# A Vendor-Defined Decision Framework Predetermines Its Own Winner ## Claim Any N-path platform-decision framework that defines its favored path in terms synonymous with the authoring vendor's own product has already decided the comparison before it presents any evidence. <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ## Scope & conditions - Holds for vendor-authored comparison frameworks generally, not only this document — any "we evaluated N options and recommend the one that looks like what we sell" structure. - Breaks down if the framework's categories are defined independently of any single vendor's product — e.g., "incremental" vs. "big-bang" migration, decoupled from which platform is chosen. - Doesn't claim the recommended path is wrong on the merits, only that the framework itself can't be trusted to have weighed the alternatives fairly. ## Evidence Human Made's "Build vs. Buy vs. Evolve" framework defines Evolve as building on "a flexible foundation" and improving it continuously "instead of replacing everything at once" — a description that maps directly onto Human Made's own Altis product. The other two paths (Build, Buy) are framed by contrast as the options with the drawbacks Evolve avoids. Nothing in the framework's own terms could produce a recommendation other than Evolve. ## Links - [[Open Source Governance MOC]] — how vendor-authored decision aids encode their conclusion in the framing - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Vendor Usage Anecdotes Need Verification Before Adoption Decisions]] — extends: both are cases where vendor-authored content needs independent verification before it informs an adoption decision, one for usage-number claims and one for the comparison structure itself - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/The Recommend Layer Is Where Vendor Markets Make Their Real Decisions]] — applies-in: the framework's recommendation layer is where the vendor's real preference gets encoded, regardless of the surrounding evidence - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Product & Startup Instincts MOC]] — applies-in: reading any buying-committee-targeted vendor document requires checking who defined the comparison categories ## Tests / falsifiers - Find a vendor-authored N-path framework whose "preferred" path does NOT map onto that vendor's own product; if such frameworks are common, this claim overgeneralizes. - Check whether an independent (non-vendor) TCO study using the same category definitions reaches the same ranking — if it does, the framework's bias claim would need narrowing to "biased but not wrong." ## Maintenance - Last tended: 2026-08-16 - Next review: 2026-11-16 ## Source - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Full Document Contents/Articles/The Enterprise WordPress Playbook]] — Human Made's Build/Buy/Evolve framework, Chapter 7.1.