Hey friends and welcome to the small
tech podcast from Éphémère Creative.

I'm your host Raph.

And this is our very first episode.

In this podcast, we'll dive into
the world of small tech development.

We'll bring you the latest in tools,
strategies, and technologies that can

help you build a technology product.

So whether you're a startup founder,
trying to launch a world, changing

platform, a nonprofit building, an
app to serve your community, a small

business, trying to augment your
existing services, or just curious

about the future of building technology.

You're in the right place.

On today's episode, we'll break down some
core concepts about building technology

as a small organization, we'll go over
the importance of staying agile, how

to maximize your tech budget and why
it's crucial to stay focused on people.

This is the kind of stuff we'll
touch on in every episode.

Though we'll be more focused
on the specifics down the line.

All righty, let's jump in.

First thing's first agility.

This is absolutely key.

As you navigate the ever changing
landscape of technology, it's important

to remain open to new ideas and be
ready to pivot when you need to.

Often this can mean embracing cutting
edge tools that help you stay ahead of the

competition to do that right, you'll need
to stay informed about the latest trends

and advancements and be prepared to learn
from your successes and your failures.

There are times when you'll spend a
lot of effort getting set up with a new

technology that seemed promising, but
if you see that it's not bringing you

the rewards that you were expecting, you
have to be ready to drop it and move on.

To do that effectively, you'll
need to think about how tech fits

into your processes and how you
can plug things in and remove them

without completely throwing you off.

But most importantly, it's about
building a culture that embraces

change and is open to new things.

That applies to your organization, but
it also applies to you as an individual

.

Now let's talk about maximizing your
tech budget when you're working with

limited resources, every dollar counts.

So it's crucial to prioritize your
technology investments wisely.

Start by identifying your most
pressing needs and then researching

the tools and services that
can best address those needs.

Prioritizing is definitely
the hardest part, but as you

experiment, you'll figure it out.

Don't be afraid to explore open source
solutions or less expensive alternatives

to popular software and always consider
the longterm value of your investments.

Think about how they could benefit
your organization, not just today,

but like years down the line.

With that in mind though, make
sure to consider that cheap tools

sometimes end up being more costly.

If they require technical staff
to spend more hours getting

them to do what you need.

If you're spending 50 bucks a
month, for example, on tooling.

But spending 200 on the human hours
required to make it do what a hundred

dollar tool could do out of the box,
you might want to just switch and

spend on the more expensive tool.

Similarly open source can be really
compelling and is often a great

choice, but you need to have a
good sense of how much money it's

actually going to take to run both
in terms of server and staff costs.

Sometimes the trade off makes sense.

And other times it just doesn't.

Finally, let's talk about one of the
most important aspects of building

technology, keeping people at
the center of your tech strategy.

Technology ultimately serves people.

And it should improve their lives.

Always ask yourself, how is this actually
going to make people's lives better?

You can and should keep track of
quantitative metrics as you build.

But ultimately, especially in the
early stages, the human element

is what's going to keep you going.

So listen to feedback and be willing
to adapt your approach if necessary,

by focusing on people you'll foster
loyalty, you'll drive engagement and

set yourself up for longterm success.

Technical folks in particular and I'm
technical and I'm guilty of this tend to

get lost in how cool their systems are.

We're building cool tech.

We like the shiny new thing.

But in the end, we're all just
building products to help people.

And we've got to remember that if you're
not serving a human being at the end

of the day, what are you really doing?

So that's it folks to recap when it comes
to building small tech, remember to stay

agile, optimize your tech budget and keep
people at the heart of your strategy.

And that's all for the intro
to the small tech podcast.

Thanks for tuning in, in our upcoming
episodes, we'll be diving deeper

into specific tools, strategies, and
technologies that can benefit you and keep

you up to date on the latest innovations.

Don't forget to subscribe if you want
to keep up with this stuff, I've been

your host Raph and remember, we all
want to do some good in the world so go

build something good out there, friends.