The Value of a Professional Bridge-Builder

An independent, outcome focused guide

Why do the business and technical sides of an organization so often frustrate and disappoint each other? This is the last of four articles in which I explore that question, along with some possible solutions.

You can save a lot of pain and considerable expense by having someone on the project leadership team who deeply understands both the technical aspects and the strategic business objectives, and who can translate fluently between the two.

In this article we will explore the value of the tech-to-business bridge builder role and outline the skills you should look for.

When you’re in the weeds building something as a tech person or trying to make a decision on the business side, it is hard to pull yourself up to a higher level and assess whether you’re still on the right path.

Context switching carries a high cost for both sides.

There are real reasons for the difference in mindset between the technical and business teams. Bridging between them requires someone who has a clear-eyed view of each side’s strengths and weaknesses.

It also takes a hard-to-find ability to switch quickly between the two points of view.

Translation between business and technical experts is not a one-off event, it’s a continuous process. As the project progresses, circumstances will change: new information comes to light, or the business environment shifts. It’s important to keep revisiting the original goals and check that the project is still solving the right problem

So, what attributes and skills should you look for in a translator or bridge-builder? First, communication skills. A good communicator can clarify the objectives and the consequences of any decision under consideration, in a way that each side can hear.

Earlier in this series, I described how technical folks like “t-shirt sizes” because estimating effort really is hard. But that effectively guarantees business folks can’t make an informed decision since they work in dollars. So, technical folks need to swallow their frustration and create something concrete that can be balanced against the business value.

Importantly, those estimates need to be made in good faith.

It’s also important that whoever you choose for the translator role is independent and outcome focused. That equips them to help both teams stay focused on outcomes and will help the company achieve its business objectives. The future impact a project creates is key to defining success beyond the immediate technical or business questions. 

Being outcome focused while understanding how the technical nuances will lead towards, or away from, the desired business outcomes is super valuable.

Sometimes the technical team ends up going down the wrong path, but the business team doesn’t know how to call it out. If you don’t have the technical insight to have credibility, it’s easy to be dismissed and for the technical folks to say “nope, it has to be done this way.” A bridge-builder between the two sides has both the technical know-how and the business sense to mediate.

Of course, there is another side to this, which we touched on earlier in this series. It comes up when the business wants to run a Proof of Concept (POC) test. The technical team knows that if the test is successful, the business will want to implement the solution immediately, even though it is not yet robust enough for the real world.

This puts the technical folks between a rock and a hard place. Should they overengineer to ensure the solution is robust, knowing that it may well turn out to fail and be shelved? Or should they build a true POC, setting themselves up for a potentially rushed implementation if it passes muster?

Few things are as frustrating as discovering that you have overengineered something that was a bad idea in the first place. But having to rush to deliver important work because someone else just won’t accept it’s hard certainly competes.

A bridge-builder can help make those tradeoffs clear, for example by identifying which “requirements” are truly optional. They also can help translate the real work required to go from a proof of concept to something that can be customer-facing. Often, a savvy bridge-builder can help by even predicting what might go wrong and whether the new thing will work.

Effective collaboration between business and technical teams can powerfully drive a company’s success. Without it, disappointment, frustration and wasted resources become the order of the day.

I hope this four-part series of articles has given you some ways to optimize the relationship between your business and technical teams. If you missed the earlier articles in this series, you can find them on www.AnalyticsStrategiesllc.com, where you can also schedule a call with me to discuss how to apply these ideas in your business.