Why do non-tech companies barely deliver good digital products?

I have spent so much time asking myself why digital products that are built by big non-tech enterprises and some government institutions most of the time fail to deliver value and why their efficiency in terms of user experience and other product aspects is always low compared to the products built by startups and other tech companies, and after some years building products for startups and other non-tech institutions, I have seen where the problems are and I would like to share my thoughts with you.

We are in the digital age where tech is actually taking over, problems that people have are being solved through technology, and the market is disrupted to the point even non-tech companies have hugely invested in digital products to stay relevant in the market. I 100% admit that investing in tech is the right move but the way you do it will determine the impact technology will have on your enterprise. 

If you are reading this article, there is a chance you know an e-government software or any other digital product for a non-tech organization that is not delivering value despite huge money invested in it and you might ask yourself the same question as mine, where is the problem? What do startups and other successful companies do differently? That’s exactly what we are going to talk about.

A sense of competition

Success in the tech industry is fueled by motivation. And one of the things that motivate companies is “competition”. When you know you are competing with other companies, it pushes you to do your best to succeed. Doing your best includes taking your customers seriously. I have worked for big enterprises where they were 100% sure that whatever product they will deliver, people will be obliged to use it. Imagine if you have that assurance that people, whether they like it or not, will use your product! How much time would you spend with your customers doing discovery? Will you invest in data so that your product can be data-driven? Why would you do that, if, at the end of the day, everyone must use it?

That is why you will realize that only a few e-government products or other related digital products can deliver value. Because in startups the competition pushes us to do weekly discoveries to better understand the market, to invest in data to improve our processes using quantitative data and so many practices that help tech companies to deliver products that customers love. The lack of competition is one of the reasons we see some products failing.

Can such institutions like governments and other related firms have and use this sense of competition? The answer is Yes. The lack of competition steals the hard work that is required to build successful products, so the solution for this is to follow the process. I will always insist on talking to customers. These institutions are not talking to customers, and that’s why they are failing to deliver value. Talk to customers as if you are competing with someone else, that will help your organization to deliver value even when they have the monopoly.

Tech at the core, not just a department 

You will see different organizations having an “IT department” and expecting to get the best out of tech by making it just a department. And the question that you can ask yourself is, can we fully leverage technology by treating it as just a part of the company?

The software(digital) business itself can’t be run by only technical knowledge. For such kinds of businesses to be successful, requires different departments to work together. Let me explain this clearly, we have a product which is most of the time software. That product needs to be advertised so that we sell it to our customers and that automatically involves 2 departments which are marketing and sales department. When the product is shipped to our customers, another important department comes into the loop which is the customer support department. Companies have different departments, but when it comes to the tech business they work together, because the IT department can’t succeed alone, and if every of the mentioned departments works in isolation, we won’t get the best out of it.

The workflow needs to be fluid and each department has to be involved in the loop. And this is one of the main things that successful tech companies do differently. If you work in the IT department, I am sorry but you can’t tell me you are fully leveraging technology. Some people might argue with me because their companies have been making money this way but trust me, if you try implementing the whole flow together and make it fluid, you can even get more money and other opportunities may arise.

Summary: The software business is a different type of business, you can have a monopoly and still not be able to satisfy your customers and sometimes fail to make money from it. There are processes to follow. Institutions need to understandthat competition is still there even when they own the market, and that a sense of competition is important in building successful digital products. Secondly, tech is a big thing to be closed in one department, tech is a business itself.