When your team needs to come up with a solution or architecture to a new and important need, it is valuable to take a moment and reflect about the range of possible solutions, from the Good Ol’ solution that everyone knows to the bleeding edge thing you just read about last night on Hacker News.

Novelty has its value for things that are at the core of your business, this is where your creativity needs to shine and you should be pulling in whatever tools are available to make your offering invaluable and remarkable. Yet, innovation and mold-breaking in other spaces are usually to your detriment.

Consider the little medical or financial startup that’s coming up with an in-house security theater mechanism instead of sticking with what tech giants in their space are selling. If that extra “security” isn’t their selling point, do you think it’s a good idea to get on the regulator’s radar by messing around with the tried and tested?

Or the SaaS that’s decided to do authentication of its REST API differently, for some semi-valid reason. Do you really think the extra development time necessary is worthwhile, and the added maintenance down the road? Can you imagine clients being overjoyed when they start looking into integrating and realizing their regular toolbox doesn’t work with this new authentication mechanism?

Yes, you’re all special and exceptionally smart, I’m sure. But you don’t have to make a point of showing it in every detail of your product.