Your tech stack is like breakfast cereal.
Tech creep is kind of like strolling the cereal aisle with a four-year-old (or a 34-year-old, no judgement) who begs for the choco-sugar-neon-behavior-bombs instead of the sensible-fiber-nut-loops you had planned.
When it comes to building your tech stack or stocking your pantry, “it looked cool” isn’t really a strategy.
And yet, for many companies, an enterprise architecture hodge-podged out of whatever looked good at the time often gets the job done.
Until it doesn’t.
A move to the cloud, a new data privacy mandate, or even the increasing demand for speed and agility to stay competitive might expose the imbalance in your tech stack. How do you get back to a more wholesome view?
Realigning your solutions with your organizational goals and objectives is a great start. Regardless of how long you’ve been using it, does every piece of your technology still fit your plan? You might need to let go of sunk costs and admit that a tool has gotten a little soggy for your current needs. You might need to put your appetite for shiny new solutions on a diet.
At the risk of straining our balanced breakfast metaphor past the breaking point (too late?) we recommend putting a healthy strategy on the menu. As guidelines change and organizations shift to keep up, this is a great time to reassess your tools and processes. In its simplest form, a refreshed technology strategy includes a current state audit, an ideal state articulation, and a plan to bridge the gap.
Whether your internal culture skews Team Sugar-Bombs or Team Fiber-Loops, we can help you take a strategic view and bring your technology stack back into balance.
Get smart: We get that it’s a little bit ironic for a bunch of tech consultants to recommend a book like Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. But hear us out. Newport’s approach to consumer technology – that tech and platforms should have to earn their place in your life by proving that they help you meet your goals and values – has some merit for the business world as well. We’ve all seen what Newport terms “maximalism” at play in sprawling, bolted together legacy architectures. Maybe the time has come for a more minimalist, goal-driven tech stack. Whether you’re ready to start over or looking for ways to modernize what you have, we’re always happy to talk technology strategy.
