How can I go about providing informal feedback to a vendor while making it clear that the feedback I'm providing is not sanctioned by my employer?

Question

So my employer is vetting an external software which means I get plenty of fun time playing around with it and it's really really cool. I want to give the sales and technical reps some suggestions rattling around in my brain; nothing huge just "have you considered doing this?" type suggestions. I understand full well that as an "I am recommending this personally" means they have no reason to do it, and my company wouldn't pay for the development time. I am thinking solely of my own excitement to think about cool new features in my own software.

How would I broach that subject with either the vendor or my own management? Is it even a good idea to provide that kind of feedback in the position I'm in? I've never been in a situation like this where if I accidentally promise or request anything it could be seen as a financial commitment by either party, so I don't want to overstep at all.

Answer 1

First, wait until your vetting process is complete. You don't want any chance that your enthusiasm about what the product could be affected your opinion on whether or not to use what the product is.

If your employer buys or licenses the product, the two companies will have a relationship, and any suggestions from you will be in the context of that relationship. Now if you decide to use Microsoft Word, nobody is going to think that an email from you to customer support suggesting a new feature is a binding request for a customization. But smaller vendors often do provide customizations, so you'll want to be clear about roles so as not to step on any toes within your company, and not to be misunderstood by the vendor. Don't go using your own private email or anything like that, it hides nothing and makes things look secret or sordid. Clarify with your own management to be sure everyone appreciates your enthusiasm, and include appropriate details in your emails to the vendor to make it clear you're offering ideas, not funding.

If your employer doesn't buy the product, be very careful that any email you send (whether from your work or personal email) doesn't sound like "if you had this this and this feature it might have gone differently." You don't want to reveal internal plans or operational details, and you don't want to sound like you're trying to reverse a decision that has been made. Checking with your manager is probably wise, as is waiting a while after the choice is made.

Answer 2

I somewhat disagree with Kate's answer about waiting until after the vetting process, but I do agree that you don't want to appear to be speaking for your company if and when you do reach out.

The reason I'm disagreeing with waiting until the vetting process is completed is that the feedback you might get from the vendor can be a meaningful consideration for the vetting process itself.
Consider if they respond that they're happy with your feedback and e.g. already have some fixes to that effect; versus if they shut you down and show no interest in listening to their user base. This would very much impact my decision (as the company) as to whether I should adopt their product into my company's ecosystem.

I understand full well that as an "I am recommending this personally" means they have no reason to do it

I wouldn't by default assume that they'd interpret your feedback as an authoritative request for work. They are the vendor. They build the product. You (and your company) are end users. It's on them to decide whether or not they care about and/or action your feedback.

and my company wouldn't pay for the development time.

In the scenario I listed above, this shouldn't be a default assumption either. However, there are cases here where vendors offer products that are bespoke for a specific customer, whose wishes are used as the source of future work (and potentially billed to the customer).

But if that is the case, then your feedback is very much warranted as this will be part of the ongoing interaction with the vendor going forward. This makes it even more important that you understand if and how they respond to your feedback as part of the vetting process for this vendor.

Is it even a good idea to provide that kind of feedback in the position I'm in?

Reaching out to the vendor on your own, not talking to your employer, and risking coming across as if you are speaking for your employer? Bad idea.

But you can reach out to your employer and see how they intend to tackle this feedback. Since they are in a vetting process, they will obviously be in a data collection phase where they want to understand how the tool is perceived by its end users, and your question implies that you are such a pilot user.

To be honest, this is the confusing part of your question to me. You are a pilot user, part of a vetting process; and you're asking internet strangers how to relay your feedback? A pilot program should very much have a feedback system built into it, by the very premise of it being a pilot program.

The above assumes that you don't have a direct line of communication to the vendor. However, I've worked in plenty of scenarios where there is a direct connection (e.g. a Slack bridge channel) specifically for users and devs to communicate and address questions/issues, without having to go through multiple middle men (i.e. management, sales reps, ...) and have details of the question be lost in the process.

In the scenario that you do have direct contact and are clearly permitted to engage in that contact, simply ensure that you are asking a question, not making a demand. Consider phrasings like:

Hey, I've noticed that [feature] doesn't allow me to [behavior]. Is that an intentional design decision? Are there any improvements on the roadmap? Am I maybe misunderstanding how it's intended to be used?

This doesn't imply that you are instructing the vendor to do something, let alone that you are promising to pay them for acting on that question.

Answer 3

Because it escalated into a "conversation" in comments, I thought I'd add an answer to clarify each point and put it into a more succinct format.

If this is an enterprise software (as it sounds like it is), there are mechanisms in place at every stage of both the sale and the implementation to account for elements of feedback. It sounds like you are not the individual responsible for making this decision, so my advice is to package up all of your feedback into a cogent document for the individual who IS responsible and have them make the suggestions. That's what they're assigned to the project to do.

Your suggestions might be genius. They might be epic beyond reason. They might also be already on the road map and part of the sales process of which you're not aware. By adding multiple vectors of information flow in the manner you're suggesting, you're only adding mud to the process itself, and you might actually be making the deciding party's job harder. Consider that you reach out with suggestions, you're effectively saying "if you do x, y, and z we'll be able to make this sale".

The deciding individual may have other needs or requirements for completing the sale, and this expectation short-circuit only damages their case. They might also be able to turn your suggestions into leverage on a discount, upgrade, or some other benefit.

Express your excitement internally. Express it in terms of value add and volunteer to be the point of contact for implementation, feedback, etc. You've been asked to evaluate the product, so do exactly that. Because you work for this company you are ALWAYS a representative of this company. There is no distinction of "personal suggestions".

Answer 4

One of the risks, that I don't see being pointed out yet, of "informal" recommendations is that the vendor will do what you suggested, but will then bill your employer for it.

For example, you say, informally, something like: "It would be nice to move this dialog box from here to there, and to write some documentation better explaining this or that".

Some time later, the vendor goes: "We've done what you requested, here's the statement of work, please pay us X thousand dollars".

This is yet another reason why you should go through formal communication channels, as @JoelEtherton wrote.