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Fix the process first, then choose the tool that fits it. Buy the tool first and you end up bending how you work around what you bought, which is how organisations come to use a fraction of powerful software. Working out what you are trying to achieve, how the work flows today and where it breaks does not take long, and it turns the product choice into a comparison against a clear need instead of a demo.
Because a tool is an answer, and if the question has not been defined you cannot tell whether the answer is any good. Most people come to me with a technology question: which CRM, which platform, which tool will fix this. It is a natural question, and it is almost always the wrong place to start.
The pull towards it is strong because technology feels like action. There are demos to watch and comparisons to make, and at the end you have visibly done something. Working out your own process is slower and forces awkward conversations about how things really get done. So organisations skip it, judge products against a vague feeling, and end up using a fraction of what they bought, or reshaping a working process around the quirks of a product that was well pitched.
Getting honest about what you are trying to achieve, how the work flows today, where it breaks, and what better would look like, in plain terms. A short document is enough, as long as it is true.
A charity fund I worked with was running on a system an IT company had built, where staff had to flick between screens to enter a single piece of information, because it had been built to a technical specification rather than to how the team worked. The fix started with working out, function by function, what the system needed to do, and only then did it go out to market. Get that order right and you buy once. Get it wrong and you buy a better-looking version of the same mistake.
When you can write down, in a sentence or two, what you need the tool to do and why. If you can, you will choose well and know it. If you cannot, you are not ready, and any purchase is a gamble that looks like progress.
Related evidence: Fund management system. Earlier in this journey: Nobody needs a digital transformation.
Because it was chosen before anyone defined what it needed to do, so it was judged against a vague feeling rather than a clear need, and sometimes a working process was reshaped around the product.
No. It needs to be honest rather than long: what you are trying to achieve, how the work actually flows, where it breaks and what better would look like, written down in plain terms.
Most clients begin with a conversation. No pitch, no hard sell.
Just a straightforward discussion about where you are and whether I can help.
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