Every month I try new tools. Most don't stick. The martech landscape is overwhelming, and the only way to cut through the noise is to actually use things.
This month I tested seven tools across enrichment, automation, and outreach. Three made it into my daily stack. Four did not.
The winners were the ones that solved a real problem without creating two new ones. The losers were the ones that looked impressive in the demo but fell apart when I tried to integrate them into my existing workflow.
The pattern I keep seeing: the best tools are opinionated. They do one thing well and they do not apologise for the things they do not do. The worst tools try to be everything and end up being nothing.
I have started judging tools by how long it takes me to get a result. Not how long the setup takes. Not how many features they have. How long from "I signed up" to "this gave me something I could not get before."
If the answer is more than thirty minutes, it is probably not going to survive.
The details matter. The system matters. But the thinking behind it matters more.
