Is your new solution a 'Lefty Burger'?

Back in 1992 Burger King paid for a full-page advert in USA Today launching a new product.? Given that America was home to around 32million left-handed people at the time, the pitch was that BK's new 'Lefty Whopper' had all the same ingredients as their usual Whopper, but they were all rotated to 'redistribute the weight of the burger so that the ingredients skewed left and didn't spill out to the right'.? Without checking the date at the top of the paper, thousands flocked to BKs across the US to try the new Lefty Whopper, while others protested the bias of not also having a 'Righty Whopper'.? Of course it was in fact 01 April and the following day BK retracted its April Fools prank, however me being a sucker for a good anecdote, reading the story again this morning got me musing about redundant features in products.

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Over the years I've seen many different products and solutions and I've been on both the delivery and receiving sides of many product demonstrations.? So in the spirit of avoiding the hype of the 'Lefty Whopper' here are some semi-coherent ramblings that some may find useful when considering software / solutions changes:

Consider Business Goals & Feature Creep Just because a product can do something or has a particular feature, that doesn't mean it’s the right solution for the use-case.? For me, RPA is a great example of this.? In the early days of the RPA hype I considered RPA as something of a 'Magpie Solution'.? It was the latest shiny thing that some needed to feather their nest, and then once acquired they would find a use for it.? Don't get me wrong, not all RPA solutions are like this and absolutely there are many use cases where an RPA tool is in fact the best tool for that scenario.? However, it's equally true that there are RPA solutions out there that are over-kill for the use-case, and others that didn't survive because they added unnecessary features that led to increased complexity, higher costs, and inefficiencies.? A quote I've become fond of is 'RPA won't fix a broken process, it will just speed it up', and this is true of not just RPA but many workflow automation solutions.? My point, if in fact my early morning caffeine deprived brain has one, is that choosing the right solution doesn't just mean choosing the newest or flashiest solution when there are others that are arguably more suitable, proven, and effective.? If the taste is the same, does it really matter which hand holds the burger…? ?

Customization vs. Usability

We live in a time when it seems that when it comes to software & solutions, most things are possible… for a price.? And the cost isn't always in the form of a vendor invoice.? Sometimes the cost is paid in time and usability. There can be a trade-off between software that is highly customizable and software that is user-friendly. Consider that it might be better to choose tools that employees can adopt easily rather than something with endless features that require intensive user training.? However, it is a balancing act as you can go too far the other way as well.? I've seen organisations that focused intently on digitally emulating a manual process in order to minimise changes to the user experience.? However the cost of development and the time to delivery was disproportionately higher than it needed to be.? With some minor changes to the user experience, the cost and time would have been far lower without effecting the desired outcomes.? Ask yourself whether you really need 'meticulously placed sesame seeds favouring left-handed eating techniques'…?

Simplicity & User Centricity New solutions and/or Workflow enhancements should solve problems and streamline processes, not introduce new complications. Like the Whopper, some solutions are a staple for a reason - they work and people use/like them.?

I've been in many a demo where I've seen cool new tech, but sometimes I've been left asking 'Yeah the tech is cool, but who the heck is ever actually going to use that?'.? They had forgotten the human element.? Solutions need to be designed with people in the middle, not the tech.? This concept abuts the idea that when your users aren't following a process in order to achieve their outcomes, perhaps it’s the process that's flawed and not the users…?

Simplicity reduces the friction that often accompanies new technology, fostering faster ROI and smoother transitions.? But the concept of simplicity doesn't just apply to the features, but also to the user experience.? Should a user be expected to learn to eat with their left-hand just to allow the purchase of a Left-Handed burger…?

So while my coffee may not have kicked in just yet, my 'two cents', for what it's worth, is to keep it simple.? Simplicity is not the enemy of efficiency.? Next time you evaluate a new solution, software application or workflow improvement, take a moment to pause and ask yourself which way the lettuce is facing…?