My Job and Your Job
Part of my job as a technology innovator is to review products and strategies at the design stage and during early development to see if they solve a business problem easily, perhaps in a way that hasn’t been done before. I try to identify the winners and the losers early on, but I’ve been fooled more times than I care to admit. Nothing aggravates me more than putting my reputation on the line by saying a product is good, than to have the product not live up to its promises or my expectations. Unfortunately, doing the technical development work, although difficult, is often the easy part of the job. Helping people understand the product, communicating the value proposition, and gaining market share frequently consume far more resources than get spent on the product development itself. The business need to spend money on marketing dollars isn’t hard to argue, because we don’t see too many examples of “build it and they will come.” Marketing, lead generation, and sales are too important for a company’s survival to always tell the truth. Or is it? Sometimes the truth is told, but the buyer misinterprets the message. And frequently, false marketing and sales claims result in severe dissatisfaction and the death spiral of a product. But as you know, it doesn’t always work that way. Technology products that are real dogs have success, and other brilliant products frequently aren’t successful. So how can you get past the hype to the facts?
To begin with, I’m concerned that some educational events, particularly those offered for continuing professional
Is Testing Possible?
But how can you be sure that a particular product or offering is going to be compatible with the products you use or with your strategy? How can you test all of the possible interfaces, options, and possibilities? Most of us don’t have the time or skills to do this job thoroughly, so we count on software publishers, reviewers, and early adopters to take care of this. For example, we expect Intuit and Microsoft to make the latest versions of their products work together. Doesn’t it drive you crazy when Microsoft Office 2013 doesn’t work with a currently shipping product from Intuit, CCH, or Thomson? Does it drive you equally crazy when a product doesn’t have backward compatibility with Office 2007 or Office 2010? We’re concerned about environments where you don’t have choices on your operating system, version of productivity software, or browser. Beware of the coming changes in this area. Your clients expect you to know when things will work and when they won’t, but as our market gets more complex and we use more “chunks” that have to be compatible with each other, expect there to be times when things don’t work. In other words, hype won’t equal fact. It’s not that publishers are trying to be dishonest, it’s just that a lot of money is spent on marketing and demand generation, and not as much time or money is spent on product testing and quality assurance. Unfortunately, you and your clients may pay the price if you’re too innovative, leading edge, or bleeding edge. By the same token, we don’t want you to be too much of a laggard, late adopter, or heel dragger.
Fact or Fiction?
Robert Fulghum probably had a lot of good advice in his book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. However, when it comes to technology adoption, I’m being reminded of fairy tales after hearing all the stories. Let’s see which one fits: “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” (too warm, too cold, just right)? How about “The Tortoise and the Hare” (race to get the product to the finish line)? Maybe it’s “Jack and the Beanstalk” (how about some magic beans?)! Whatever story you’re being told by a technology vendor, evaluate it for fact and the ever-present hype. Can the product do the real work? Is it compatible with your current software? Don’t let the message blur your good business judgment. As Doug Sleeter warns us, “Don’t be fooled by ‘brochureware.’ Instead of trusting brochures and just passing on recommendations to your clients, you must be the gauntlet through which brochures pass. There’s no one more capable to evaluate and advise clients on the right solutions for their business but you – their