Why should a commerce partner challenge my brief?

A partner challenges your brief to ensure that the proposed solution truly addresses your underlying business problems and strategic goals. This prevents unnecessary development, identifies potential pitfalls early, and helps align the project with measurable outcomes, ultimately saving time and resources.

What specific questions should I expect regarding my business objectives?

Expect questions like: "What specific, measurable KPIs will define the success of this project?" or "How does this project directly contribute to your overall business strategy?" They should push for clarity on expected ROI and how success will be tracked post-launch.

How will they approach technical debt in my existing systems?

They should inquire about the nature and extent of your technical debt, including customisations, integrations, and data quality issues. A good partner will propose strategies for either migrating, refactoring, or retiring legacy components to avoid transferring existing problems to the new platform.

What if my desired platform isn't the best fit for my stated goals?

A skilled partner will present evidence-based alternatives or modifications if your chosen platform doesn't align with your detailed requirements or budget. They should explain the trade-offs and potential long-term implications, prioritising your business objectives over a specific technology preference, common in replatforming efforts.

What role does long-term support and future growth play in initial discussions?

Discussions should cover post-launch operational models, including maintenance, security, and staffing requirements. They will also discuss the platform's scalability and flexibility to support future business expansion, new features, and evolving market demands, ensuring the solution has longevity.

Talk to an expert

Issue 029BenchmarkGovernanceRef 151

What a good commerce partner should challenge before taking the brief

Engaging a commerce partner for a new platform or major development project requires critical evaluation. A good partner will challenge initial assumptions and brief specifics, ensuring strategic alignment and mitigating common project pitfalls from the outset.

Tom Williams· Head of Development

23 Nov 20245 min readReviewed November 2024

"A good commerce partner questions assumptions, challenges the 'what' and 'why', and prioritises business outcomes over simple feature delivery."

Written by

Tom Williams

Head of Development

10 years at iWeb

LinkedIn →Speak with Tom about your brief →

Tom heads the development team at iWeb and leads the data practice across PIM, search relevance, product data and operational commerce systems. He writes about migration economics, punchout, catalogue structure, order-management complexity, and the product-data decisions that quietly shape platform performance long before launch. Particularly focused on B2B operational reality and AI-ready commerce data.

Next step

Take this conversation private.

If this note matches the brief on your desk, the version we'd write for your platform, sector and trade-account model is the work itself. Send a short brief and a senior lead replies inside 48 hours.

Talk to an expert Back to The Record →

Operational notes worth reading next.

SEO for builders merchants: branch pages, product hubs and the site architecture that ranks

Ecommerce discovery: what should actually happen

Why the best ecommerce projects start with constraints

A regular round-up of new notes.No content marketing.

Take this conversation private.

A regular round-up of new notes.
No content marketing.