Some really good advice here on how to determine what technology will best help support goals rather than throwing technology at a problem and hoping things improve. I completely agree that it is vital to understand the real goal, not the perceived goal, and to understand what is still working well before coming to a conclusion about what actually needs fixed.
Where I would beg to differ is that it’s probably almost as bad of advice to create blanket statements that a specific technology should never be used as it is to say that it should always be used.
As the founder of a GovTech company with a platform to rapidly deploy cross-platform native mobile apps with integrated beacons, wearables and AI, there are still plenty of times we advise potential clients that an app is not the tool to best support their goals.
But when an app is the right tool, the impact can be beneficial for both the agency creating the app and the people using it.
There are some use cases where an app is the best tool to remove a barrier to engagement, and there are some where an app is wasted effort and money. An app is a tool — and if it does something better, faster, easier than is currently possible — and that thing that it does better is something that users want to do — that is when an app can be the right tool.
When a permitting department can remove travel and wait times for contractors to receive permits for plumbing or electrical work, the benefit to the agency is reduced staffing costs for in-person service as well as reduced backlog of requests. For the businesses conducting the work, being able to apply for and instantly receive permits through an app means work can begin immediately, reducing overhead costs and job completion costs. For the person paying for the work, it means instant transparency into the service process of the work being done — permits can be verified by the home owner or business owner, meaning they are not paying for work that may not have been permitted, resulting in the loss of insurance coverage when the correct permits were not pulled for the project.
It’s great advice to take a step back and truly assess the perceived problem to be solved, what the current process is doing right and where it lacks, and then determining what solution will deliver the desired results. But it also pays to be skeptical of advice that includes absolutes like never or always, since that can lead to arbitrary limits on viable options that may be ideal for addressing the specific challenge at hand.
