119. Why smart leaders expect the unexpected from software updates

Oct 5, 2022

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Software updates can have weird unintended consequences that the company doesn't even know about. Existing features that worked perfectly can stop working, leading to lost revenues and annoyed customers.

Listen to this episode to learn why this happens and how non-technical leaders deal with it when it does.

Learning notes from this episode:

A developer could write a line of code to affect one outcome, and there could be a completely different unintended outcome that they don’t even know about it.
- When an app, site or algorithm gets complicated enough, these unintended consequences are more and more likely to happen.
To prevent this, make sure that different people test the new version on different devices and browsers.
- In tech teams, this function is called Quality Assurance.
Remember that these unintended consequences are inevitable. The key is to catch them early and correct course.
- Create a process for your users to quickly tell you if something goes wrong. The beauty of software products is that you can usually get rid of a bug in the system in the next release. The key is to find out about it in the first place.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Speak Tech: the top 10 tech concepts for business leaders (FREE GUIDE)
The Metaverse: And How it Will Revolutionize Everything by Matthew Ball

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