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Workweek Newsletter {beacon}

Hebba Youssef

Sep 21st, 2026

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Hey hi hellooo,

It’s Monday and I’m READY TO CRUSH THIS WEEK.

Where’s this energy coming from? Just a combo of a great workout + lower temps + a fall drink in my hand + football. It’s my favorite time!!

It’s also the calm before the Q4 storm. UGH, it’s coming. I’ll do my best to prepare myself + you for what I’m sure will be a thrilling and fun quarter!!

Things to keep on your radar before Q4 really pics up:

📺 NEXT WEEK: Dr. Ken and I are getting real about WHAT the AI data is actually telling us from a behavioral science perspective. We’re picking apart the data and digging into what is it actually telling us about our employees and our orgs. What deserve your attention and what’s hype, we got sooo much to say.

✍🏽 Writer’s Room: ever had a desire to write a newsletter, but don’t know where to get started? The content coach who taught me everything about newsletters is joining me for an informal session about how to get started. I mean I made it 4 years because of all the foundational things she taught me!

Now, onto today… build or buy.

Build or Buy?

Second to last week of the quarter, which means my Build Mode theme is almost over!!! I know, I knowww, I'm just as distraught as you are. (Truly. I have loved every single renovation we've done this quarter.)

But before we close this thing out, there's something that keeps coming up in conversations with peers and fellow HR folks anytime tech, building or solutions enter the chat.

The question: should I build it or buy it?

Because we are officially in the era of people building their own tools. And I KNOW you've seen it, the CEO who built something for HR over a weekend or the HR leader posting about the tool she made herself. It's very cool, it's genuinely innovative and before we get into the implications of this all we gotta talk about how we got here…

🤖 I think y’all know the answer… AI.

Yes, AI can write comms, draft JDs and even crunch some data for you. Andddd it can also help you build things. Actual things!!

Like a little app that routes manager questions to the right policy, an interactive dashboard your exec team can click through to digest retention data, or an app that tells you which desks are available in your office. Cassidy Edwards and I did a live build where we walked through 5-6 use cases in Claude, catch up here.

So now, you can describe what you want and have a working version of it by the afternoon.

Now compare that to how we've always gotten software.

👀 You know how it goes!! How realistic does this sound…

You build the case, wait for the budget, sit through three demos, get a security review, then a legal review, and possibly there’s a procurement process to go through. THEN implementation, which usually feels like its own six-month saga involving a project plan and a person from the vendor side. FINALLY, the hardest part… adoption. Where you find out whether anyone is actually going to use the thing you just spent nine months and 8 memos fighting for.

So on one side: nine months and a change management plan.

On the other: a rando afternoon.

Those are radically different speeds. And that could make a difference, especially in a time period where it feels like work is moving at the speed of light.

BUT I HAVE TO SAY IT!!! Speed is not the same thing as judgment.

So with judgement as the focus, how do we decide what’s worth building vs buying?

Let’s dig in.

Build:

Build if/when you can say yes to ALL of these:

✅ It's specific to you. No vendor is ever going to make it, because you might be the only HR person who needs it. Think about your specific thing that's relevant to your org and your org alone. I have so many!!

✅ It's low stakes if it breaks. If it goes down on a Tuesday, it’s chill. You can fix it Wednesday or whenever you get to it. Nobody's paycheck is wrong. Nobody's leave request disappeared into the void. Nobody loses access to something they critically need to do their job. If it's high stakes, take a pause.

✅ You'd be okay throwing it away. This is gonna be a hard one for HR people who love their projects. Some of the best things you will build are allowed to be temporary. If losing it would ruin your week, thats much more than just a fun side project.

Don’t forget: The thing about judgement though is that it's rarely a one-time call.

You make a call at the start, and then you HAVE TO keep making it. Regularly. Because if you build something that grows and scales and morphs into something else, you have to use your judgement to decide if that’s okay.

Because a side project that suddenly has access to confidential information requires much more documentation and thought. It’s critical to be able to use that judgement to say, this has become something else and we need to either stop or put up more guardrails before we continue to use this.

It's okay to build something and then retire it! I promise!

And when you do... document WHY. So when you're in this situation again you can point to what's already transpired.

Buy:

Buy if/when ANY of these are true:

✅ It's a system of record. If it's the official source of truth (your HRIS, payroll, benefits), it needs to be SOLID. This is not the place to experiment. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

✅ It touches anything confidential. Comp, health info, performance history, anything you'd have to explain to legal. If the question "where is this stored?" makes you spiral, that's your answer.

✅ You don't have the time, the team, or the backing to own it long term. Somethings are just too big to be built right now with the limited resources we allll have. And BTW I do not view that as failure, knowing what you shouldn't own is judgement too!

TBH: AI made building seem cheaper, but it did not make owning cheaper.

What that means: Imagine the day it breaks. Or worse, gets hacked. Who's fixing it??? Who's telling employees their data might be out there? Who's getting the call from the CEO, head of IT or even employees? It’s you… when you build it, the accountability falls directly into our bucket. And fixing the problem may extend past our abilities or knowledge.

Like what do I know about being hacked?! Literally nothing other than being a victim of it far too many times thanks to organizations sharing our data!!!

A final thought: buying DOES NOT let you skip the judgement part either!! Gartner found that 83% of HR tech buyers experience some regret after the purchase. And the top reason buyers regret software, per Capterra? Relying only on what the vendor told them, which 90% of regretful buyers admitted to doing.

So, what's the verdict?

Honestly? Maybe build or buy was the wrong question because whether you build it or buy it, the thing that stays the same is the judgement call behind the decision.

So before you build OR buy anything, run it through these filters:

✅ Is the data secure? Where does it live, who can see it, and could you comfortably explain that to an employee?

✅ Will people actually use it, and can it scale? A tool that works for you on a Tuesday is not the same as a tool that has to work for 100 managers.

✅ Does it open us up to more risk? Compliance, legal, security, or the very real risk of a process that falls apart the day you're out of office.

Answer those honestly, and the build-or-buy part usually answers itself.

Which brings me to next week, our LAST week of Build Mode!!! 😭

Here's what I've figured out after a whole quarter of renovations: knowing what to build was never the hard part. The hard part is being allowed to.

Owners, guardrails, a seat at the table when the tool decision gets made? All of that requires someone saying yes.

So next week I’m talking permission: what it actually takes to get it, and why so many of you wrote back in August with something broken that you already know how to fix... and still can't touch.

See you then!