We Can Handle This Ourselves

What they say

• “We'll build it in-house”
• “My team can handle that”
• “We'd rather do it ourselves”

What's actually underneath it

The ten questions that open it up

Ask one. Then stop talking. The answer is worth more than anything you were about to say.

1. 1.“What would handling this internally involve?”
2. 2.“Who would be responsible for producing the result?”
3. 3.“Does that person have the time and resources to own it?”
4. 4.“Have you attempted to handle it internally before?”
5. 5.“What has prevented the team from resolving it up to this point?”
6. 6.“What will be delayed while your people work on this?”
7. 7.“How will you measure whether the internal approach succeeds?”
8. 8.“What happens if the project takes twice as long as expected?”
9. 9.“Is doing it internally truly less expensive once you include time, distraction, and opportunity cost?”
10. 10.“If an outside solution produced the result faster and with less risk, would doing it yourselves still be the better decision?”