What Is a Tech Stack, Exactly?

I get this question fairly often. Not by clients or prospective clients; they tend to know exactly what this is, as it can be the bane of their existence. And not directly, sometimes this question lies in the blank stares I receive when I mention my industry and my work to a family member or associate. Nonetheless, this question is valid, and since technology is used in almost every facet of life these days, the tech stack appears in more industries and job types than we'd imagine.

So, let’s break it down. Generally speaking, [tech] is from the full word technology, and [stack] represents a group of things. By this definition, a tech stack is simply a group of technologies or technological items. On the job, your tech stack is the collection or group of technologies (software tools) you use to execute your work on a daily basis. Period.

Depending on what you do each day, this term may take on a broader or narrower meaning. For instance, in developer circles, tech stack means something much more specific: it’s the layers of code, frameworks, and infrastructure used to actually build software (because that’s what they do). Your frontend, your backend, your database, your hosting. All valid and within their scope.

For the rest of us, our scope is a bit wider.

Remember grade school? Each day we carried a sack with several books, one for each class. English, Social Studies, Science, Mathematics, and electives of choice. These books were the knowledge and tools we needed to execute our daily tasks.

Well, your tech stack is just like that stack of books sitting on your desk back in 9th grade.

The application you use to send emails, the software you use to design logos, even your AI chat tool; you need it, you have it, you use it every day on the job, whether you like the stack or not!

But that analogy reveals a thread I want to pull. Your stack of school books sat neatly in your tote or bookbag, even more neatly when held in your hands. Otherwise, using those books or traveling with them would be utter chaos. Well, that second word [stack] is simply defined as a group in conversation, but more intricately defined as "an orderly pile" by our good friends at Merriam-Webster. Meaning, your tech stack has to have order, a flow, and be easily carried and adapted to create this "orderly" state.

Now, imagine this stack of school books in your hands. Imagine that instead of having one book for science, one for English, one for social studies, and one for math, you randomly have two of the exact same science books. Now that load is a bit heavier, and for no good or justifiable reason. In addition to that duplicative science book, you are carrying a 7th-grade edition of your English book, rather than the 9th-grade edition needed to complete your classwork. So your back is aching from carrying more than you need, and your classwork is suffering from having outdated materials.

This pain point right here is why I chose to work solely on tech stack alignment and modernization as a consultant. (additional analogy coming in 3..2..1)

Have you ever heard of the fairy tale, The Princess & The Pea? In this short story, a woman claiming to be a princess is put to the test. Though the queen of the castle she stumbles upon at night gives her a place to sleep, she has her staff place a tiny pea under the guest room mattress and cover it with dozens of additional mattresses for the woman to sleep on. The next morning, the woman complains that she barely slept as something hard between the mattresses bruised her. This fragility proved to the queen that she was indeed a princess.

Like this tiny pea, how orderly or aligned a tech stack may be is far more important than organizations realize.

The good folks at "XYZ Insurance & Co." are not carrying literal books; instead, they are spending tens of thousands yearly on tools they may not need. And similar to the lack of advancement you will face from that outdated English book, each and every team member will face a lack of productivity and an influx of confusion from having the wrong tools for their needs.

For me, going all-in on helping my clients relieve this specific pain point opens up funds and bandwidth for them to get the tools they truly need, understand, and thrive with. It also consistently leads to the kind of productivity and revenue gains that support merit increases, promotions, and adding headcount.

So next time your team is dragging, or your budget review makes you wince, ask yourself: is there a pea under all those mattresses? Chances are, it's not one big obvious problem. The answers could lie in a duplicate tool nobody reviewed, a workaround nobody questioned, a 7th-grade textbook masquerading as a 9th-grade one.