It’s difficult to get buy-in or acceptance when launching a new technological solution at any company. The issue is compounded at large companies when the solution is global or cross-functional in nature. At Integrate, we found a back door to large scale buy-in. It seems only fitting that we pass on a few secrets of our recent successes.
What we’ve discovered is that targeted, useful, and thoughtfully designed applications have a life of their own. Our clients are typically small groups within large organizations. They have an operational need that can’t be filled by their busy tech department, so they come to us. As a result, our projects often entail the development and implementation of highly focused and flexible applications for smaller user populations. We’ve noticed that this emphasis on incremental change for smaller groups increases the user acceptance rate because it’s easier to control quality and decreases response time when issues are discovered. Increased user acceptance, in turn, does a couple of rather remarkable things for an internal application: it creates an ecosystem around the application that both supports and enhances its operational effectiveness, and establishes an environment in which the system itself becomes an integral part of the group’s daily activities. In the end, the new application is successful – not because of genius coders, but because of exceptional relationships.
Successful applications very quickly become part of a group’s day-to-day activities and news of improved operational effectiveness spreads through word of mouth. This often peaks interest around the company – particularly within other groups that perform similar functions. What develops at the end of the day is a very natural and organic adoption of the system by new and different groups. This may involve slight re-development of the application to encompass new permissions, functions, etc., but the system’s previous success typically frees budget dollars for additional development. Thus, the ecosystem grows larger with each new user base and the application continues to grow and change as new individuals enter the conversation. Over time, this ecosystem begins to organically include new groups in other regions until the application is indeed global.
We’ve seen this pattern repeat in more or less the same fashion over and over again. So much so, that we began to wonder how we could harness this ecosystem to improve application adoption going forward. Although we’ll never have a cookie-cutter solution (as that would belie the idea behind building unique relationships that develop great software), we have some simple rules that developers and change agents can follow to lay the ground work for this kind of incremental and viral change.
First – Exceptional Design. It must all start with exceptional design. I use the term design to describe not only the flexibility of the system architecture, data structures, etc. but also the user interface. No matter how good your architecture is, it has to be easy to use and to a slightly lesser extent, pretty. An attractive design communicates professionalism and reliability. Avoid this fact at your own peril.
Second РSmall Target Audience. Devote your efforts, at first, to a small target audience. This will eliminate lots of noise from requirements which will hopefully, in turn, produce a cleaner design. This doesn’t mean ignore the larger organization or the possibility of growth, but it does mean that you can proceed more confidently toward an effective design. It’s also a lot easier to manage a smaller set of stakeholder relationships.
Third РThis is not a Proof of Concept. This may seem like it’s a dry run for the whole organization, but make no mistake. The more energy you put into developing a true and effective solution for the target audience, the more word will get around. “Proof of Concept” connotes something that will be thrown away in the future. This will not create an environment where users attach themselves to the system.
Fourth РBuild a Long-Term Honest Relationship. Even if the project plan calls for the phasing out of the development team, build the client/developer relationship like you’ll be friends forever. This plays a huge roll in acceptance. If the developing group/company (i.e., Integrate) is seen as a disinterested outsider bent on pushing out their newest solution…feedback will be less honest, the application will suffer tremendously, and adoption will only happen begrudgingly.
Fifth РBuild Quickly and with Great Quality. Build as fast as possible and make sure it’s the best it can be. This doesn’t mean it won’t have bugs, but it does mean you’re dedicated. Dedication goes a long way. Even more importantly, deal with bugs even more quickly and with even greater quality. In other words, don’t make the same mistakes twice.
These are not hard and fast rules. These are general practices we follow at Integrate that work for us and our clients (they keep coming back for more, and to them, I say thank you). Ultimately, you could make this into an even more structured model with the goal of managing global change. For now, we’ll keep our focus small and our thinking big.
