How closely do tech professionals actually work with the clients of their companies in light of the recent tech bubble? Are they still confined to the IT departments’ four walls? Or are the barriers finally coming down? It appears that parts of the Walls are finally coming down, and technology professionals are discovering new roles in design thinking and as educators as a result.
In reputed corporate sectors, the boundaries between tech teams and end-user clients have totally vanished. This unquestionably applied to McCarthy Holdings, a business construction firm. McFarland says McCarthy’s most important clients are the final users of the buildings under construction. Their goal is to assist construction partners in integrating new technologies. To get results, the company’s IT teams collaborate closely with its project managers.
He says, “This end-user experience is crucial to us. We encourage our technology professionals to visit our job sites outside of the office. In order to better understand what the craftsmen and field workers do on a daily basis. Also to identify potential opportunities for technology that can assist them with their day-to-day work. Therefore, it is critical to observe, listen and ask questions to… help provide a more effective customer experience.”
Design thinking benefits: Tech professionals
He continues “prediction, automation, intelligent construction sites, and digital twins” as tools to aid with this interaction. They have resources in each of their geographic region where they scale new technologies on a project-by-project basis. By doing so, they can ensure that everyone understands the ‘why’, provide the needed training, and help the teams integrate the technology seamlessly.
User experience (UX) and design thinking are critical components of this customer collaboration. At the same time, it can be difficult to get technical people to understand them. Technical and UX design skills are rare among older employees, but they might be totally engrossed in and familiar with specific software. The construction sector attempts to strike the ideal mix between UX and design expertise and technology knowledge and awareness.
According to McFarland, improving UX and design thinking abilities is a top priority for McCarthy’s IT department. Throughout the project lifecycle, communication and leadership training are also relevant skills for tech professionals, especially in construction.
About the user experience
Another goal of the McFarland team is to help and instruct coworkers who might not be digitally astute. The goal is to reduce adoption obstacles by demonstrating practical examples of what works and how we can go forward. They are aware that the spectrum of technical tool comfort and experience that we work with is broad. In addition, they aim to educate non-tech-savvy staff members about the benefits of technology and how to prove its value.
Additionally, their teams find leaders in this field who welcome new technologies and encourage their peers to adopt them sooner. Peer-to-peer contact enables groups from across the enterprise to “hear from other professionals as this technology can seem new and perhaps daunting.”
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