Innovation Isn't About Doing More, It's About Doing It Right

When Technology Feels Outdated, But Tech Isn't the Problem

If you work at a company that develops digital products, you've probably been in this situation:

🚀 A project kicks off with big promises of innovation.
⏳ Months or years are spent building new features.
😬 Launch day arrives… and users barely touch it.

What was supposed to be a solution becomes a bloated product, full of features nobody asked for, while the real problems remain unsolved.

It happens in banks, tech companies, startups, and large corporations. Entire teams get obsessed with adding the latest trends, while the product fails at the most basic level.

We recently experienced this with a university whose app had an average rating of 1.45 stars on the app stores.

The student reviews were a cry for help:

❌ "It won't let me make payments."
❌ "I can't log in."
❌ "The schedules don't load correctly."

The students didn't need artificial intelligence, a voice-activated chatbot, or sophisticated animations. They just wanted the app to work.

When "New" Becomes a Distraction

Many companies think innovation is about adding new things, when it's really about solving existing problems in the best way possible.

They obsess over:
💡 Adding more features with every iteration.
🎩 Chasing the latest trends just to ride the wave.
⚙️ Investing months in complex systems no one will use.

And in the meantime, the real problems persist:
❌ Frustrated users because the product is hard to use.
❌ Internal processes that consume more resources than they should.
❌ Tech teams stuck fixing bugs instead of building value.

The result: products full of interesting but useless features. And the worst part is, this doesn't just hurt the user experience—it wastes millions of dollars on unnecessary development.

Making Critical Decisions to Launch in Record Time

Unlike other projects that get stuck for months or even years in a spiral of changes and tweaks, this app was designed and developed in just 12 weeks.

This was possible thanks to key decisions that allowed us to move quickly without compromising quality:

🔹 Leveraging the tech team's existing work.
The backend was already well underway, so instead of reinventing the structure, we aligned with what was already built. We made sure the user flows were sound and that the frontend could be integrated efficiently.

🔹 Using the existing "Design System," even if it wasn't managed.
While there wasn't a formally managed Design System, we leveraged the existing visual components instead of starting from scratch. We focused on optimizing and updating these elements to ensure consistency and accessibility throughout the design.

🔹 Prioritizing usability and accessibility from the start.
Every design decision was focused on making the app fast, intuitive, and easy to use. No unnecessary steps, no friction.

These decisions helped us avoid the classic problem of "starting from scratch just because," which so often delays projects unnecessarily.

First, Understand the Users. Then, Decide What to Build.

When we joined the project, the first thing we did was not design, but research.

To truly understand what was wrong with the app and what students needed, we used multiple sources of information:
🔍 Analyzing app store reviews → We identified patterns in recurring complaints.
📊 Internal university surveys (acting as a feedback channel) → We reviewed structured data on which features were used (and which weren't).
🎙 Contextual interviews with students → We observed how university students used the current app to solve their problems and what other methods they used.
🛠 Testing with prototypes of varying fidelity → We tested the new version of the app with real students before its release.

This allowed us to see the full picture and set aside as many assumptions as possible. It wasn't about adding more features; it was about fixing the basics.

Innovation Isn't About Doing More, It's About Doing It Right

Innovation isn't about adding more; it's about making the essentials work perfectly.

The best digital experiences aren't the ones that look impressive in a PowerPoint presentation. They're the ones users navigate effortlessly because they just work.

Because a great app, platform, or system isn't the one with the most features.
It's the one that causes the fewest problems.

If This Sounds Familiar, Let's Talk

If you've read this far, this probably sounds familiar. Perhaps:

👨‍💻 You're a designer tired of seeing your ideas ignored while the tech team goes down unnecessary rabbit holes.
📈 You're a product owner frustrated because the roadmap is filled with items that have no real impact.
💰 You're a decision-maker watching resources get poured into ideas that don't generate value.

🚀 We can help. Whether it's by rethinking your digital strategy or guiding your teams to launch products that truly matter.

Let's talk. Tell us about your situation. We promise you one thing: we won't reinvent the wheel. We'll make it work.