What is your ‘tech stack’? And can you make yours work better for your creative or cultural organisation?

In this article we will cover:

• What is a ‘tech stack’?
• What makes a good ‘tech stack’?
• Identifying the functional needs of your tech stack.

1. What is a tech stack?

A ‘tech stack’ refers to the set of technologies – software and hardware – that an organisation uses to deliver their activities. It covers all interfaces that your customers interact with, as well as ‘back of house’ systems that your staff log in to.

A typical tech stack for a creative and cultural organisation could include:

• • Website – built on something like WordPress
  • Data Analytics – using something like GA4 and Looker Studio
  • Ticketing Platform – something such as Spektrix, or Eventbrite
  • Online shop – something like Shopify or Woo Commerce
  • Till system – something like Lightspeed or EposNow
  • Email Service provider – something like MailChimp.
  • Customer Relationship Manager, CRM – something like Beacon or Salesforce
  • Accounting Platform – something like Xero
  • HR/Payroll Platform – something like Sage

2. Why does your tech stack matter? And what makes a good tech stack?

Your tech stack matters because it provides the operational functionality for your organisation and it is important to make sure you have the right set of functionalities in place to enable your organisation to deliver its mission.

Different organisations will have different needs, which in turn will require different ‘tech stacks’. There is no one-size fits all ‘tech stack’. Likewise if an organisation undergoes significant change – for example expanding into a new area of operation or growing in scale, it is likely that their ‘tech stack’ will need to evolve and change to support the new activity.

A good ‘tech stack’ is one which:

• • meets the functional needs of your organisation
  • is affordable within your organisation’s financial budget
  • is user-friendly for your staff
  • is robust and reliable and well positioned for future change

3. Identifying the functional needs of your tech stack.

Your tech stack exists to serve two broad sets of users:

• • Your audience, who are external users
  • Your staff, who are internal users

Within each group of users you will be able to break these down into further sub-groups, which will help you think through their differing functional requirements.

With respect to your audience you can think about how needs vary by:

• Demographics – age, background, confidence in navigating cultural institutions and digital spaces or services
• Access needs – from providing visitor information and reassurance, to supporting access for people who are disabled or neurodiverse
• First-time visitors versus regular audiences and members
• Service they are accessing – website visitor, physical site visitor, shop visitor, café visitor, archive visitor etc
• Key audience groups or segments who may be focused on or motivated by specific parts of your offer, and might be served or reached in different ways
• Your objectives for audiences – what information do you want to be most visible and what do you most want to encourage audiences to do?

With respect to your staff you can think about how their needs vary by:

• Functional team – marketing, front-of-house, finance
• Position in the organisation – seasonal volunteer vs director reporting to the board
• Access needs – as above
• Data and metrics – what information and insights are important to your colleagues?

In digital development, we describe users’ needs as ‘user stories’, for example:

• ‘As a website visitor I need to be able to find out what time the shop is open’
• ‘As a website visitor I need to be able to look for a gift for my aunt’
• ‘As a website visitor I need to be able to find out about the history of this organisation

This framing helps put you in the shoes of each user and think about what they need. It’s just as important to write these stories for internal teams, as it is for your audience groups. For example:

• ‘As the marketing manager I need to be able to promote tickets for upcoming events’

This user story can then be broken down further:

• • ‘I need a page which clearly communicates the event’
  • ‘I need to be able to list tickets for sale at regular and concession prices’
  • ‘I need customers to be able to pay with credit, debit cards, Apple Pay and Gift Vouchers’
  • ‘I need to be able customers the option to opt into Gift Aid’

Drilling down to the most fundamental level of functionality/user stories will help you understand the specific needs of your different internal and external users at a granular level. And when you have a clear picture of the specific functional needs of your users, you will be able to better assess and identify if your tech stack is serving you well.

Building up this picture can be a time-consuming process but it is absolutely worth investing the time to do so and engaging as many people as possible across the organisation. Do not assume you know what, for example, the marketing team require – instead ask them and listen! Ask each team:

• How they currently use the website/ticketing/CRM?
• What problems do they have with the existing system(s)?
• What things they would like it to be able to do?

Focus on functionality – establishing what you need your tech stack to be able to support. Identify what are critical requirements versus what are ‘nice to haves’.

4. The financial cost of your tech stack

Unfortunately, your tech stack will have a price tag – few of the systems which provide these elements of functionality are free. Further, it is important to consider whether things which appear ‘free’ or cheaper, are truly good value for your organisation. It is a common ploy of many large-scale tech providers to give away a platform for ‘free’ or a nominal cost, particularly to the non-profit sector. While the platform is ‘free’ or appears inexpensive, using it often requires costly setup by a 3rd party platform consultant, so the apparent cost-saving of the platform can rapidly evaporate. Further, these large-scale platforms are designed for enterprise-scale organisations and can be completely inappropriate for a small-scale organisation – like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. And the small organisation can be left with a complex, unwieldy platform that their staff don’t feel confident using and that is costly to adapt to their needs.

It can be eye-opening to add up the costs of the multiple systems you rely on that form your ‘tech stack’. In many cases these systems may have overlapping elements of functionality. It could be worthwhile looking at whether there is any room for rationalising your systems and slimming down your tech stack to reduce your costs.

A good exercise to carry out is to add up the monthly and annual costs of the multiple elements of your tech stack and make a note of any contract lengths and renewal dates.

5. A user-friendly tech stack for your staff

Digging into your staff’s user needs will help you understand whether your tech-stack is meeting their needs. Your questioning around this should also investigate:

• How user-friendly do they find the current systems?
• Do they know how they work and feel confident using them?

In some ways, the most ‘expensive’ tech-stack is one an organisation has financially invested in, but which isn’t properly understood or used by the staff!

6. A robust and reliable tech stack fit for the future

As you will have identified by this point, it is highly unlikely that one single platform or programme will be able to meet all of your needs. As a result, you will be looking to find the best combination of platforms which meet your needs and your budget. There are two important ways that you can make your tech stack more robust and reliable:

• Plug together as FEW platforms as possible – this means there are less connections to maintain and that could potentially go wrong. It also means less interfaces to login to, and less systems that your staff need to be familiar with, and potentially a lower financial cost.
• Try and plan a modular system, which allows platforms and providers to be independently switched in and out. A common way of doing this is to think of your CRM as a data pot in the middle of your tech stack, with information being passed into and out of it, to the different ‘spokes of functionality’ within your tech stack. This means each platform only has to interface with the CRM, not with multiple other platforms. See illustration.

 

This article has outlined what a tech stack is and why it matters to your creative or cultural organisation. Using the principles explained, you can take the first steps to reviewing your tech stack and considering how well it supports the operations that your arts organisation requires.

If you would like further help with understanding your tech stack and you are a creative or cultural organisation based in England, book in with a Tech Champion for a one-to-one support session.

Further support

The Digital Culture Network is here to support you and your organisation. Our Tech Champions can provide free one-to-one support to all creative and cultural organisations who are in receipt of, or eligible for, Arts Council England funding. If you need help or would like to chat with us about any of the advice we have covered above, please get in touch. Sign up for our newsletter below and follow us on LinkedIn and X (Twitter) @ace_dcn for the latest updates.