New & Shiny: A Cautionary Tale
My wife and I both work from home. That means she hears me talking about sales & persuasion at a bazillion decibels and I hear every meeting she has, too.
Over the past 6 months I’ve been hearing a slow motion train wreck (as well as color commentary at dinner when I ask about her day).
Here’s the scene: she works at a technology & software company and it’s awesome. Since they’re a cutting edge technology & software company, they have to be cutting edge on everything.
When it comes to their website, they decided to go with Webflow which is the new kid on the block. It is not the dinosaur that WordPress is.
(Stick with me. While the details may not apply to you, the lesson will for sure.)
Turns out that Webflow is so janky that they’ve spent weeks and who-knows-how many hours finding a 3rd party solution that makes it useable. Every one of those hours is time they can’t bill clients or on paying projects, remember.
Then that 3rd party solution is, itself, so janky that they have multiple hours-long meetings with the 3rd party company.
I can hear my wife say things like:
“I’d love if it could [do this thing that WordPress has been able to do for nearly a decade].”
~My Wife
I can’t tell you how many thousands of dollars that this company has wasted in real dollar terms & in non-billable terms trying to fix this “new” and “different” system they’re using when the “old” and “outdated” system could have solved all these issues in a fraction of the time & freed up everyone who has to deal with the website to work on something more interesting / valuable / profitable / etc.
But, nope! My wife is stuck on calls with vendors who are gaslighting her about what she needs the platform to do.
The lesson here is don’t get swept up in the latest and greatest when it’s just new and different (instead of better).
Use the right tool for the job.
No matter how old.
Best thoughts,
~Jonathan “Identity keeps you mired” Pritchard