Switching Cost Evaluation

Understand the real cost of switching — it's never just money.

How to use

• /switching-cost-evaluation Apply switching cost constraints to this conversation.
• /switching-cost-evaluation <from> <to> Evaluate switching costs between two specific products.

Constraints

Five Types of Switching Costs

MUST assess all five. Most teams only think about the first.

1. Financial: remaining contracts, migration costs, duplicate subscriptions during transition
2. Technical: data migration, integration rewiring, custom config loss, API changes, learning curve
3. Operational: team retraining, process changes, productivity dip, documentation updates
4. Political: who championed the current tool, executive approval needed, blame risk if switch fails
5. Emotional: familiarity, identity ("we're a Slack company"), fear of the unknown, vendor relationships