Every year there’s a new technology that promises to revolutionize the restaurant business. Every year, operators invest in it before they’ve answered the most basic question: what problem am I solving?

Most technology purchases in the restaurant industry are solutions looking for a problem. An operator sees a demo, gets excited about the features, and buys it — without ever defining what the technology needs to accomplish or how its success will be measured. Six months later, the platform is underutilized, the team hasn’t adopted it, and the operator is looking at the next shiny object.

Before you buy any technology, answer three questions.

What specific problem does this solve? Not a general category — a specific, measurable problem in your operation right now.

How will I know if it worked? Define success before you spend the money. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

What does my team need to make this work? Technology that requires significant behavior change from your team without corresponding support will fail. Every time.

If you can’t answer all three, you’re not ready to buy it — regardless of how impressive the demo is.