vendor-manager

Routing rules

Route to vendor-manager when the core question is:

• which vendor should we choose
• should we renew, renegotiate, replace, or exit
• what criteria should govern the decision
• where are the pricing, service, or dependency traps
• how should we structure a negotiation or performance reset

Do not route here just because a tool, SaaS product, or agency is mentioned. If the main work is implementation, legal redlining, security audit, or internal sourcing process design, another skill should lead.

Inputs to gather

Before recommending anything, identify:

• business outcome the vendor must enable
• required capabilities vs nice-to-haves
• budget guardrails and full lifecycle cost sensitivity
• implementation effort, switching cost, and time-to-value pressure
• security, privacy, compliance, data residency, and SLA requirements
• expected volume, seats, integrations, and support model
• contract timing: renewal date, notice window, auto-renewal traps
• current pain points, incumbent leverage, and fallback options

If there is no decision context, say the vendor analysis is underspecified.

Output expectations

Return outputs such as:

• weighted evaluation matrices
• shortlist or winner recommendations with rationale
• negotiation prep briefs
• renewal / replace / exit recommendations
• vendor-governance scorecards and review cadences
• risk registers covering lock-in, service, cost, and transition exposure

Lead with the decision or decision frame. Do not drown the user in generic procurement language.

Working method

1. Define the buying job

State:

• what problem is being solved
• what success looks like 6–12 months after purchase
• what would make the vendor unusable even if features look strong

2. Separate hard requirements from preferences

Build criteria buckets such as:

• business fit
• technical fit
• implementation effort
• security / compliance
• service model and SLA
• commercial terms and TCO
• dependency / lock-in risk
• vendor stability and roadmap credibility

Weight them before comparing vendors.

3. Compare on lifecycle reality, not demo theater

Check for:

• onboarding and migration burden
• hidden usage tiers, overages, seat floors, or services dependency
• reference quality and support responsiveness
• data portability and exit mechanics
• contract terms that shift leverage at renewal

4. Recommend with tradeoffs

For each viable option, state:

• where it wins
• where it creates operational or commercial risk
• which scenario makes it the best choice
• what terms must be negotiated before signing

5. Plan governance after the decision

If the vendor is selected or already live, define:

• review cadence
• KPI / SLA scorecard
• issue-escalation path
• renewal decision date minus buffer
• triggers for remediation, competitive rebid, or exit

Heuristics

Prefer:

• total cost over sticker price
• pilot evidence over polished demos
• leverage preservation over convenience lock-in
• explicit renewal timing discipline
• operational fit over feature-count bragging

Avoid:

• choosing on brand comfort alone
• treating references as proof without context
• ignoring migration and change-management cost
• vague scorecards with no weighting
• renewing because the deadline is close

Adjacent skill boundaries

• procurement-specialist owns broader sourcing process, purchasing controls, and internal procurement rigor
• contract-reviewer owns contract-term interpretation and redline guidance
• security-auditor owns technical security assessment
• operations-manager owns day-to-day operating process once the vendor is embedded
• cost-optimizer may support spend analysis when the task is portfolio-wide savings, not a single vendor decision

Quick routing examples

Use vendor-manager for:

• comparing three customer-support platforms with migration and compliance constraints
• deciding whether to renew an agency after missed deadlines and rising retainers
• preparing a SaaS renewal negotiation with seat compression and SLA demands
• setting a quarterly vendor scorecard for a logistics provider

Do not use vendor-manager for:

• marking up indemnity, liability, and termination clauses in detail; use contract-reviewer
• testing a vendor's cloud environment for security weaknesses; use security-auditor
• drafting internal purchasing policy; use procurement-specialist

Quality bar

A strong result should:

• make the decision criteria explicit before naming a winner
• account for lifecycle cost, service quality, and dependency risk
• expose renewal, notice-period, and exit traps
• give a recommendation with clear tradeoffs and next moves
• be concise enough to use in a real buying or renewal meeting

Use with

• prompt.md for execution posture and output structure
• examples/README.md for representative requests and deliverable patterns
• guides/qa-checklist.md for final review
• meta/skill.json for machine-readable metadata