1. Evaluate Your Current Setup

• [ ] Calculate true in-house costs

Beyond developer salaries, factor in:

• Time spent fixing bugs or patching gaps.
• Opportunity costs of delayed product features or experiments.
• Potential churn caused by subpar user experiences.
• Infrastructure costs for hosting and maintaining the tool.

<aside> 💡

Compare these costs to a DAP’s subscription fee + implementation time. Most PMs are surprised by how much they’re overspending.

</aside>

• [ ] Spot bottlenecks in user flows

Identify where your in-house tool struggles:

• Are onboarding flows scalable for larger user bases?
• Are new features easy to showcase or hidden in plain sight?

<aside> 💡

A flawed onboarding experience costs users. If your tool creates more friction than it solves, it’s likely a liability.

</aside>

• [ ] Assess developer burnout
• How much time are dev teams spending on maintenance vs. innovation?

<aside> 💡

One PM said, “Our engineers became custodians of a tool no one loved.” What’s the impact on your team’s morale?

</aside>