Until someone came along who didn't know it couldn't ....
Why technology only really takes flight when you tilt the narrative
“In my next life, I will study in Delft.”
I sometimes say that in conversations with clients and associates.
Whether it will come from it, I don't know. It is heartfelt, though.
After all, techies are great people to work with. Like all content specialists, by the way. Always creative, always solution-oriented, for small and big challenges.
‘Technically impossible’, until someone thinks: ‘Why not?’
US President John F. Kennedy said in 1961 that an astronaut would be on the moon and return safely before the end of the decade.
“That's technically impossible!,” one shouted.
In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin stood on the moon and returned safely to Earth.
In the mid-1970s, the Den Uyl government decided to build a nine-kilometre-long flood barrier across the Eastern Scheldt that had to be able to open and close.
“That's technically impossible!,” one shouted.
In 1986, Queen Beatrix officially inaugurated the semi-open Storm Surge Barrier across the Eastern Scheldt.
Technology is crucial - but also too often disappears
Technology is crucial to solving today's big social issues: climate change, environmental pollution, the necessary energy transition, the housing shortage and its affordability. Issues enough that demand solutions. What is on the drawing board today may be the widely applied solution tomorrow. Solutions often start small and get better step by step. Thinking never stands still.
At the same time, we also see that many valuable ideas do not come to fruition. Useful and valuable technology is needlessly lost: the company goes bankrupt and the knowledge disappears abroad. That is a shame. And also unnecessary.
Where it goes wrong: don't explain how it works, tell why it is needed
We often see techies being very good at explaining how something works, but less good at explaining what the world gains from it.
What is the value of the solution in terms of saving money, manpower or time? How does the idea contribute to solving one of our societal issues? That is what decision-makers and investors (with less technical ingenuity) want to know - but often do not hear. And where that story is missing, that is where the technology quickly becomes “too complicated”, “too risky” and the solution “not urgent enough”.
Every technology deserves - and needs - a story
That is why technology always deserves a story. Every technology also has a story.
There are two sides to that story.
There is an issue that counts as technically impossible, unfeasible, unrealisable, too expensive or inconvenient.
And there is an inventor with an idea and a dream who looks at the issue differently - convinced of a solution that is then researched, drawn, calculated, built, tested and (if successful) realised feasibly and scalably.
It doesn't always work out that way, of course. Most dreams don't come true. An idea may turn out not to be feasible after all, for whatever reason.
But if it does succeed, almost every strong technological story starts here: at the moment someone decided that “impossible” was mostly an opinion.
From “how does it work’ to ”how does it work for me“
That technology should work is basic. How technology works is mainly of interest to other techies.
The story that matters is about users: for whom is this valuable, in what context, and what specifically changes? How does the technology ensure that it has social, business or social value?
We call this tilting the narrative: from ‘how does it work’ to ’how does it work for me‘.
And therein often lies the difference between achieving and failing.
On a practical note, if you are also struggling with this
Therefore yet another white paper? Yet another blog? Or yet another slide with architecture?
That would be bad advice. What is needed is a story that is both technically sound and lands with people who decide, invest, buy or implement.
If you notice that your team mostly explains but still does not convince enough, invite a team of fresh, critical outsiders to look at this together. And we have plenty of those at Voxx.
Because the world is mostly waiting for technology to deliver on its promise, and for people who can make that feel real in one clear story.
Want to get your story in focus? Then drop by or contact us. Who knows, we may be able to help you with that one sentence.