Marketing Technology Evaluation and Selection Questions

Covers understanding the marketing technology ecosystem and applying a repeatable framework to evaluate, compare, and select tools and vendors. Candidates should be familiar with common categories such as customer relationship management systems, marketing automation platforms, customer data platforms, web and product analytics, testing and experimentation tools, email and advertising systems, content and social management platforms, attribution and measurement solutions, and integration middleware. They should be able to explain the role each category plays in a stack, typical data flows and integration patterns, identity resolution and customer matching considerations, and how components interact to support measurement and personalization goals. The evaluation framework should include defining the business problem and success metrics, mapping required capabilities to vendor features, conducting gap analysis and weighted scorecards, and planning pilots or proofs of concept. Selection and trade off criteria should address total cost of ownership including licensing, implementation, integration, data migration, training, and ongoing maintenance; expected return on investment and measurable benefits; opportunity cost of not adopting; scalability and performance; security, privacy, and regulatory compliance; vendor reliability and commercial terms including service level agreements and data portability; user experience and adoption challenges; operational support and maintainability; and risks such as vendor lock in and technical debt. Candidates should also be able to discuss build versus buy trade offs, migration and exit planning, pilot success criteria and rollout sequencing, data governance and quality implications, and how priorities and selection trade offs shift with company stage, team capabilities, and budget.