• by Barbara Puszkiewicz-Cimino , 10 hours ago

SUMMIT One Vanderbilt’s Director of Global Digital Marketing & CRM writes "You can have the most brilliant tool created, but if you cannot explain how it benefits the team then the stack is useless."

Nothing happens without software. Whether it’s designing creative, breaking down brand identity, sending emails or building space where people can find your business, data, insights, analytics—we cannot live without it. Do you ever wonder, though, why the pitch for the tech stack was brilliant and it seemed like you may be able to go to space with it, while the moment the tech is yours it does none of the things you heard about?

It’s easy to fall for the dream picture and much more difficult to realize the lift and diligence needed to get your newest shiny toy to where you want it to be. The tech may be great, but it’s the people who make it brilliant for what your desire is. Just imagine a stack of Lego bricks: The possibilities are endless to build the most tremendous piece, but if you do not have the vision, expertise, experience and understanding of your business that the Master Model Builders have, then there is a good chance you are going to end up with a lot you can build but never get around to actually building.

It’s the people. It’s always the people who make or break the success of anything in this realm, which can be counterintuitive for the majority of those who make the decisions on the stack. Finding that unicorn vendor partner that will take time and effort to understand your business, listen to the needs of the individuals who make things happen, and is able to translate those needs into core definitions for software and setup that will be able to position your team for success is key in this equation.

It’s the people who are behind the implementation and oversight of a tech stack. It’s as if you were dealing with an architect to build your dream house—you wouldn’t build it unless you have a builder who is able to understand the architectural plans and translate them into what you want to create as your forever cozy place.

There are times when the in-platform optimizations are taken advantage of yet there is no alignment internally between leadership and the execution teams as to the why, what and when. See, the people behind the martech need to be wizards a bit, too. They cannot be only one-dimensional, hard-core geeks (I am a geek and I am proud of it). Rather, they need to be able to speak the language of the other half of this world. Listening, collating needs, and translating them into technical requirements is as crucial as knowing how to implement the stack.

You can have the most brilliant tool ever created, but if you cannot explain what it does and how it benefits the team, or how it fits into the path to achieve those organizational goals, then the stack is useless. And the person going after implementing it is not a winner at all. You need to go for the stack that is needed, not the stack that is the most shiny.

So how do you align everyone to focus on the same needs and solutions? You need to listen. The “why” behind the whole process is to position the organization for success. That’s it. Teams that end up using the tech need to be the drivers behind the need. You must not shy away from addressing concerns up front, and you must communicate the good as well as the bad of the solution. Do not hold back. Sugarcoating is not the way here. But before you deliver the bad news, make sure you extend your creativity and think through all possible solutions, even those out of the box and not seen before within the platform.

Let users test drive the systems. Do not set things up before you get all your answers. People also change their minds, so have a leeway for them. Let them run through test cases to understand that their initial asks might have not been the ideal ones.

A tool that is adopted only partially could cause a drop in efficiency. If users do not know how to utilize the tech, then they will revert to ways that are time-consuming but familiar to their efforts.

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