What are the best ways to introduce a new technology? Not surprisingly, there’s no one size fits all answer. But if you start by thinking through how people actually use your product or service, and then balance that with how they learn, you’ll end up with some useful tips. Why did DNA technology lead to more use of cladistics? DNA was only discovered thirty years before cladistics. As a result, many people who came into contact with DNA were justifiably wary of starting up new science projects based on it.
Since the 1970s, however, DNA has been used all over the place – and that’s because, among other things, it allows biologists to make predictions and perform experiments that require large sets of data. We may not be able to teach you everything there is to know about introducing new technologies. But we can point out ten important techniques that might be of help when introducing them in your own organization or application.
Ten Ways To Introduce Technologies :
1. Share your passion
As a reporter once told me, “you don’t have to be an expert in a subject before writing about it. You just have to be an expert on how you feel.” In the same way, you don’t have to be an expert in implementing new technologies. But being passionate about cutting edge technologies is a great start. (If you’re not passionate about something, this probably means that it’s not the right thing for you.) Further, people expect you to be interested in what they do. So if you’re investing time learning about cutting edge technologies, that should translate into commitment when it comes time for you to get down and dirty with them yourself.
2. Communicate the vision
It doesn’t matter if you’re explaining a new technology to customers or to other developers within your company. You’ve got to have an end vision in mind. Maybe that’s a process that you want customers to go through before they commit to your product (such as bug tracking). Maybe it’s a big picture sketch of how developers will interact with your technology. Whatever it is, make sure you have one. Clarifying the end point for people should help them get over the inertia of adopting something new and unfamiliar.
3. Realize that you can’t incorporate everything
Some things are simply too hard to do without a whole new technology. When you start experimenting with something new, it’s often wise to give yourself some wiggle room as far as what qualifies as a minimum viable product. For example, if you’re working on a web application, knowing how to set up an SSL certificate is probably not going to cut it – your application will have to work with whatever certificates are out there.
4. Keep it simple
With anything new, an overly complex process tends to be risky. And this is especially true with technologies that have to be learned before they can be used. If you start by keeping things as simple as possible, you’ll maximize the number of people who can adopt and test your new technology. After all, you want to get a lot of feedback on your product before you decide what’s worth building upon and what’s not.
5. Get ready for change
One thing that often happens when companies develop internal technologies is that they keep their old system around too long. They want to make sure they can keep the old system working, so they put off the process of turning over the new one. The end result is that whenever there’s a problem with their old system, they’re too busy getting it fixed to deal with the new one. It doesn’t have to be this way – if you’re happy with the quality of your new system, do everything you can in order to get out of supporting the old one.
6. Make sure your customers are heard
“When I was at Nike we had a motto: ‘The customer will tell you what they need,'” says Dan Schwab at High Q Communications in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This approach has a lot of merit – especially in a fast moving industry. But it’s not going to work if your customers are too busy talking about their old ways of doing things to pay attention to new technologies. So make sure that you listen to what they’re saying first. And then ask them what they want from the technology you’re going to put in place.
7. Be proactive
Change is going to come whether you want it or not. Often the best thing to do for your customers and for yourself is to “work the problem” – i.e., anticipate what your needs and those of your customers are most likely to be in the future, and start developing products that will fit them. A good rule of thumb when it comes to technology implementation is that it’s easier to implement something after you need it than before you need it.
8. Get everyone hurtling in the same direction
This is one of the hardest things to do. If you were lucky enough to get everyone on board for your new technology in phase one, you’re probably still going to be facing resistance as the project moves along. The best way to deal with this is by communicating constantly and forcing yourself (and your team) to be proactive at every step along the way. Break down the work that’s going on into smaller chunks, and make sure they’re executed while you’re still interested.
9. Adopt a Web 2.0 mentality
Web 2.0 means more than just having a blog or a wiki. It’s a way of thinking that is especially useful when it comes to dealing with the people who will be using your product. It involves giving people what they need now and then expanding on their needs as they arise. As John Piotrowski, CTO of OpenCrowd describes it: “People are looking for content, not a place to comment on might be interesting but I’m not ready to commit.”
10. Set your own deadline
Setting a deadline for implementing a new technology can be tricky. In fact, sounds like quite an intimidating process when you think about all of the different pieces of information you have to consider.
