Build to Keep · Tool
The removability test
Answer seven questions about the record, signals, decision logic, workflows and handover. You’ll see the gaps to check before you sign or renew.
Question set v1.1 · Published · Last reviewed · Written by Wes Fischer, founder and CEO, NTWRK
Research disclosure. When you calculate your score, we submit your answers and any optional details to NTWRK’s research dataset. We don’t ask for your name. The dataset will be used to describe patterns in completed responses.
The first results will be published after 100 completed responses. Any published findings will include the number of responses and explain how they were collected.
What your answers show.
A “yes” means you can point to evidence: a working export, a system your team can access, a documented decision rule or an agreed contract term. If you haven’t checked, choose “Not sure”.
Start with access to the customer record and the terms of exit.
Review the transition effort and the contract before renewal.
Agree who will close each gap and by when.
Check the evidence and test the exit before relying on it.
“Not sure” means the evidence still needs checking. It counts as a gap in this score, but it is a different action from a confirmed “No”. Find the relevant contract term or ask your technical team before deciding what needs to change.
Answer all seven.
Do we hold the customer record?
A yes needs evidence: Your company controls an up-to-date, usable customer record. Someone on your team can query it without asking the supplier for access.
Contract terms and next step
Check the terms: Which fields can you export, in what format and how often? What happens to the supplier’s copies when the contract ends?
If there’s a gap: Establish a usable copy and a tested way to keep it current. An export right alone does not tell you how long retrieval or transition will take.
Do the signals keep accruing on our side?
A yes needs evidence: The behavioural, intent and lifecycle signals you rely on are available in an environment you control, at the frequency the work needs.
Contract terms and next step
Check the terms: Ask which enriched and derived fields you can retain and use after termination. Confirm any limits on format, history or onward use.
If there’s a gap: Identify which history and signals would be lost at exit, then assess what a replacement would need to rebuild.
Can we inspect the model or decision logic?
A yes needs evidence: Your team can inspect the business rules, scoring or decision logic it needs to understand how the system works. Any third-party model limits are documented.
Contract terms and next step
Check the terms: Look for inspection, documentation and audit rights. Confirm which parts are treated as your deliverables and which remain the supplier’s intellectual property.
If there’s a gap: Ask what evidence the supplier can provide about inputs, rules, limitations and outputs. Agree the access you need for your own assurance and reporting obligations.
Can we reproduce the workflow?
A yes needs evidence: Your team has the workflow definitions, configuration and access needed to rebuild or continue the agreed work.
Contract terms and next step
Check the terms: Confirm that those items are named as deliverables, and that the rights to use them continue after the engagement.
If there’s a gap: List the workflows that would stop and what would be needed to move them. Use that list to plan the transition.
Can we trace the decision path?
A yes needs evidence: For a particular decision, your team can retrieve the relevant inputs, rules or model version, output and any human review.
Contract terms and next step
Check the terms: Agree what decision records are available, who can retrieve them and how long they are retained.
If there’s a gap: Start with each decision that could significantly affect a customer. List what feeds it and who can change it.
Can another team run it?
A yes needs evidence: Another suitably skilled person or team can use the documentation, access and runbooks you hold to operate the work. A handover has been tested.
Contract terms and next step
Check the terms: Name the documentation, training and access delivered during the engagement, with clear responsibility for keeping them current.
If there’s a gap: Plan a handover exercise. Record where the next operator still needs help from the original builder.
Can the supplier leave without the system collapsing?
A yes needs evidence: The system can continue through the agreed transition, with the access, licences, data and support arrangements it needs.
Contract terms and next step
Check the terms: Read notice periods, exit assistance, fees, data return, deletion and continuing rights together. Check the dependencies on third-party services too.
If there’s a gap: Make the dependency explicit. Estimate the work to close it and agree an exit plan before the next renewal.
From 10 December 2026, new Australian privacy-policy disclosures apply to certain uses of personal information in automated decisions that could significantly affect an individual’s rights or interests. The obligation concerns the kinds of information and decisions involved. This test does not determine whether it applies to your business or whether your disclosures are sufficient. Read the OAIC guidance
0 of 7 answered
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Jump to: A worked example
Your score.
Answer the seven questions above and your score appears here.
0 of 7
All seven checks metA few gaps to closeSignificant supplier dependenceHigh supplier dependence
Your answers indicate that the main pieces are in place. Check the evidence and test the exit before relying on it.
Identify the missing rights, records or operating steps. Agree who will close each gap and by when.
Several parts of the work depend on the supplier. Review the transition effort and the contract before renewal.
Start with access to the customer record and the terms of exit. These are the first gaps to understand.
0 of your answers were “Not sure”. “Not sure” means the evidence still needs checking. It counts as a gap in this score, but it is a different action from a confirmed “No”. Find the relevant contract term or ask your technical team before deciding what needs to change.
One of your answers was “Not sure”. “Not sure” means the evidence still needs checking. It counts as a gap in this score, but it is a different action from a confirmed “No”. Find the relevant contract term or ask your technical team before deciding what needs to change.
The gaps to check
- you do not hold the customer record in an environment you controlyou are not sure you hold the customer record
- the signals are not accruing on your sideyou are not sure the signals are accruing on your side
- you cannot inspect the model or the decision logicyou are not sure you can inspect the model or the decision logic
- you could not reproduce the workflow without the supplieryou are not sure you could reproduce the workflow
- you cannot trace the decision pathyou are not sure you can trace the decision path
- no other team could run ityou are not sure another team could run it
- the supplier leaving would break the systemyou are not sure the supplier could leave without the system collapsing
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What a 4 of 7 looks like.
A mid-size Australian retailer, ninety days from a customer data platform renewal.
- YesDo we hold the customer record?
A nightly export lands in their own warehouse, and the contract names the format and the frequency.
- NoDo the signals keep accruing on our side?
Browse and engagement history stops at the platform boundary, and the agreement is silent on derived data.
- NoCan we inspect the model or decision logic?
They see propensity scores. The agreement calls the logic confidential.
- YesCan we reproduce the workflow?
The lifecycle flows are written up in their own runbooks and two of them have already been rebuilt once.
- YesCan we trace the decision path?
The offer rules are theirs and they are written down.
- YesCan another team run it?
Two of their own people have run the weekly cycle for a year.
- Not sureCan the supplier leave without the system collapsing?
Nobody in the room has read the termination clause.
Four yeses, two noes and one “Not sure”: three gaps to review. Start by reading the termination clause to establish what happens at exit. Then check the rights to behavioural data and model inspection. The answers will show whether the next step is a contract change, a technical change or both.
What is stored, and what is not.
Calculating a score submits your seven answers, any optional profile details, the page and campaign information, and the time taken to complete the test. If you request a report, we also receive your email address and the reference for your answer record, and we store the address with that record. Subscribing to Build to Keep is a separate choice.
Your IP address is not saved in the research dataset. Only the two-letter country Cloudflare attaches to the request is stored. You can retake the test as often as you like.
Answers are scored automatically in your browser, and the same score is recomputed on our side before it is stored. Results are self-reported. Every number we publish from this data will say so, and will carry the sample size.
Wes Fischer is the founder and CEO of NTWRK, an Australian consultancy for AI-native intelligence you own. He writes NTWRK’s Build to Keep.
Found a gap
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