Are You Flying the Plane While Building What You Need?

Have you ever felt like you're flying the plane while you're still trying to build it?

Your organization can't stop. People still need services. Staff still need answers. Reports are still due. Grants still have requirements. Leadership still needs information. Data still needs to be collected.

And somehow, in the middle of all of that, you're supposed to figure out how to make the systems behind the work actually work. I've seen what happens when organizations grow and their technology, processes, and data don't grow with them. A spreadsheet that worked when a program was small becomes five spreadsheets maintained by five different people. A form that was created to solve one problem becomes part of a process nobody quite remembers designing. Information gets collected because someone once said it was required, but no one is quite sure how—or whether—it's being used.

And eventually, people begin creating workarounds just to get through the day.

The problem isn't that people aren't working hard enough. They're trying to fly the plane and rebuild it at the same time.


Before You Buy Another Tool, Understand the Problem

When something isn't working, it's tempting to start with technology.
We need a new database.
We need a new app.
We need a better CRM.
We need AI.
Maybe you do.
But technology shouldn't be the first question.
The first question should be:
What are we actually trying to accomplish?
Then we can start asking better questions.
What information do you need?
Who needs it?
Where does that information come from?
Who is entering it?
What are staff doing manually that they shouldn't have to do manually?
What are you collecting that nobody uses?
What aren't you collecting that you later scramble to find when a funder, board member, leader, or grant report asks for it?
And where are people creating their own workarounds because the official process doesn't work?
Those answers tell us much more about what needs to be built than a list of software features ever could.


Your Staff Usually Know Where the Problems Are

One of the biggest mistakes organizations can make when changing technology is designing the solution without truly understanding the people who will use it.

The person entering information every day knows where the process slows down. The program manager knows which report takes hours to put together. The person responsible for a grant knows which outcome suddenly becomes difficult to demonstrate when the report is due.

Leadership knows what information they wish they had when they're making decisions. Those perspectives matter.

Before changing the system, understand the work.


Data Should Tell You Something

Organizations can collect enormous amounts of data and still struggle to answer a very simple question: What difference are we making? Knowing that 500 people received a service tells us something. But it doesn't necessarily tell us what happened because they received that service.

That's where organizations need to move beyond simply collecting numbers and begin thinking about outcomes, context, and impact.

The goal shouldn't be to collect more data. It should be to collect the right data—and make it useful.


You Don't Have to Rebuild Everything at Once

When you're already flying the plane, rebuilding the entire thing at once probably isn't realistic. Sometimes the right solution starts much smaller.

Fix one workflow. Eliminate one duplicate process. Connect two pieces of information that should never have been separated. Determine what needs to be measured before the next grant begins. Automate something that staff are spending hours doing manually. Build one dashboard that finally gives leadership the information they've been asking for.

Then build from there.

That's why at Specht Technologies, I believe the process needs to begin with understanding the problem before deciding what technology should solve it. You may have to keep flying the plane while you're building what you need. But you don't have to build it without a plan.