HR Tech's Snack Drawer Syndrome
What is my snack drawer dilemma, you ask? Well, you see, I’m a chronic snacker. This means I have a dedicated snack drawer at home that gets replenished regularly, and I usually carry a snack bag when I travel. My dilemma happens when I’m standing in front of that snack drawer, wondering if I should try that new flavor of tempura seaweed I got last week from the “New Arrivals” shelf, or if I should just stick to my usual ranch-flavored cashews. While the tempura seaweed seemed like a good idea when I bought it from the store, the cashews usually win during snack selection because they are reliable. I know the flavor, and I’m not about to venture into territory unknown in my 10 minutes between meetings.
Why am I writing about snacks in an HR tech newsletter? Well, here’s the thing, I am noticing that some solution providers in the market are creating the pickled squid jerky equivalent of HR technology (primarily because of that one time they heard from their prospects that pickled squid jerky is precisely what the market needs); and on occasion, I am also seeing buyers buy the tehcnology equivalent of cucmber flavored chips, which sounds interesting at first, but you probably will never touch again once you get home.
So, consider this my attempt to better align the solution providers and users in the HR tech world through snack analogies. (Also, I realized that my last few articles are very heavy, and I figured I could lighten up the reading a bit with this here.)
Alright, so let’s talk about how I categorize snackdrawers and HR tech. In every snack drawer I have ever stocked, there are usually categories of goodies:
1. Staples I Reach for Every Day
This is the workhorse section of the snack drawer. It’s the veggie straws, the dry fruit and nuts, the Tim-Tams, etc. It’s the stuff that I know will get consumed in a week or two’s time.
In the HR tech world, I see this as the table-stakes-must-solve-workflows that directly reduce pain, risks, and costs for HR teams. Think of this as the automated data cleaning function, the single-screen people analytics dashboard view, the AI-assistant that helps you find information quickly, the local labor/payroll law compliance engine, etc.
It’s the stuff that users will notice if they are missing. It’s the pivotal bit of every budget battle (ahem, I mean conversation). And it’s the feature that gets used over and over again by most users in the tool.
See content credentials
2. The Funky Flavors I’ll Try Once
Wasabi peas? Not my jam. Pumpkin-spice flavored popcorn? Never doing that again. Cumber flavored chips? Oddly, they grew on me after the first 1/4 bag. These snacks sound fun, have a wow-factor in their packaging, and probably found me in the right season, at the right mood, and in the right store.
They are kind of like the “wow” features that we see during demos. Think about that one amazing internal mobility data visualization, the AI sentiment clouds, the VR tours inside your LMS, emoji-based performance reviews, etc.
It’s the stuff that the solution provider’s engineering and product teams toiled over, believing that it would change the industry. It’s the stuff that looks AMAZING in a sales deck, and makes you want to buy the solution immediately. Unfortunately, it’s also the stuff that might never get used and expire in the cupboard once you bring it in-house.
See content credentials
3. The Snacks I Will Never Buy
Ok, picked squid jerky might be a bit of an exaggeration here. This is more like the ghost pepper chips in my world. It’s the stuff that I know I will never enjoy. I often wonder, “Who buys this stuff?” because I want to know what they like about it.
These are the niche-edge cases with over-engineered solutions for rare scenarios. It’s the blockchain notarization for PTO requests, the built-in metaverse avatars for org charts, the solution that requires you to exit multiple systems and then go back into them after completing a simple task, etc.
It’s the stuff that a LOT of dev hours are spent on, that maybe 0.5% of the end-users at best will ever use. Oddly, it’s also not that rare in the HR tech space to come across one of those features, especially with the proliferation of AI-enabled tech.
See content credentials
So, what do you do about this snack-drawer dilemma if you are a solution provider or a buyer/user in the HR tech space?
Let’s start with the solution provider angle (HR practitioners, scroll down to the next section if you’re not interested in this part). I have observed a few patterns in why solution providers’ new features might not be landing the way they thought they would in the market:
Sampling bias: Simply put, your product teams might be over-indexing on feedback from existing customers and tech-savvy design partners, and not the typical HR user who is working 10+ hours each day and trying to make payroll cut off by 5 pm.
Shelf-space optics: While a decently sized features list might look like excellent value in comparison grids, not everything gets used. Every time a SKU is launched, it also has to be maintained and updated, even if no one is using it. That takes cycle time away from the features your users are looking forward to you updating.
Investor FOMO: It’s surprising (well, not really) how the current market sentiment is that every solution must have AI in it for investors even to consider it. I think this is when we start to see roadmaps being covered in buzzwords and trendy features in the name of valuation. Something to keep in mind is that just because something sounds good, it doesn’t mean it will actually yield adoption.
Copy-cat crunch: Repeat after me: Just because your competitor is doing it, doesn't mean you should too. This is peak competitive FOMO where you want to mirror your competitors’ spec sheets and be able to say “we have that too!” Just remember that while you are in the same product category, you could be going after entirely different market segments and end users.
Legacy leftovers: Yes, sun-setting features and migrating existing customers kind of suck. But do you really want to maintain an outdated module just because one legacy customer has requested it and is still using it 2 times a year? Sometimes, it’s better to deal with the short term pain and just move on from old features instead of snowballing your features list.
I think we all know where to start when it comes to refining a feature list. Here are some quick tips and reminders to keep in mind just in case:
Understand your utilization rate. When was the last time you looked at how frequently uers are accessing each of your features on a weekly or monthly basis?
Instead of asking “how do you like feature X?”, ask your users if it has measurably helped them reduce time, risk, spend, or a combination of the three.
Look at your maintenance costs. It’s not just the cost to develop a feature that matters; you also need to look at what it takes for your dev team to maintain it, for new users/CSM to be trained on it, and if it is creating UI clutter on your platform
Alright, let’s talk about this from the HR buyer and user’s lens now. How to prevent yourself from getting the HR tech equivalent of cucumber-flavored chips? I think there are a few things you need to remember as a buyer or user in this case:
Did you do your “pre-shopping pantry check”? Before you even think about looking at potential solutions, go ahead and list today’s top three “this really sucks” items from your workflow (e.g., off-cycle comp changes, multi-state taxes, frontline call-outs, etc.). Anything that you see—no matter how beautiful it looks—that doesn’t address those painpoints, shelve it for later. Also, give bonus points to vendors who can demo your exact scenario and not just the canned versions of their tools.
Did you get into the details? Just as nutrition labels help you understand what is in the snack exactly, asking your solution providers the right questions upfront can also save you a lot of pain down the road. The next time you see a solution, consider asking for stats around the following: User hours saved per month from their customers Mean time to proficiency for end users (so you know how much change management effort there may be) Maintenance hours per quarter that the solution provider spends on the feature that is most valuable to you
Did you consider the hidden effort and costs? Flashy features are great, but they also drive up training time, change management effort, and configuration complexity. Make sure you convert that additional effort into dollars first before you say “YES!” to a new feature. Once you look at the cost of extra efforts, that “free” module may not be free anymore.
Do you need to turn on all the features all at once? Make sure you only turn on and pay for what you need. Start with a core plan, then give yourself a 6-month opt-in window for additional features so that you only pay for the “fun” features once you know your end users will actually use them.
Did you run through this checklist before making the buy decision? Here is a quick list of gut-check questions to consider when you look at cool, new tech: Can I name the specific persona that will use this feature weekly? Do I have data showing the feature’s ROI at another company like mine? What is the cost (time + dollars) to turn it off if adoption lags? Will our employees notice if it disappears tomorrow?
Just remember: great HR systems aren’t always the ones with the longest feature lists. It’s the one where most, if not all, of the features are used regularly.