If you're in the market for a new AMS (or any new technology that has a breadth of functionality, e.g., LMS, marketing platform), before you start shopping and looking at products, you need to write down what you want out of the system.

I'm surprised at the number of organizations I've spoken with over the years who tell me they've been shopping for an AMS, and when I ask them if they've got some written document that outlines the functionality they're seeking, they respond with: "No, we have it in our heads."

There are many reasons to document your needs, but here are the two biggest:

1. Documenting your needs allows you to communicate to the vendors exactly what you're expecting from their product. Documentation allows you to avoid the inevitable comments from vendors like "We didn't know that's what you wanted."
2. Documentation gives you a "checklist" during implementation. If you've documented what you need, throughout implementation you can refer back to it to answer the question: "Are we implementing what we wanted?"

Documentation helps us avoid the need to "read minds." So whether it's an AMS, an LMS, a new email system, or any other technology, whatever your needs are... WRITE IT DOWN.