Dan DeFrancesco: Know Before You Build

A lot is said in a one-hour interview, but it’s my job to boil all that down into something that’s a fair representation of the person’s views. So, as I combed through my interview with The Carlyle Group CIO Georgette Kiser, who is profiled here, I looked for what her principle beliefs were regarding how she approaches her job.

What I found was a deep appreciation for the customer experience. As you’ll see in the profile, understanding who she is building applications and platforms for is of the upmost importance to Kiser. It’s quite clear that under Kiser’s watchful eye, no technology project will get the green light until there is plenty of knowledge about who the client is and how they plan on using it.

Kiser was so passionate about this belief that she made a point to bring it up again in the waning moments of our discussion. As is the case with almost all my interviews, I asked Kiser if she had any additional comments she’d like to mention that we didn’t get to. Instead of saying no or giving some generic statement about how happy she was at her firm, she chose to circle back one final time to how important it is for firms to have a strong grasp of the customer experience before starting a new technology project. 

Have a Plan in Mind

While you’d hope every C-level executive has this mindset before diving into a lengthy, expensive technology build, it seems more than likely that that’s not always the case. In my time covering trading technology, too often have I heard the phrase: “If you build it, they will come.” 

Instead of flooding the market with distributed ledger technologies, the industry would be better off designating specific use-cases for where it would work best.

With IT budgets stagnating or shrinking at firms across the board and new regulations consistently coming down the pipeline, it seems counterintuitive to go ahead with any type of technology project without an exact mindset of who in the firm it will directly help.

I understand that this might not necessarily be a popular opinion with those on the technology side of things. It’s fair to say that if the entire industry were to be that conservative we’d likely miss out on some great innovations. Take a look at the work being done at fintech firms or in digital labs and it’s easy to see what happens when developers aren’t held to strict guidelines for meeting exact use-cases.

Still, for those traditional projects—whether it be upgrading a legacy system or implementing a new platform entirely—Kiser’s thought process holds true. A firm should look at its users before jumping into building something that a simple change in processes could affect. 

Granted, it’s not the sexiest philosophy for those in the technology space. I get it. But there is a lot to be said for choosing your shots. Kiser recalled a valuable lesson she learned from a portfolio manager she worked with that drilled the point home: Just because you can build something doesn’t mean you should.

Blockchain

And so, as blockchain continues to be a popular topic among those in financial services, I think it would be prudent to take a page out of Kiser’s book. Instead of flooding the market with distributed ledger technologies, the industry would be better off designating specific use-cases for where it would work best.

I poked fun at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. (DTCC) for putting out a whitepaper calling for industry-wide collaboration on blockchain technology earlier this year. I stand by my statements, because I don’t think we need a few of the old, traditional firms holding everyone’s hand as they lead us into a new stage of technology. 

However, developing an understanding of where end-users feel blockchain would be the best fit at their firms wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Identify them, understand them, and then build it. Then they’ll have no choice but to come.