“Technology for the sake of technology is a really big problem”
It’s an odd stance for Gamma’s CTO Colin Lees to take, but there is method behind the madness. If providers are just spending their days churning out solutions and hoping something sticks, then a lot of valuable resources would have been wasted. There needs to be a shift in mindset over the purpose of technology in the first place.
Putting customer experience at the heart of product design and delivery is an approach that Gamma has adopted. Relating the development of technology to specific use cases provides a whole new perspective on solving customer problems. As part of Gamma’s ‘Future Visions’ series, Colin sat down with Gamma’s Chief Marketing and Product Officer Chris Wade to explain this approach.
Solving customer problems
As Colin said, it might sound slightly odd for a CTO to cast aside the idea of ‘technology for technology’s sake’. Digital transformation is a goal for every single business, and there’s added pressure to make sure that the technology being adopted is the right fit. If the wrong kind of technology is brought in, businesses stand to lose 46% in revenue gains over the next 4 years.
What matters most is “solving customers’ problems”. A deeper understanding of real-world use cases, combined with a customer-focused mindset, takes product design and delivery in a whole new direction. Testing and checking in with customers means that “what we come out with at the end is genuinely useful”.
It’s better to move towards a mindset of ‘technology as a means to an end’. However much we’d like to examine Martin Heidegger’s work on the essence of technology, we’ll leave that for another day.
For Colin, it’s important to move away from debates on feature lists. Rather, it should be conversations on those “real-world use cases that we can solve for our customers”. Bring those modern design principles into the actual design process and build those innovative products.
“Nobody asked for the iPhone”
When speaking with users, the topic of Net Promoter Score (NPS) hangs over those conversations. One product used broadly may consistently score positively, but there will always be cases when those scores are in the red. The critical question is how providers manage human nature crossing into technology.
As Colin rightly points out, everyone has different use cases, and it’s down to providers to “correlate the feedback”. Since some consumers won’t necessarily know what they want or how to solve a particular problem, that makes product design difficult. Various modern design principles and methodologies dictate how products develop and what kind of problems they can solve.
One of these principles is product discovery, which is popular in the business communications industry. It’s vital in understanding the exact nature and purpose of a product, as it involves gathering use cases and implementing them in a long-term roadmap. By “[correlating] between the extremes” of use cases, it helps providers adopt a “proven and well-understood modern design practice”.
It’s the one that Gamma has adopted – there’s no need to invent one since “there are methods out there that will really help [Gamma]”.
Let your voice be heard
If someone has an original idea, then that means they’re wrong. Chris notes this truism and applies it to Gamma’s own relationship with both customers and partners. What benefits are accumulated when someone has an opinion, and how does that change one’s experience?
Colin advocates for Gamma’s customers and partner community to come to the experts with their opinions. Those interactions help to shape the design and build process, as it reveals deeper insights on customer personas and specific product use cases. Without that kind of direction, then technology won’t live up to its full potential.
That attitude can be applied across the Gamma portfolio. Webex, for example, is “brilliant for larger businesses with more complex needs”, while Phoneline+ is simpler through its role in helping businesses transition from landline to fibre. iPECS sits in the middle of that portfolio as it can be applied to help small and medium businesses.
What it all comes down to is helping partners and customers “understand the real-world applications of the solutions [Gamma] builds”. Having that understanding takes innovative technology further.
Innovation and “shiny objects”
When asked about innovation and unified communications, AI is a common choice of topic. Its usage stretches to the realms of cybersecurity and beyond, and always seems to make an appearance when thinking about future technology. By 2024, it had been estimated that organisations would increase their investment in AI for both UCaaS and CCaaS by 65%.
As Chris says, innovation must be introduced into that design process in a measured way. Without those self-imposed limitations, organisations may end up “chasing every shiny object that possibly exists”.
This comes down to another methodology – feasibility and A/B testing. For Colin, putting things in the hands of customers helps providers to “learn quickly whether it’s good or not”. Working on something in a dark room for year and then releasing it on the market without external feedback “would be [a] crime”.
The process is simple; “trial it early, get the feedback early, and learn”.
An environment built to succeed
What drives the delivery of technology are the people inside an organisation. Technologists need to be challenged, with the powers that be “asking them to think about how they behave”. This isn’t related to discipline or anything like that – rather, how they’re working towards the best possible outcomes.
One year on from joining Gamma, Colin has overseen the continued expansion of Gamma Labs and the output of industry-defining communication tools. This “very talented group” of over 500 technologists has been the driving force behind the thought leadership and intellectual property coming from Gamma. The very low level of outsourcing of that workload has left Colin feeling “very privileged” to be leading such a group.
His main aim over the last year has been to create an environment “where [technologists] are able to succeed”. That comes down to a clear roadmap and agreements with the wider business on what will be delivered. Those guidelines allow the technology team to “focus on building [products] brilliantly”, while new methodologies are introduced to help.
Now that they have the clarity in what needs to be done, those technologists will now be “[given] the space to do what they do brilliantly”. It’s something other technology providers should make a note of.
The gold standard of delivery
What became clear from Chris and Colin’s conversation was how valuable the customer-centric approach is to technological development. By keeping use cases and end goals in mind, providers can establish a market-leading portfolio of products. Focusing on customers and their specific problems sets the foundations for further innovation.
Clarity over those objectives and building the organisation to line up against them are critical when developing and distributing technology. For Chris, a clear roadmap gives organisations a better chance to reach the “gold standard of repeatable, successful, predictable delivery”. Establishing that roadmap means businesses aren’t too “busy spinning plates” and can actually accomplish much more.
Remember – technology should never be for technology’s sake. We’ll leave the philosophy behind that to Mr Heidegger, though.