Here’s a daunting question: Why does damn near every technology project end up as a complete debacle? Of course it never starts out that way...

“Ugh, I hate our technology.” How often do we hear this? How often do we say this? Can we really afford that expectation?

The only way for technology to thrive is with a specialized, holistic and ongoing focus. Without that, organizations predictably lurch from debacle to debacle, with technology as a hindrance to their effectiveness rather than a supercharger.

You don’t want a treasure map. You want your own team of ace treasure hunters.

Our most popular chart boils down the hazards of uneven technology investment into a simple graph of smiley faces, showing the benefits of a continuous investment cycle.

Whatever you do nowadays, you’re also a tech company. Let's admit that, and then put good people on delivering it.

When you build a culture of smart technology, you’re building your organization a rocketship.Once you’ve seen this potential, you realize there are corners you should never cut.

You’re an organizational leader. The demands are on you are high and the pace is fast. You simply must delegate things in order to survive, and for everything to get accomplished.But one thing you cannot delegate is caring about your technology. Your organization, all the way to the top, has to care.

Does this product team model scale down for smaller organizations? Here’s one way to look at it. Chances are that for an organization or company being founded today -- especially a startup run by younger entrepreneurs -- a technology leader is either a co-founder or the very first hire.

You're the leader. You want an organization that can compete in an ever-more demanding landscape. That functions a little bit better every day than it did the day before. Let reason win the day, and clear the path for the people on your team who are fighting for a better tomorrow.

There is a new layer of technology in play now -- the platform layer. Platforms give us amazing new potential to do things better. But they require a new core competence within your organization, a new type of management, in order to steer the development of those platforms. Developing, maintaining, and managing the product roadmap is the core responsibility of the product team in general, and of the product manager specifically.

A technology accelerator team should be its own department -- its own stripe in the org chart. Critical problems get introduced when the team lives under a “service” oriented department like Operations, a specific purpose-oriented team such as Fundraising, Communications, or Programs, or gets mixed with I.T.…

There is an important distinction between Products and traditional IT. The Product Team must not be pulled into IT roles, even if they seem to be more "tech savvy" than other people in the organization. Eyes will be taken off the ball, and crucial balls will be dropped...

Don’t combine IT and Digital Products. Don’t do it. They are not the same thing. They pull in different directions. Everyone loses. That said, we have seen enough times that this can be a hard separation to pull the trigger on. So here are a couple great reasons to help you marshal your courage and build your case.

There are some things you can -- and probably should -- outsource. What you can never outsource is the brains of your technology operation.

We use the analogy of a dishwasher to help explain technology that we see as belonging under the purview of traditional I.T., as opposed to digital products. Traditional I.T. products, we say, are like dishwashers....

Here’s the key underlying principle of the distributed ownership model: let people focus on their areas of interest and expertise. Let people geek out — productively — on the piece of the puzzle where they can make the most impact. And give people on both sides the trusted allies they need to move the ball forward.

At a high level, this "Flight of the Bumblebee" diagram illustrates the beauty of the system working, when the blue team (tool optimizers) and the yellow team (tool users) work in harmony

When roles are well defined — when people get the support they need and digital products like the website and CMS start to hit a new trajectory of quality and utility — turfiness starts to dissipate.