You Will Migrate Eventually: a developer approach to technology adoption

Trying out new technologies is exciting, but keeping up with the fast moving tech landscape is never easy. At ING, we adopt new tools and frameworks to stay ahead, but every adoption comes with challenges. A proof of concept can quickly turn into a headache if you don’t think about scaling, migration, and decommissioning from the start. Technology adoption is rarely straightforward. We are expected to experiment, deliver working solutions, and keep things maintainable all at once. To manage this, we built a Tech Adoption Model inspired by Organizational Physics of Lex Sisney, which treats adoption as a process instead of a single decision. The model encourages teams to think in phases. Exploration is done safely, incubation focuses on real use, and scaling only happens once a technology is ready. We also make developers consider early on how to migrate away or decommission a tool before it reaches its end of life. Another important part is balancing the future with the present. The model helps teams adopt new tech without breaking what’s already working, making sure current projects stay flexible for what’s coming next. In this talk, I’ll share how thinking in adoption phases can reduce hype-driven decisions, make scaling easier, and turn migration and decommissioning into part of the design process instead of an afterthought.