Adapt like an App
4 Ways to be More Agile in Business (and life)
It was the fall of 1990; I was firmly entrenched in the adolescent social norms of tight rolling my pant legs, wearing braces on my teeth, navigating teenage crushes, the delicate art of pimple popping, and all things junior high. It was also that Fall when my family proudly purchased Windows 3.0 by Microsoft.
Apps in the Good Old Days
Windows 3.0 was the hot new application software from Microsoft, originally released in the Summer of 1990. It seemed ahead of its time, fully packed with jaw-dropping, cutting-edge technology. Windows 3.0 would have been purchased at a retail store; it came in a box with a very thick and complex user guide and five 5.25” floppy discs, which got installed on top of your existing DOS operating system, as seen in this video. For us, if I remember it correctly, this dreamy new software was to be installed into our 1989 Hyundai Super 286-N Desktop. To my teenage mind, it was hard to imagine how this software and user experience could possibly improve.
Years of planning, testing, and hard work went into perfecting and maximizing this software whilst keeping the hardware’s capabilities and limitations of its day in mind. Boxed software such as this was considered a complete and finished package by its manufacture and the customer. You would not receive any further updates for another two years when the impressive Windows 3.1 was released. Of course, as with the previous install, you would only get this upgrade if you chose to buy it from a retail store. Also, it would cost the consumer at least another $150 ($300 in today’s money), and probably much more as it likely required better hardware. In other words, people would usually try to get as many years out of their investments as possible. The downside to not upgrading is not receiving the newest features, bug fixes, stability improvements, and sleeker design enhancements. You were stuck with what came out of the now old, dusty box, probably still perched on a bookcase, because “You never know if you’ll need it again, right?”
Modern Apps
Today, the thought of the apps on your computer or phone improving just once every two years is unfathomable. From minor bug fixes and security updates to navigation adjustments and total re-platforming, changes to your most valued software are happening daily to one app or another and usually at no extra cost. Why do these modern apps change and update so frequently? The same reason Microsoft took Windows 3.0 to 3.1: It was not perfect upon its release.
The software innovators, architects, designers, and programmers all know that the version of the software they have just released to the world, and hopefully beloved by the users, still has room for improvement. In a positive way, developers never seem to leave well enough alone. The apps you currently love to use every day are continually evolving and will never be perfect.
A fun analogy for the app developer mindset is bowling versus golf; In bowling, achieving the perfect score of 300 is entirely possible. Believe it or not, it happens over 26,000 times a year in the US alone, according to the <cough> highly accredited data found on Answers.com. However, a perfect golf score is an 18, which is impossible to achieve, yet we all keep trying.
Software is more like golf — the desire for perfection is undoubtedly present. However, because of various variables, such as creative innovators, hardware improvements, and society’s natural progress, the users’ needs continually change, thereby making perfection an impossibility. Although perfection is unachievable when releasing technology, consistent and exciting updates will and should occur along the way, making the user experience incrementally better. Also, the most exciting apps make improvements you never knew you needed or wanted. Yes, app innovators must react to change requests by their customers when their collective voices sound loud enough around a single issue. App innovators also get to make the exciting modifications their customers had not considered. Creating a trend is usually more impressive, fun, and rewarding than merely riding its wave.
Does Your Company Update like an Old App or a New App?
Sales and marketing strategies, business plans, and even processes for your team’s daily communication and workflow take a lot of effort to develop. Sometimes, many people contribute to a final business decision. Thinkubators, strategy meetings, industry trend analyses, budgeting, brainstorming, etc., are all at play in this decision-making process. Naturally, the common underlying theme during these meetings is how to maximize potential ROI while meeting the customers’ needs and desires. Understandable. Prudent. Smart.
Once a sound business decision gets made, is in place, and successful, it becomes easy to relax and let it ride. Sometimes this ride lasts a year or two, just like the old days of software development. At this point, however, you are merely maintaining a system. Consequently, like the purchased software mentioned previously, this decision could be getting dusty on the metaphorical idea shelf. To avoid the dust, what if you continually tweaked and adjusted these decisions with upgrades and modifications — like a modern app!?
In the years I have spent working in corporate training, I have been fortunate to see inside the belly of many different businesses in different industries in different parts of the world. Regardless of the many dissimilarities between organizations, there is one constant I have observed; Companies tend to be more begrudgingly reactionary than proactively evolutionary.
By “reactionary,” I mean changes and adjustments to a process or strategy tend to happen after the existing process has already failed, or at least has become stale. There will always be a need to react to unforecasted events, sure, but what if we could get ahead of the storm to diminish such occurrences?
4 Ways to Adapt like an App
1) Listen Hard
Customer reviews and surveys are just one excellent method for understanding your customers’ relationship to your product, service, or even your sales process. Too often, unfortunately, the compiled survey data is not utilized and leveraged to enact change. Asking for feedback and then ignoring said feedback is a sizably missed opportunity. It would be like buying fuel for your car but not putting it into the gas tank. Crave the feedback and use it to your advantage. See more about feedback here.
Another common mistake when gathering feedback is only asking the questions you know will get a glowing response. Feel-good questions are great for the customers and your organization to reflect positively, no doubt. However, if you want to adapt like an app, ask the questions you fear the answers to, for this is where the gold lives.
2) Be Willing to be Wrong
When planning an update to a product, service, or process, there is great pride at stake. What if it does not work well or is not perfect?! Well, as we have established, it will not be perfect, so that is an expectation worth avoiding. Think like an app developer by embracing imperfection, for if it is not constantly evolving, it is stale. In the end, it all has way more to do with your audience (customers/users/etc.) than it does with you. Play detective and try to discover how to improve the situation, even if it is a seemingly small change, and then make it happen. Remember, not only is it okay that the results of your brilliant idea and hard work did not last forever, but it is also to be expected.
3) Forecast Needs/Desires
How many times has an app on your phone updated without it having any noticeable problems? Someone was looking out for your needs before you knew those needs surfaced. The app developers inform change by utilizing customer reviews and surveys, user analytics, artificial intelligence, competition comparisons, lots of testing, etc. “If you see something, say something,” as the saying goes. In other words, try not to wait for the problems to come to you. Like a meteorologist, broaden your perspective and look for trends and inconsistencies that can help you predict tumultuous storms. Finally, leverage this info to create an action plan that will protect everyone from the proverbial storm before the concerns become a noticeable problem.
4) Do NOT Leave Well Enough Alone
Complacency usually sets in long before it is realized. If you find yourself thinking, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We’re making money, our customers are happy, so let’s coast!” think again. This attitude represents the cautionary tale of pride coming before the fall. It is a likely step into a trap that creates slow innovation and customers who will eventually feel neglected, like the software from the 1990s. Appreciate your success, for sure. Also, know that a lack of being proactively evolutionary in your thinking and behavior will have consequences, just ask any number of historically significant businesses we all thought would never fail.
In Closing
Change is constant. Too often, businesses adapt to change from a defensive position, reacting to an issue after it has become a problem. Any sportsball coach will tell you that the probability of winning gets increased the more their team has control of the ball. If there is one lesson we can learn from technology (and sports), it is the value of proactive, offensive change. For hundreds of years, a sound business model could last and thrive for an exceptionally long time. However, technology, globalization, startling weather phenomena, and volatile economies are causing changes that impact us all at an increasingly rapid pace with zero signs of slowing. Like the apps on our phones, consistent monitoring, predicting, and updating are essential to modern business success. Let us remember to embrace and encourage change. If that little voice inside your head is saying, “But we have always done it this way…,” you just might be missing a golden opportunity. “Adapt like an app” is a metaphor, a mindset, that we can apply as team leaders, team members, and to many other aspects of the business. Finally, if I may, this mindset can positively contribute to our professional and personal relationships, not to mention to us as individuals.
David Marcotte, Head Coach of Marcotte Coaching, is a communication skills development specialist for corporate professionals. For nearly 20 years, through various topics such as presentation skills, storytelling, emotional intelligence, leadership, and team building, David has developed online and in-person learning to help professionals of all levels bridge the gap between oneself and others.
To book live, online soft skills classes with David Marcotte — visit the Complete Professional page of the Marcotte Coaching website. To read David’s other blogs and learn more ways Marcotte Coaching can help your organization thrive, visit us at www.marcottecoaching.com.
