That new tool isn’t going to solve your problem
2026-05-01
That new tool isn’t going to solve your problem
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That new tool isn’t going to solve your problem
It’s been an active couple months for our community roundtables, or platform engineering group therapy as I like to call them. With 2 last week in Vegas at Google Next. One thing stuck massively in my mind. We are obsessed with solving all problems with the same kind of solutions.
As engineers always do, the conversation so often focused on what tool or new stack teams needed to migrate to to remedy their problem… but that just ain’t it.
We are technical people. So we want to find technical solutions. I get it. But new tooling is very rarely the answer to your problem. And the numbers can be stark.
85% of enterprises migrated tooling; only 25% saw the expected ROI.
$1.75M average cost, 18% over budget, 37% delivered no value.
68% said productivity dropped; 70% saw developer burnout.
75% found security harder post-new tool.
These are taken from the DevOps Migration Index and shared in last week's community webinar by Sylvain Deyris where he broke down some of the report's data and how he’s been approaching this problem.
At the same time, the report shows that 92% of teams that integrated their existing stack got better outcomes than those who ripped and replaced. So why do we keep dreaming of solving our problems with a shiny new tool?
Because not only do technical people yearn for technical solutions - folks also yearn for the easy way out. We want that one tool we can buy, that one creative script that will solve the problem. But that’s not how things work. And in the age of AI - it’s only going to get worse.
We need the socio - in the sociotechnical, the cultural and system changes, more than ever. When you look at a problem like no one knowing what’s in their AI-generated code, the solution isn't just the best new AI code review tool. It’s frank conversations on ownership.
Especially as we face the current AI whackamole, or using new AI tooling to solve problems created by the previous AI tooling. If you’re never improving the cultural foundation as you go, the core problems are never going to go away.
I want you to think about a problem you’re trying to solve and the solutions you’re toying with. Are all the solutions technical? Then you might need to do a bit more thinking.
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