The magical question that can save you time and money in Immersive Tech

But, does it add value?

This is a question that I often ask myself and many others about implementing Immersive Technologies in their companies or projects. Being innovators and thinking out-of-the-box is usually the best trait tech-entrepreneurs have when it comes to founding a company based on passion, vision and tech implementation. But when being so involved in certain areas of the company blurs your ability to see things clearly (specially for those of us that work in the tech R&D area), you need to ask yourself (or be asked) this question... often. It's very easy to "lose sight of the forest, because of the trees". Is this huge idea you're working on add value? in how long? is that idea structured? Is this super high-end and extremely cool thing you just read about worth spending time/money on? can it do something better that other technologies/services can? does it add value?

Furthermore, when working in immersive technologies, this question is a must. Are you adding AR in the right place? is the UX just right, or will it be a mess and end up losing customers/users? Is AR/VR/XR right for you? does it add value to your product? if so, what is that value? could you capture it otherwise?

Asking these questions can be a real pain, and can lead to some disheartening conclusions. But they are needed as catalysts towards a better user experience and industry use, that will lead to a better over-all experience and eventually help create the sought-after killer AR app. However, as with Tarot or I-Ching, answers rely on asking the right questions. In this case, the question is totally contextual... does it add value (as it is right now)? if not, is there a pivot the product could take to lead us there? What we want to pursue is the information and validation that whatever you're implementing has value and makes sense to the end consumer/user.

In the current state if immersive technologies, asking the same question every month can lead to different results as the market is changing so rapidly, so be wary that we are in extremely flexible times, as technology continues to evolve and create/discard softwares AND hardwares.

So remember, when in doubt ask yourself (or do the favor of asking)... but, does it add value?