Think Before You Buy

Slow down to speed up!

Tech moves at lightning speed and you as a business owner will feel pressure to follow the flow and ensure that your business is taking advantages of all the new shiny things on offer out there….ahem…AI….

My advice to you - slow down! After two decades of guiding companies through digital transformations and technology implementations, I've observed a consistent pattern: rushed decisions almost invariably lead to costly corrections, missed opportunities, and frustrated teams.

When business owners rush into technology decisions, they often fall into what I call the ‘immediate action trap’. This mindset prioritises action over direction, and creates a need to be doing something as soon as possible.

This can lead to several critical issues:

Misaligned Solutions: Without proper discovery and analysis, companies often implement solutions that solve symptoms rather than root causes. I recently worked with a business that wanted to implement some very expensive software because that’s what they thought they needed, after some investigation, I found that they could implement something much cheaper, if they changed their internal processes.

Technical Debt: Quick decisions frequently result in architectural compromises that become expensive to maintain and modify. These "temporary" solutions have a way of becoming permanent fixtures, limiting future growth and adaptability.

Resource Drain: Rushed implementations often require more resources to fix and optimise post-launch than they would have needed with proper planning. Companies ignore the one golden rule of software implementation and that is that it costs at least 10 times more to fix issues in a live platform than fixing them before you go live.

The Benefits of Deliberate Decision-Making

Taking a more considered approach to technology decisions will lead to substantial returns that compound over time:

Better Understanding and Alignment

When organisations slow down to analyse their own needs, they often discover requirements they hadn't considered. This deeper understanding allows them to:

- Articulate clear success metrics

- Identify potential integration challenges

- Understand the full scope of user needs

- Map dependencies across systems and processes

Improved Vendor Relationships

Time invested in vendor selection and communication creates means that companies can take time to:

- Thoroughly evaluate potential partners

- Clearly communicate their vision and requirements

- Understand vendor capabilities and limitations

And as a result, they will experience more successful implementations and stronger long-term partnerships.

Cost Optimisation

While careful planning might seem to delay progress, it actually creates more clarity and a better direction for the team. Organisations that take time to plan typically experience:

- Lower implementation costs

- Reduced need for post-launch modifications

- Better ROI on technology investments

- More predictable ongoing maintenance costs

How to Make More Thoughtful Technology Decisions

Whether you’re the CEO, the CTO, or even a non-technical leader, I recommend following this structured approach which will help you and your team make better technology decisions:

The key here is to set out dedicated time to consider what the problem is and explore how it can be solved.

Discovery Phase

At this initial stage, you and your team are gathering information about the business from several different sources. Involve as much of the team as you can in order to get a broad understanding of the current situation and how it affects every stakeholder.

Document current processes and pain points: What’s working and what isn’t working so well, where are the sticking points and what needs to be improved?

Gather input from all stakeholder groups: What is everyone’s experience of the process, what workarounds are they using?

Define clear success criteria: What do you want to achieve, do you want to save time, increase customer satisfaction, reduce staff turnover? A bit of everything?

Map existing technology ecosystem: How is the existing tech working together and where are the gaps and inefficiencies?

Analysis Phase

Once you’ve collected all the information in the discovery stage, you need to look at it in context and consider which improvements are possible.

Evaluate multiple solution approaches: Don’t be restricted at this stage by costs, consider every solution and how it can help to overcome your problem.

Consider build vs. buy options: Don’t rule out building your own tech, everything at this stage is up for consideration.

Identify potential risks and mitigation strategies: For each solution, consider the pros and cons of each.

Selection Phase

Next comes the decision-making stage. After carrying out the discovery and analysing possible solutions, you’ll feel better equipped to make an informed decision on which tech will help you move forward.

Create detailed requirements documentation: Go over every stakeholder and user’s needs so that you have a thorough view of the requirements.

Evaluate vendors against consistent criteria: Create a scoring system so that you can directly compare suppliers and their solutions.

Conduct thorough reference checks: Chances are that you’re putting significant spend into this project so you need to be sure that everyone involved is going to deliver as promised.

Plan for implementation challenges: You’ll likely have to put up with some short-term disruption and therefore a plan to make sure that the business can continue and customers can be serviced without being impacted.

The Long-Term Perspective

Technology implementations are not isolated events but rather strategic investments that impact your organisation's future. My structured approach might seem lengthy but I can assure you that a few extra weeks of planning at the start will prevent years of struggles with unsuitable solutions!

Key Success Indicators

Organisations that take time to plan their technology investments typically see:

- Higher user adoption rates

- Better alignment with business objectives

- More scalable solutions

- Lower total cost of ownership

- Increased competitive advantage

In the technology landscape, the old adage "measure twice, cut once" has never been more relevant. While the pressure to move quickly is real, the cost of hasty decisions far outweighs the temporary discomfort of taking time to plan properly.

By adopting a thoughtful, strategic approach to technology decisions, organizations can ensure they're not just moving fast, but moving in the right direction.

Remember: The goal isn't to be first to implement a solution, but to be the one who implements the right solution in the right way.