Instead of joining an extremist camp: either always buying the latest innovation as soon as it comes out, or always waiting as long as possible before making a change, we need our own decision-making criteria.

Our needs are different than anyone else’s. Our financial resources are limited. Our teams’ openness to change and learning new things is a factor. Our industry might be one of relative stability or rapid innovation.

In this week’s podcast with software developer Jorge Rosas, we discuss three “tension spectrums” across which to consider our next decisions:

1. Risk versus reliability. Can you or your firm handle some of the inherent risks associated with emerging technologies while the kinks are being ironed out? Or do you need a certain level of reliability which would suggest that you wait?
2. Focus versus distraction. Do new features help you get more done or distract you? For some of us, innovation is key to how we increase our personal and professional productivity. For others of us, new things take our eyes off of our goals, and we lose precious time and energy playing or forcing solutions that don’t really fit.
3. Arithmetic versus exponential benefit. Unless an innovation provides an exponential increase in value to one’s productivity, internal processes, or company capabilities, you may want to reconsider the money investment, the learning investment, and the investment in team morale that any technology change brings.

What criteria informs your decisions about adopting new technologies?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 5:42 am and is filed under Tech Changes with Jorge Rosas, Working Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.