend on.

Who does the work?

What's on the table?

Question 1 · The two-sentence test

Describe the problem this build solves — two sentences, plain words your neighbor would follow. How did it come out?

Question 2 · The count

How many times did this workflow actually run in the last 12 months — counted against records (calendar, sent folder, invoices), not memory?

Question 3 · Why this workflow

Be honest about why this build made the list:

Question 4 · Where the money comes from

Where does the payoff come from?

Question 5 · The cut

Walk the workflow's steps. If two careful people got the same input, would they produce the same output?

Question 6 · Readiness

The one capability this build leans on hardest — where does it stand?

Question 7 · Where the human goes

In the finished version of this build, where does a person sit?

Question 8 · The prototype

Have you run this workflow by hand — you, AI open in a window, doing the actual steps on real cases?

Question 9 · The gravity check

Is there a written stop point — a number or a date where you halt and genuinely re-decide?

Answer the setup and all nine questions to see your verdict.

Questions about this tool

Is the Build/Buy/Skip tool free and private?

Yes. It is completely free, needs no sign-up, and runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is sent to a server or stored anywhere.

What are the five verdicts?

Build means the case holds up on every gate — build it, and go fast. Build smaller means the problem and payoff are real but the plan is bigger than it needs to be, so cut it to the steps that earn it. Wait means it is a not-yet: either the capability is not ready or your own evidence is not gathered, so put a date on it. Don't build means the answers point at the 95% that fail — decline, and reclaim the quarter. Prove it by hand is the new-workflow branch: it has never run, so test the scary parts by hand for two weeks before you build anything.

How does the tool decide?

It applies a fixed, transparent set of rules to your nine answers — the same answers always produce the same verdict. There is no AI call and no randomness. When signals collide, the more conservative verdict wins by design, and the result echoes back the specific answers that drove it.

Does it change if I am hiring a contractor or being pitched a vendor product?

Yes. If you say a contractor or a vendor does the work, the tool switches to buyer mode: two of the questions change to interrogate whether the vendor proved it on your data and how the engagement is structured, and the verdict headlines and guidance adjust to the buyer's chair.

Where does the framework come from?

The nine questions compress the six-question decision framework in Before You Build into behavioral checks, run in the book's order.

Glossary

Guides

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Framework adapted from Before You Build. Learn more →