A shortlist is useful only when it starts from the buyer's real workflow and distinguishes evidence from assumptions. Use this framework before comparing individual products.
Write eligibility criteria first
- The specific creative job and intended destination
- Permitted input assets and required output evidence
- Required review, revision, export, and collaboration steps
- Privacy, security, consent, licensing, and operator requirements
- Commercial constraints that the budget owner will verify
Collect evidence consistently
| Area | Question | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|---|
| Workflow fit | Can the team complete its defined job? | Observed steps and original outputs from a representative run |
| Quality review | Do reviewers accept the result for the intended use? | Predefined checklist, reviewer notes, and limitations |
| Rights and governance | Is the intended use permitted and supportable? | Current terms, consent records, and accountable approval |
| Commercial fit | What applies to the evaluated account and volume? | Dated account-specific commercial evidence |
| Operational fit | Can the team support review, errors, and handoff? | Runbook, access model, support path, and failure observations |
Use evidence states instead of false precision
For each criterion, record meets, partly meets, does not meet, or not evidenced. Add the source, account context, observer, and date. Do not convert incomplete evidence into a numerical score.
Create a decision record
- List candidates and explain the source used to discover each one without claiming the list is complete.
- Apply the same eligibility criteria and evidence states to every candidate.
- Move only eligible candidates into a matched hands-on evaluation.
- Record conflicts, missing access, and account differences explicitly.
- Have a named reviewer approve the conclusion for the documented use case.
Set re-evaluation triggers
- The team's intended workflow or output changes.
- A vendor changes a relevant plan, policy, interface, or contract.
- The evidence no longer represents the account or destination in use.
- A reviewer identifies a material gap or a newly eligible candidate.
Once a shortlist is evidence-backed, use a matched worksheet for each product pair or final candidate.
Open the comparison worksheet