I created this visual framework for managing AI tool portfolios. Instead of sprawling spreadsheets, this radar shows strategic positioning at a glance – what you’re adopting, what you’re evaluating, and where investment is concentrated. Built to help engineering leadership make better decisions about tool overlap, budget allocation, and organizational focus.
Why I Built This
In late 2025, I needed to help leadership understand our AI tool portfolio – what we were using, what we were evaluating, and where we should focus investment. Spreadsheets weren’t cutting it. Too many tools, too much overlap, and no way to see the strategic picture.
I adapted the ThoughtWorks Technology Radar concept for AI tooling. The result: a visual that executives could understand in 30 seconds and that actually drove better decisions about where to spend money and attention.
How It Works
Three dimensions:
- Distance from center = attention level (Adopt → Trial → Assess → Hold)
- Bubble size = organizational fit (bigger = better match for our needs)
- Color = category (Code/Development, Intelligence/Assistants, Data/Analytics)
The point: See the whole landscape at once. Understand where investment is concentrated. Identify overlaps. Make better decisions.
What I Learned
Tool sprawl is expensive. Without strategic management, per-engineer costs easily hit $150-200/month across overlapping subscriptions. Most organizations have the same code completion feature in 3-5 different tools.
Visual clarity drives adoption. Teams actually used the tools we put in “Adopt” when they could see the strategic positioning. Adoption rates were 2-3x higher than when we just sent policy docs.
The integration tax is real. Moving a tool from Trial to Adopt costs 3-5x the license price – SSO setup, analytics, training, support processes. The radar helped us be more selective about what we actually committed to.
Applications
This framework works for any technology portfolio decision:
- Infrastructure and platform tools
- Security tooling
- Data platform architecture
- Department-level technology strategy
The visual format makes strategic conversations easier with non-technical stakeholders while giving technical teams enough detail to understand positioning rationale.
Interested in applying this to your technology portfolio?
I help engineering leaders bring strategic clarity to their technology investments, particularly at the intersection of AI, data platforms, and organizational transformation. If you’re dealing with tool sprawl, unclear ROI, or need to communicate technology strategy to non-technical stakeholders, let’s talk.