How to get digital transformation right
The gap between knowing this and actually doing it is where most teams lose ground. The short answer to digital transformation is that it is mostly a sequence of small decisions, not one big one.
The projects that go badly are rarely the ones with the hardest technical problems. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.
What is actually at stake
The technology is rarely the hard part. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.
The steps
- Establish what you have today before changing anything
- Process and people determine whether it sticks
- Start with one workflow that visibly hurts
- Write down the decision so the next person does not re-litigate it
Start with one workflow that visibly hurts. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it. Most teams find the first pass takes an afternoon and the maintenance takes minutes a month.
A reasonable first step
The short version
Strategy work is mostly deciding what not to do, and writing it down so it stays decided. Three things worth confirming about digital transformation before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- Start with one workflow that visibly hurts — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
If you are not sure where your systems currently stand on this, it takes us about an hour to find out.