Why Does a Better Technology Stack Still Get Rejected?

Pooja Brown says DocuSign customers would not use a replacement platform that was much better than the last one, because she never brought them along from the old way of working.

She was hired at DocuSign to replace the platform and walked in thinking she already had it. She had a new team, a new city, and a new technology stack. What she missed was how people had worked with the old systems and the norms and processes they had built around them. When the new system arrived, the reaction was almost like organ rejection. She could not figure out why customers were not using something so much better. The gap was that she had not made the effort to bring them along. A good system, an amazing technology stack, and a fast path to production still leave the change unfinished. The same work applies to customers, to the team, and to the people you work with.

Pooja Brown says leaders will be part of transformations their entire lives. The change can be technology, how you work, or how you think, and it will keep happening. How you bring people along on that ride matters the most. Being able to name the gap and invest time in bringing people along is what helps drive the outcomes.