It is pretty common to see the Project team spending massive effort developing a perfect feature, and no one uses it. Consider an example; a project team develops a new kiosk feature for visitor registration. However, the reception still uses manual registers.
There are many reasons for end-users not utilising the new features in the system.
It is one of the significant waste factors in digital application projects.
As a Project Sponsor, you must avoid such risks of burning the project budget on useless features. The following are a few thoughts to mitigate this risk:
- Assign owner for each module/area within the business (HR, Procurement, Manufacturing)
- Help the owners to understand the concept of Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and iterative development
- Cap the budget for each functional area/ feature (e.g. $15K for HR onboarding processes).
- Encourage real-world feedback, adjust and iterate by improving existing digital capabilities
Under-utilisation of digital assets is a significant problem. If you are not careful, you may fall into the same trap. So, work with your team to deploy the MVP. Encourage the team to use the new features in the real world (Production). Seek honest feedback, adjust and improve the features iteratively.
Never develop a perfect system to start with, as it may never get used!
