Never Bet On Their Technology: Bet On The People Behind The Technology

This week, I started my follow-up sessions with the solution providers I had interviewed the past few weeks. There are more left to do before Friday.

While this second session is recorded, it will not be made available for public viewing as it is a reference point for the additional questions I asked; call it a deeper drill down. I also go deeper into another variable that is even more important than the technology—the people behind it.

At the end of the day, and with a few customizable tweaks, tech is tech is tech. In short, if all it took was great technology for successful implementations, we wouldn’t be entering our fourth decade of 80% (and higher) initiative failure rates.

So, forget about the tech – it will work.

What I needed to understand was the following:

• The background of the people behind the tech – and I am not talking about a resume. I am talking about industry insights and their market understanding.
• Their goals, including target clients, e.g., where is their market sweetspot.
• Their agility and resilience factor – for example, the ability to shift gears to service a different or wider practitioner base.
• Their revenue and funding.
• Their likelihood for success in the short and mid-term – on a 1 to 10 scale.
• Do they lead with tech, e.g., build it, then look for a market problem to solve?
• Do they develop the tech as an extension of a problem the market recognizes?

Stay tuned as I continue to build out my Top 10 Analyst Map of the solution providers behind whom I am going to stand and actively support.

30