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Strategywarm-up
Your note-taking app needs calendar integration. Should you build, buy or partner?
How to approach it
Ask how central calendar is to your product. Core features are often worth building; nice-to-haves can be partnered.
How a strong answer opens
“I'd start by asking how central calendar is to our product. Core features are often worth building, while nice-to-haves can usually be handled through a partner's API.”
Outline of a strong answer
Try answering out loud for a few minutes before you open this.
- Clarify user need and strategic importance
- Build: control, cost, time
- Buy: available companies, cost, integration effort
- Partner: speed, dependence on another company
- Compare on time, cost, risk and control
- Recommend: likely partner via APIs first, build later if core
Where this question usually goes wrong
Defaulting to building it in-house without comparing time, cost and control against using an existing calendar API.
Learn the method
Build, buy or partner in Module 5, Product strategy.
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