The main problem with technology features is that people look at them the same way they do a buffet. The attraction is that there is always a wide variety of options, so everybody will have something they like, and the goal is to consume them rapidly, knowing full well that another batch will be delivered to the table shortly. But as anyone that’s hit a buffet hard can attest, gorging on the endless variety of features in front of you is going to make you pretty miserable in the end.
Think about every time your phone notifies you about updates to its operating system. Do you know anybody that is happy when that day happens?
No? That’s because everyone hates them and desperately hits the “update later” button until the system finally updates at 2am when almost no one is awake to complain. As
someone in the tech world, let me say that updates are important; mostly because they contain bug fixes (which are certainly necessary). BUT included and touted with those fixes is a boatload of new features. This means your phone is now capable of doing a bunch of things it couldn’t do yesterday, but it also means you have to relearn the whole
operating system again. Everything that you had finally mastered and got set up so you didn’t have to think about it again, is instantly wiped away for the promise that everything will now be easier and better. You know what would actually be better? If they stopped moving the flash light button on my phone around so when I’m in the dark and really need it, my thumb isn’t playing Dance Dance Revolution on my phone screen trying to find its new location. Simply put, when features take people from FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) to DUNO (Don’t Understand New Operating System), we technology people have missed our mark..
The other way that the “feature buffet” causes indigestion for people, particularly those in healthcare, is when it is included in the nebulous collection of Analytics that has permeated into so many organizations. Now I spent 12 years as a healthcare consultant, so I can tell you from experience that analytics are valuable and SHOULD have a place in every organization’s tool bag for dealing with issues. But I have also seen firsthand that analytics, like everything in life, needs to be consumed in moderation. Do I really need the ability to drill down three layers deep into a bar graph like it’s a Russian nesting doll in hopes of finding better insights? Or should my screen have more types of pie charts than my Thanksgiving table? And finally, can somebody please tell me what a tree map is/does, and what’s the best method for growing a few in my yard? In the end, analytics and data can quickly become overwhelming, and when people get overwhelmed, we simply shut down. It is unfortunately why the phrase “paralysis by analysis” is so familiar to many of us.
Analytics-focused features also have the potential to fuel another smoldering issue in healthcare – data driven dehumanization (DDD). DDD occurs when a hospitals/health system’s main focus becomes metrics generated by healthcare professionals rather than the outcomes because the metrics are easier to measure, monitor and understand. Before anyone gets mad, I’m not saying that you can’t successfully combine metrics and people (Moneyball anyone?), but to do so the organization’s focus has to be on “The people who generate data, not the data generated by people.” This is because each of our lives are dynamic and full of thousands of ongoing interactions that cause our world to change constantly. So even though we may do the same activity every day, that single activity is not representative of everything that we do. But this is where analytic-focused features become a problem. These features are designed to do one thing – capture a snapshot of a very specific data point (e.g., RVUs, visits, minutes per activity etc.) generated indirectly by people in the healthcare world, and they are incredibly good at it. They take hundreds or even thousands of data snapshots, and over time this collage of snapshots starts to create the picture that health system leadership see when they think of the people working in their organizations. And let me tell you, this “sum of your data” picture is always ugly and there is no Instagram filter available to fix it once it has been put out in the world. In the future when you see a screen full of analytics, I would urge you to think less about the insights that you could gain and more about the context that was lost about the people that did the work.
Instead of joining in the traditional buffet model, we at Krystal Ball are using a new “potluck” approach to developing features for our technology. We start by inviting a lot of people to the party. We talk with people from all parts of healthcare about the issues they are having, and how those issues develop and change based on the context of their daily experiences. As more and more people bring their individual issues, we start to see where there is overlap between them (like when 3 people bring buffalo dip to a tailgate). That overlap issues become the focus for our feature development, and we don’t add anything else until these features has been created, tested and distributed to all our clients. Then we go back to talking to people, ready to find the next group of issues to take on because we know when people feel listened to, it empowers them to do more for the world around them. So, when you see new features on MyTimeStudy Transplant or Directorship, you can be sure that the ideas for them have been crowdsourced from multiple hospitals, and the result will bring real benefit to real people, and not just be eye candy on a website.
Like any good Yelp review, I’ll end by saying I wouldn’t recommend going to the feature buffet if you can avoid it. Yes, it remains flavorful, endless and familiar, but it has also left so many of us in healthcare sick to our stomach when it comes to thought of using new technology in our health systems. Instead, I would suggest that you grab a bag a chips and head over to our place, where the focus and features are always on people. (And yes, we still have plenty of buffalo dip left!)
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