Digital transformation is a relay of sprints, not a marathon
Play the long game for longer-standing results, writes New Republique CEO Nima Yassini.
With the ecommerce boom following on from pandemic-led lockdowns, it’s no surprise that digital transformation has become a top priority for many businesses over the past 12 months. But digital transformation has many layers, and few businesses are equipped to address all of them at once.
The good news is that, instead of embarking on a five-year multi-million-dollar digital transformation project, businesses can use a more agile process to achieve more effective outcomes sooner.
Transformation is not a monolith
The biggest obstacle for businesses considering digital transformation is that it has many facets. It is often primarily a technical transformation, where the business may have to invest in digital infrastructure, but on top of that is an educational layer where key people within the organisation need to understand digital-first culture. Then there’s a skills gap; if you’re building an ecommerce website without a UX designer, it’s like having a physical retail store without a visual merchandiser.
Related to all this is a cultural shift where digital is not just another channel but a way of thinking and working. For example, a mobile-first mentality is about making the best experience possible for the worst screen; a digital-first mindset is about optimising the customer experience, using the digital realm to make things more connected, easier to navigate and more intuitive to use.
Most businesses do not have the time, budget or capacity to tackle all of these aspects of digital transformation, which would literally take years and millions of dollars. However, even if you did have the resources, the dynamic nature of digital transformation would mean that technology would move on by the time the project reached completion and you would have something obsolete or unsuitable for the market on your hands.
Consider something counter to that: when Apple launched the iPhone, it literally changed how people played with technology. Apple then spent successive years expanding the capability of these handheld computers. The product changed behaviour, so any competitor with a project more than a year or so from completion fell behind.
Think iteratively
So how can you transform at the same pace as your customers’ changing behaviour? The difference between an output-focused transformation and an outcome-focused one illustrates this best. Working towards an output requires you to design and develop a product that you hope will fulfil a need when it is complete, whereas working with an outcome in mind allows you to observe, confirm and implement as you go.
The act of testing and the cultivation of an experimentation mindset within an organisation is really about an iterative series of confirming data that allows you to move forward with implementation. By focusing on smaller pivots where you’re constantly testing and learning, you can lower the barrier to transformation both financially and capacity-wise while keeping pace with changes in customer behaviour as they happen.
If there’s anything the past year has taught us, it’s that market conditions can shift in a matter of days, subjecting any fixed digital plans to obsolescence. Digital transformation is a process, not a destination, so it requires an iterative method to do it well. Experimentation is simply an agile way to use testing to validate data and data to guide implementation, all while accounting for change and growth.
Nima Yassini is the CEO of New Republique.
