What do global brands like Nike, Walmart, Starbucks, Chipotle, Lenovo, Disney have in common?
They are great brands with amazing products that we associate with our lives everyday. But they are also enterprises that have integrated digital as a part of the customer experience and continued digital transformation. To quote Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about digital transformation during COVID 19- “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months“.
But what happens after the digital transformation ?
They are initiatives that cost millions of dollars in terms of people & technology and enterprises are looking for ROI for the long term. This blogpost is my attempt to answer the above question based on my experience in the last decade
1. They Start with Minimum Viable Product
Digital leaders understand that all of the technical debt cannot be achieved in Day 1. Hence they set low expectations & outcomes by defining the features of a Minimum Viable Product or MVP.
It helps avoid the trap of continuous technical debt without achieving any outcomes and are able to launch the product quickly to test the market. Customer feedback towards this MVP powered by behavior data helps define customer-centric features to gain more traction.
2. They Avoid Band Aids
Digital leaders understand that developing great expectations with minimal technology capability would lead to ‘Band Aids’ . Inspired by the actual product, they are stop gap solutions or temporary fixes on existing technology to ‘just make it work’
They understand that over time band aids often fall off or have to be ripped/removed forcefully. The technical debt & pain in terms of effort & resources hurt the digital enterprise for the long term. When band-aids are the need of the hour, they apply and rip off slowly & steadily as I have detailed in How Digital Leaders Apply & Rip Off Band Aids
3. They Invest in Digital Capabilities
Digital leaders understand that digital capabilities i.e. skilled resources, correct procedures & right need-technology fit, are developed over a period of time. No amount of automation can remove the human intellect required to take the right decisions to define the best customer experience.
As these capabilities are built over time, they are disconnected from the existing product. Gradually as these new features are tested bit-by-bit, they bring the enterprise closer to using the maximum capabilities available in their technology stack.
4. They create Growth Momentum
Digital leaders realise come good days or bad days they have to repeat the process of delivering high customer experiences every day. The daily repeat of these activities lead to creating growth momentum that takes the digital organization forward by leaps and bounds.
Yes digital transformation failures do happen and sometimes they are unavoidable. But at any given scenario of expectations vs capability, digital leaders can find the path towards creating connected experiences that make all customer journeys shoppable.
Did I miss anything?