What's in your tech stack?
technology is a tool, not a solution
Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash
“So…what you’re saying is you don’t actually do what you say you do. You give me a different tool to do these things, but I still have to do them.”
Silence.
“I’ll take that as a yes. You have a super day.”
I pressed the red X icon on my screen with extra fervor and pulled off my headset.
I had a problem I needed solved and had found a piece of technology that seemed, in all its slick website coating, to serve up the solution.
I’d read the messaging, and it spoke so clearly to the value I needed that I blustered forward without asking better questions to investigate how it actually worked.
In the end, it worked the way most technology does — as a tool.
In fact, technology is only a solution when we use it fully and properly, which I was in no position to do.
Most of us don’t have one piece of technology in use at our companies — we have many. Oftentimes, too many.
Some technology gets used by the entire team; other platforms get used by specific groups. Think Quickbooks for accounting or Github for development.
To keep yourself rooted in reality rather than basking in the glow of every shiny new bundle of code, make a list.
Yup, list all the technology in use at your company.
Then create columns for the following:
What does it cost?
Who uses it?
What’s the point of using it?
The last column should make it clear why the app, platform, or other technological wonder was adopted and exactly what it is intended to help you do or achieve.
Then you can assess if that’s actually happening.
What you may find is that you’ve got duplicative tools and some can be removed in favor of the one that works best. You may find some are underutilized and more education may be needed to get the results you need from the tech.
You may also find that there are things that have no point but were adopted because they were shiny. You can quickly determine if there’s a reason to have them now or if they can be eliminated.
Choose the best tools for the work you do.
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