It’s fair to say that the UK’s recent referendum result has created an atmosphere of extreme uncertainty across the country – not just in the news and on the street, but also in our day-to-day work environments.
And many of us might be hesitant about what to do next. Is it, for example, best to ‘keep calm and carry on’ – continuing with existing plans regardless? Should we throw it all up in the air and change course? Or should we perhaps halt activity altogether until we know more?
I’m not sure there are any definitive answers as it stands but thought it worth surveying our team for their thoughts:
“The landscape may be a little uncertain, but the fundamental day-to-day pain points and challenges faced by your customers haven’t changed. Trust in your knowledge of your customers and your relationship with them in order to continue delivering the products and services they value.”
Jaime Hindle, Client Services
“Few people right now will want to sign off on a monolithic project specification, and indeed I’m not sure it would be recommended; instead look to break things down into smaller (actionable) chunks of activity, each with clearly defined budgets and measurable ROI. After all, the worst thing you can do is stick your head in the sand and wait until it’s all over.”
Mark Jacks, Business Development
“While equity and currency markets may be volatile for some time, in many industries the return that an effective investment in software can deliver should remain broadly unchanged. Indeed, seismic socio-economic events can often be catalysts for disruptive innovation, presenting new opportunities for companies willing to invest. It might be a good time to be asking yourself how this might apply to your industry…”
Benno Wasserstein, Managing Director
“From an IT perspective, I’d want to look at the IT resources being consumed within the business to ensure that the most value is being had. And this is especially important with regards to cloud usage of course; as these services are typically consumed on a “pay-as-you-go” model, if you can identify inefficiencies here you should be able to make easy savings that might then be deployed elsewhere.”
Alistair Gibbs, IT Manager
“The technology marketplace and uncertainty have co-existed as uneasy bedfellows for a long time, but it’s important that we empathise with customers now as they come to terms with what the referendum decision might mean for their organisation (most likely via a period of caution). As suppliers we should anticipate that our customers are going to ask more questions as they seek to mitigate risk – in particular with regards to where data is held (though it is not yet clear whether membership of the EEA is affected by Brexit). Ultimately, only by working in partnership with customers will we overcome uncertainty and get past the inevitable caution that this brings.”
Rob Rees, Head of Operations
“Economic uncertainty might mean that there’s a short-term slowdown in people taking on large-scale digital projects (see Mark’s comment previously), but I’d anticipate a corresponding uplift in more iterative projects (usability testing and refinement for example) that have the objective of refining user experiences to order to optimise conversion rates. Basically efficiency will be an immediate priority for most.”
Gavin Harris, Senior UX Consultant
“Uncertainty and change are inevitable in any project; more so at the moment. I would prioritise working in an agile, iterative manner as this allows you to take small, measurable steps then evaluate their effect and pivot where necessary. The concepts of minimum viable or minimum marketable products enable early validation of ideas and the ability to respond to feedback, and each investment can be broken down into smaller chunks, allowing for better control of risk in an uncertain time. The boldest organisations will look for ways to capitalise on the hesitation of their competitors, but that doesn’t mean that they will do this recklessly.”
Andrew Beaney, Head of Consultancy
And that’s us (for now!) but we’re really interested to hear from you – where do we head while we await more certainty around the situation? What do we do? Get in touch and let us know what you think…
