Field Notes / Field guide
The five questions to ask at your next platform QBR
Bring these. Watch which ones get a slide and which get a follow-up email.
1. Which of our feature requests shipped this year?
Not roadmap, shipped. A healthy answer is a list with dates. A concerning answer explains the platform's priorities to you.
2. What is our five-year all-in number?
License, services, implementation amortization, pass-throughs. If nobody in the room can produce it, produce it yourself before renewal. It is the only number that matters.
3. What is our claim cycle time, dealer to paid?
Median and worst decile. This single number predicts participation better than any adoption campaign. If they do not track it, ask why not.
4. How do we export everything, today?
Funds, claims history, assets, users. Ask for a live demonstration, not a data dictionary. You are not threatening to leave; you are confirming you could.
5. What do we own at contract end?
Let the silence do its work. Then decide whether the answer is worth what you pay a year to rent it.
Five questions, one theme: a platform partner should be able to answer all of them without a deck. If the QBR goes sideways, you know where to find us.
If question two is the one that lands, run it properly in rent vs own: the math. If question five is, the Offramp is how leaving actually goes.