Why do we question the App?

Most people do something about it when their car temperature gauge tells them it is 80F. They open a window, or turn up the A/C, take their jacket off, or whatever. In other words, they take the information and respond to it.

What we don’t do, in most cases, is think “Is that temperature accurate?”, “Where is the sensor?”, “Does the effect of driving fast with the corresponding airflow, affect the temperature reading?”. No. Instead, we take the number for what it is.

Granted, in a car the temperature presented usually corresponds to what we know – I’m feeling hot, or cold, so that temperature makes sense. We don’t worry that the temperature sensor may not be made by the car manufacturer. We don’t worry that in fact it is made by a 20-person company that no one has ever heard of. The temperature gauge is in the car; It is ‘sponsored’ by the car manufacturer. We’re all good – it’s 80F.

So why do we spend so much time questioning information in the workplace? When a business app tells us a value, we frequently question it. We try to assess how the information is derived. We get very concerned over the accuracy of the information. In some cases, we even choose to ignore the information because we simply don’t want to believe it. It just doesn’t feel right.

However, in many respects, a 20-person software company developing an app is like a 20-person temperature gauge company. They both have a singular focus on producing and selling one thing very well. They have both poured hundreds and thousands of hours into designing their product to work. They have both spent further time testing and re-testing. And yet, we question the information being presented by the app.

Granted, software is probably much more complex than a temperature gauge, but so too is the type of testing that takes place for software. Certainly, the financial ramification of incorrect output from software may be significantly more expensive to the user than getting the car temperature wrong by a degree or two. So, we are right to have some concerns.

The point though, is that when we are presented with information in a business app, our default response should not be to question it. Instead we should use that information to help move the business forward. If the information doesn’t gel with how we feel – hot or cold – then maybe the input data is wrong. Or maybe we ourselves are missing the right knowledge, experience and skill to get a sense for whether the information is accurate?

Think about this next time you are sitting in a business meeting and someone is questioning the app’s output. Is it the data, or is it the reporting lens through which the data is being viewed? Is questioning the app’s output simply providing an excuse not to act? Or indeed, is it the knowledge, experience and skill of the interpreter which is the weakest link. In other words, are we qualified to know what ‘hot’, or ‘cold’ should feel like?

At the end of the day, not all software will be accurate, but 99.999% of the time, it probably is. What really matters is how we use the information to make quicker and better business decisions.

What do you think?