Who Will Make the Technology Work After It Arrives?

The purchase can be the easiest part of a technology project. Heather Rocker’s Fireside Chat conversation focused on the work that follows: setting a system up, helping people use it, and keeping it useful after the initial enthusiasm fades.

Speaking about nonprofits, Rocker described two persistent constraints. Organizations need money for technology, and they need people who understand it. Solving the first problem does not automatically solve the second. A platform can be affordable and still ask more of a team than it can support.

She had seen organizations spend money on systems intended to solve a problem, only to struggle because discovery, setup, or training had not received enough attention. The capability existed in the product. The organization was not positioned to use it effectively.

A purchase is also a commitment

One of Rocker’s questions was simple:

“who's going to maintain it”

Heather Rocker, Fireside Chat archive

That question changes the discussion. It brings the people who will live with the decision into a conversation that can otherwise stay focused on features, price, and the demonstration. It also makes the ongoing work visible before the organization commits to it.

Rocker was enthusiastic about technology’s ability to connect people and expand a nonprofit’s reach. Online communities could bring people together without requiring everyone to gather around the same physical table. Her concern was whether a particular tool served the mission and could be used well with the resources available.

She described drawing on a community of technologists for advice and support. Skilled volunteers could help an organization understand what it needed, how to implement it, and whether a proposed solution was more elaborate than the problem required. Their contribution could be judgment as much as hands on work.

Protecting the mission includes protecting capacity

There is a useful parallel for security teams. A new capability asks for more than a budget line. Someone must configure it, interpret what it produces, and decide what happens next. Those are operational responsibilities, and they need a place in the decision to buy.

That parallel is an editorial application of Rocker’s experience. Her story was rooted in nonprofits trying to direct as much of their resources as possible toward the people they serve. A system that consumes attention without delivering useful work can make that mission harder.

The lesson is not that an organization should avoid sophisticated technology. It is that the people, the process, and the purpose deserve the same scrutiny as the product. Before celebrating what a tool can do, someone needs to explain how the organization will make it do that work.

Listen to the original conversation with Heather Rocker → · Read the transcript →

From the Fireside Chat archive. This article is an editorial reflection on the original conversation, not a new interview or an update on the guest’s current role.