Tool selection checklist
Write weights, run scripted tasks, and score sending, design, automation, and agent surfaces separately. Prefer primary docs over demo promises.
Audience: Founders, lifecycle leads, and consulting architects
Before demos
- Business context and must-have jobs written down
- Rubric weights agreed by stakeholders
- Sample templates and event schema prepared
Scripted tasks
- Send a transactional test with idempotency
- Build or generate one on-brand marketing email
- Publish a two-step automation with a test trigger
- Attempt the same jobs via API or MCP if agents matter
Commercial and risk
- Pricing model understood at your real volume
- Data export and template export verified
- Security review of SSO, roles, and key scoping
- Honest note on integration coverage versus speed
Decision hygiene
- Scores entered before vendor follow-ups rewrite memory
- Compose-versus-consolidate decision explicit
- 30-day implementation slice defined
Related lessons: scoring platforms fairly, composing a modern stack
Courses: choosing your stack
Machine-readable site index: https://emailmarketing.sh/api/site.json