Software Strategy: Betting on things that don't change
In business, as in warfare, he who completes the most OODA loops wins the fight. Optimizing for faster cycles is always a winning tactic. One surefire way to slow your business to a crawl is to use technology that changes frequently. Spreadsheets, Ruby on Rails, and email are examples of technologies that are very stable—rarely changing in ways that break your existing workflows.
In the very best of situations, technological change introduces drag: a force acting opposite to the relative motion of an object. You try to push forward, and you feel resistance pulling against you.
Counterintuitively, the more efficient your current system is, the more you’ll notice the effects of drag.
In the worst case, change will forgo mere drag and will outright break your existing system. In this example, your OODA loop is completely broken while you tend to whatever crisis your business is in.
Does your payroll work on an in-house system that just broke? You have to fix that before worrying about what your competitor is doing today.
Does your inventory management software require frequent bug-fixing? You have to fix that before you can worry about efficiency in your finances.
Here’s a tip you can use today: Identify one component of your business system that causes weekly grief. Create a plan to replace, repair, or delete this component.
🔑 Key Takeaways
He with the most cycles wins. Get more cycles by wasting less time on toil.
Build on stable technology to reduce the amount of drag on your business.
Investigate using common technologies like email and spreadsheets before turning to custom solutions which may incur high technical debt.