A few years ago, I started working with an industry-leading client who had a problem many organisations quietly live with: a critical system that had stagnated.
There had been attempts to upgrade it before. Good intentions, big plans - but they fell short. Confidence in the platform was low, and the cost of failure was felt every day.
I still remember the moment that made the challenge unmistakably clear.
The CEO took me to a whiteboard in their Operations HQ. Written across the top - fresh from that morning - were the words:
“The system has s** itself.”
He looked at me and said simply: "I don’t want to see that anymore."
The challenge
What followed was no small task.
We needed to manage a major platform upgrade:
- While the system was actively in use
- Supporting 5,000+ daily users
- Across internal teams and external stakeholders
- Without stopping operations or further eroding trust
This wasn’t just a technical upgrade. It was a change-management problem, a process problem, and a people problem - all at once.
What actually made the difference
The shift didn’t happen by accident. A few deliberate changes fundamentally altered how the system - and the organisation around it - operated.
Clear ownership on the client side
Someone from the client’s team was formally appointed to own the process end-to-end. They held everyone to account - including us. That single point of ownership changed everything.
Well-documented change requests
Every change was clearly documented with detail around:
- What the client wanted
- How they expected it to work in practice
This removed ambiguity, assumptions, and costly rework before development even began.
A structured QA process
We implemented a clear quality-assurance process that tested changes:
- During development
- At integration points
- From the client’s operational perspective
Issues were caught early and intentionally.
Real user feedback before broad release
Teams were formed within the client’s business to provide feedback and validate the approach before changes were released to wider users. This ensured solutions worked in the real world - not just on paper.
Active engagement and education
Rather than dismissing problems as “user error”, we encouraged engagement. We worked through issues as they arose, educating users on how the system worked — and using that feedback to improve usability.
End-to-end logging
We added logging to every meaningful step of the process. This allowed us to confidently diagnose whether feedback reflected:
- A system issue
- A configuration issue
- Or a usage issue
Facts replaced guesswork.
Changing the narrative
Perhaps most importantly, we changed the language.
From:
“The system has s** itself.”*
To:
“Something happened. What happened, why did it happen, and what needs to be done?”
That shift moved the organisation from blame to problem-solving.
Fast forward to this week
This week, I stepped into a support desk role while a team member was offline.
The difference was stark.
Instead of firefighting system failures, we were:
- Launching 100% compliance with electronic system usage - no more paper receipts
- Supporting users who were actively embracing the platform
- Handling user questions, not system breakdowns
- Following clear, documented workflows for escalation and resolution
There was no chaos. No panic. Just process.
The messaging had changed too.
Not:
“The system is broken.”
But:
“The system is working as it should - what messages are you seeing so we can update your account?”
Why this matters
This is what success looks like in complex digital systems.
Not perfection.
Not silence.
But trust, adoption, and clarity.
When users stop blaming the system and start working with it, you know the platform is doing its job.
At Dcode, this is what we focus on.
Not just delivering software - but building systems that organisations can trust, understand, and evolve with confidence. Systems where problems are observable, ownership is clear, and improvement is continuous.
When the narrative shifts from “the system failed” to “we understand what happened and know what to do next”, that’s when technology stops being a liability and starts becoming a strength.
These are the outcomes that make working in this space so rewarding.
