In technology, reliability comes before innovation

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Technology's relentless focus on innovation stems from the competitive environment for consumer engagement. In a world where consumers have ever-increasing options for their mindshare, media companies face endless pressure to innovate and differentiate with new experiences to make their products and features as sticky as possible.

In pursuit of the press release, however, companies can sometimes mistakenly skip steps before mastering the basics.

In my experience with digital innovation at Comcast, AT&T, and Endeavor Streaming, focusing on mastering the basics of your current core offering can drive much higher value for your customers and your business. business than searching for the latest bells and whistles. Sometimes the most innovative thing you can do for a business is to focus on the hard operational work that would otherwise be ignored or delayed.

While not as newsworthy, focusing on being the gold standard of your core value proposition can have a profound impact on the trajectory of your business and, therefore, on your continued relevance to your customers. It can also give you the right to innovate more meaningfully as your business evolves and allows you to experiment more with research and development.

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register here What constitutes reliable technology?

Reliable technology is like the air we breathe. We take it for granted until we don't have it - and when we don't, it's a crisis.

In my world of video streaming experiences, reliability means users don't waste their precious free time trying to figure out how to access their favorite entertainment. They need to take it for granted that they can watch whatever they want on their favorite device at all times, regardless of the complex technical challenges of delivering high-quality live streams globally. For the consumer, reliability means that the product works quickly and is delivered at an exceptional level of quality.

Is there a "breaking point" when it comes to the effectiveness of your technology? The law of diminishing returns applies to any technology. Adding yet another ".9" to your service reliability number can come at a high financial cost, but does your customer really care about the difference between a millisecond and a microsecond of downtime or latency?

If you are a high frequency trader, the answer is yes, and this investment is easily justified. With most consumer products, however, users are probably unable to tell the difference. So, whatever the technology, it's about finding the technical tolerance that allows you to serve customers at a high price and quality that suits them.

Regardless of the metric you use to measure the reliability of an existing product, ask yourself the questions: What increment of improvement increases the value perceived by the end user? And how does that translate into business value for the company?

The risks of being too forward-looking

There are endless ways to pursue innovation, but only a few will truly prove useful to users on a meaningful scale. Businesses that are too forward-looking face a few possible risks.

The first risk is incurring an opportunity cost by solving the wrong problem. You can spend a lot of time researching a new feature or a market opportunity as a precursor,...