Getting it done vs. getting it right.

Technology is like sex.

When you first have it, it does not have to be very good — it just has to be available. Only later, when availability is not a challenge do you actually start to think about making it better.

Such is the state of the internet today. Access is commonplace. Competence? Not so much.

Growth in internet & smart device adoption in developed nations has slowed (per the annual Mary Meeker internet trends report) — in those markets everyone who can and wants to get online is online, and in the USA, the internet is now classified as a “utility” not a “luxury”. Globally, the internet reaches more people than the electric grid. There is no novelty in connectivity.

Similarly, “platforms” — complex software for e-commerce, content management, data storage, payments and so on — have grown so sophisticated and ubiquitous that it is entirely possible to spend virtually nothing at all on the technology needed to put a business (or any organization) “online.” There is little novelty in platforms.

So if the connectivity is everywhere, and the tools to run a business are so cheap and easy, why are so many companies, when experienced “through the glass” simply terrible?

Well, getting back to my metaphor at the start, simple availability does not ensure that the overall experience will be any good.

Getting it right — that’s a more subtle, complex, multi-dimensional, situational, relationship-driven challenge than the simple mechanics of availability.

There are three things to keep in mind if you’re trying to get digital right:

1. You can’t design your way out of an engineering problem.
   For quite a while, it was possible to simulate non-existent core infrastructure capabilities via clever front-end coding. Javascript can smooth over a multitude of engineering flaws and deficiencies, but only for a while. Eventually, those core systems that can’t keep up with or even do that things that seem “normal” online (for example, predictive search and active personalization) will need to be replaced. It’s time for companies to sink some Capex and Opex into a modern technology stack.
2. You can’t engineer your way out of a design problem.
   Consider the screen below, for my EZ Pass (automated toll collection) account. I’m sure there’s a list of use-cases somewhere that was dutifully followed, and that this site correctly and fully supports each of those use cases. This site also is a design horror. Give a competent UX designer & Front-End coding expert a month and they would re-design the entire experience into something that would be responsive, informative, actionable and visually appealing. Designed Engineering is the baseline for creating an effective customer experience

3. Having a working Digital Logistics Program is critical. 
This one is so important, yet it is not well understood. For the majority of companies Content & Data are costs and currencies, respectively. If you take a Digital Logistics Program view, you start with an analysis of your digital “supply chain” — where is content & data created inside and outside your company, how is it aggregated, stored, described, packaged, distributed and utilized, and are those tools and systems effective. Then you do an overlay of governance and workflow models to ensure that inefficiencies are minimized and from there you can implement something akin to a “Continuous Integration/Continuous Development (CICD)” model. The point is to treat digital content and data logistics with the same urgency as physical logistics.