Avoid The Technology Octopus
It’s easy to start discussing technology by talking about this tool or that tool, this platform vs that platform. In our opinion, technology starts with a belief/mindset. We believe technology is a force multiplier for impact. That means tech should enable team members to do more (not constrain), increase time/bandwidth for team members (not require more time to manage tools/systems), and ultimately actively increase the impact your organization has. And with everything we do at New Story, we are never finished nor content — technology is no different.
The Octopus
Before we started to build New Story Tech 2.0 we first wanted to learn from the nonprofits we respect (1.0 was our piece meal system to MVP New Story). We wanted to ask, “What would you do differently?”, “What does your technology system(s) look like?”, and “What are your technology pains?” What we learned both scared and shocked us.
It turns out after a couple years, all of the 6 nonprofits we interviewed (except one which had build their own central system) had tech systems that resembled an octopus gone mad (see below). At their core was a tool (customized Salesforce usually) with 10+ integrations or separate applications. One integration for email marketing, another integration for website payment processing, another for event management, and the list went on. Integrations in themselves seemed fine, but once we realized most of the applications did not ‘speak’ to each other or share data between themselves, the complexities and headaches started to appear.
We heard that one team had one person spending their entire time (52 weeks/yr) managing a single tool 😱. Another team had to import and export data between each system daily 🤔. Another had hard coded a specific donation amount into their core application and the complexity of their current systems meant to fix it they would have to rebuild everything (they had processed over $20 million in donations last year). These stories are examples of the opposite of what technology is meant to accomplish.
Tech should save costs over the long term (not increase them). Tech should help your team stay lean (not require additional people to manage them). And ultimately technology should open up the possibility for team members to have more time to innovate, test, and constantly improve.
Avoid the technology octopus at all costs.
