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Why We Think People Matter Most--Even in Tech Development

July 11, 2014

Posted by: Monica Selby

Why We Think People Matter Most--Even in Tech Development

Let’s be honest. These days we’re kind of in love with our technology.

Phones, tablets, and wearables are all a part of our daily existence, both in our personal and work lives. We use them for everything from getting directions to sending emails to managing projects. As tech developers ourselves, we need our technology as much as anyone!

But with all the tech love happening, it’s easy to overlook the most important part of any business: people.

Put Down the Devices

Even in the tech world, it’s becoming somewhat popular to take regular breaks from the digital life. Last year entrepreneur and writer Baratunde Thurston famously took a 25 day break from all things digital.

I hope we all--users and makers of these tools--allow each other more reprieves from the hunt for constant digital connection, so that we can find and maintain other, deeper connections. -Baratunde Thurston

While that’s not practical for everyone on a regular basis, there’s a lot of wisdom in the practice.

Think about this. When was the last time you were in a meeting that wasn’t interrupted at least once by a buzz or a ping? And, try as we might, we can’t help but check that device, just real quick.

Before we know it, we’re engrossed in an email or Facebook update while we were supposed to be focusing on our client or coworker.

At DevDigital, we make it a practice to leave our devices out of meetings. We want to focus on the person we’re talking to and give them our full attention. That email or text can afford to wait, but if we don’t focus on our clients right then we might miss an opportunity to help them.

People Come First

It’s not just digital devices, though. There are lots of ways to communicate to customers, colleagues, and friends that they matter more than the other people on our phone, at least in the moment.

For every significant project we take on, our project managers send an email and make a phone call to the client every day. It could be to give updates on the project or it could be comment on the new receiver for the Tennessee Titans. All that matters is that our clients know they aren’t forgotten while we work on their project.

Ultimately, tech is made for people, not people for tech. This philosophy in our work has helped us grow DevDigital into a successful business because we always put our clients (and team) first.

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