Written by Kim Rohrer

Kim Rohrer is a veteran people leader, writer, speaker, and advisor with over 15 years of experience building human-centered cultures at high-growth companies. She is the founder of Patchwork Portfolio, author of the I Care Too Much newsletter, and co-host of the HR Confessions podcast. Today, Kim shapes the future of work through a portfolio of roles — from executive coaching to impactful communications to community architecture at Oyster® — and serves as a trusted advisor to forward-thinking HR teams.

Connect with Kim on LinkedIn.

If you’ve been in HR longer than a minute, you’ve seen the same pattern: a new tool shows up on every “must-have” list, demo calendars fill up, and six months later, you’re the proud owner of yet another platform nobody uses.

Sometimes I long for the days when HR Tech was just a hopeful glimmer in our little HR eyes…

But here we are in 2025, with AI-enabled everything, integrations and API access, and dozens of companies promising to be the “all in one” tool we’ve dreamed of (to my eye, none of them are there yet). So many choices, so little time — and you still need to do your job. 

If you don’t have the time to be a full-time vendor procurement specialist (and what HR leader does?), I’m here to offer a few tips and decision-making frameworks to help you get to the root of what you need.

Because building a modern HR tech stack isn’t about just checking compliance boxes or copying what the latest unicorn company does. It’s about solving real problems for your people, at your stage, with your resources.

Start with the problem, not the solution

Before you think about features, integrations, or price, get painfully clear on what you’re trying to solve. Is your team buried in manual admin work? Are candidates ghosting you? Are you struggling to deliver timely insights to leaders? 

If you can’t articulate the problem in a single sentence, you’re not ready to buy anything. Don’t forget to make sure you know what the rest of leadership thinks is the problem — if you don’t have ultimate budgetary discretion, they need to be on board with solving the problem too.

Stay intentional, focused, and curious

It’s easy to get swept up in a sweet demo. I’ve been tempted by products that seemed like the panacea, only to realize after implementation that I had far more (or less) features than I needed. Can the product actually do what they’re selling you? 

In addition to reviewing all of the current features, talk to your sales rep about the product roadmap. What’s coming in the next year? Do those developments align with your needs? A tool’s future matters as much as its current state. Ask tough, clarifying questions:

Impact

• What is the problem?
• Who is affected by it?
• Who cares about it?

Technology

• How is the technology in question a solution to the problem? 
• Does it solve other problems too?
• What more can it do as we grow?
• What can’t it do?

Implementation

• What will it take for the technology to be successful?
• Who will own this tool day to day?
• Are we prepared to commit to that?
• How will we measure success?

Size and scale matter

Your HR tech stack should reflect your company’s size and maturity. A 50-person startup doesn’t need the same infrastructure as a global enterprise. Sometimes, a well-configured Google Sheet outperforms a sprawling HCM that no one has time to maintain.

Remember: Technology can save time and remove operational friction, but it can’t fix unclear priorities or broken communication. If your biggest pain point is inconsistent feedback, buying an expensive performance management product probably won’t help (or at least won’t be the entire solution). That’s a culture problem, not a tech problem.

Making decisions

First, decide whether or not you’re purchasing anything at all: Build vs. Buy. Is the problem/solution something unique to you, that you can reasonably DIY? Go for it! Make something cool (and then share it with me — I want to see it!). Is the problem complex, super standard, or time-consuming? Buy. And don’t forget to partner with your vendors — so much can be customized these days, you don’t always have to go with the straight-out-of-the-box solution.

Then, think about whether you need an MVP or a best-in-class solution. They say that perfect is the enemy of done; sometimes it’s smarter to launch a simpler tool you can improve later than to wait for perfection. You can always start with an MVP that’s size and stage appropriate, and iterate when you’ve outgrown it. Caveat: When you’re doing Discovery on new tools, keep in mind which vendors might scale with you and which you’ll need to abandon as you grow.

Renewals and the dreaded farewell

Over time, even well-chosen tools can start getting dusty. Business priorities shift, vendors evolve, and what once made sense then doesn’t make sense now. At least once a year, do a tech audit to see how your HR tech stack, well, stacks up. 

Gather feedback from your team, leadership, and employees. Don’t forget to reference platform utilization data and engagement survey findings — this isn’t something you have to do alone.

• What are we paying for?
• What are we actually using?
• What’s delivering measurable value?

There’s often pressure to stick with tools because they were expensive, endorsed by a past exec, or frankly, because it’s easier to do nothing. If a tool is still working great, awesome! Everyone loves an easy renewal!

But I also hereby give you permission to release what no longer serves you.

Final thoughts

Your HR tech stack should be lean, strategic, and human-centered. The tools you choose should make work simpler and more meaningful, not more complicated.

If you continuously stay anchored to your team’s real needs, you’ll build a stack that works for you today and can evolve for tomorrow.