How to be a leader in an era of digital evolution

At our recent webinar, we asked our panel of experts from Forrester, Netcel, Optimizely and Siteimprove a question: How to be a Leader in an era of digital evolution?

Inspired by the results of a market insights report - From Digital Transformation to Digital Evolution - published by Netcel, Optimizely, Siteimprove and in partnership with London Research, the discussion explores if transformation is an outdated concept. And how organisations can adopt an evolutionary mindset to achieve continuous improvement and better digital outcomes.

Watch the webinar recording On Demand. 

To follow is a summary of the key takeaways and recommendations from the panel across six fundamental areas:

Digital strategy
• Start with the what, then look at the how
• Digital initiatives commonly fail when they lack focus on the customer problems your business solves
• Skip the programmatic approach to planning. Instead, apply an incremental, evolutionary approach where you’re constantly testing, learning, and adapting

Technology
• Don’t use technology as a ‘strategy band-aid’, audit and evaluate your tech stack based on defined, strategic objectives and measures
• Ensure meeting customer expectations is the driving force behind your technology selection
• Challenge whether your organisation has the right tools to deliver the experiences and content your users want

Content & Experience
• Content drives experiences. So when in doubt, create content!
• Embrace experimentation. Create and test hypotheses around the experiences you deliver
• Focus your content experience on meeting customer expectations delivered on the channels they use the most

People & Culture
• Buy-in across the business and at all levels is core to success
• Don’t dictate from the top. Empower your middle management through accountability, access to cross-functional insights, and the opportunity to make mistakes and learn in “psychological safety” (reference to Google Project Aristotle)
• Set clear objectives and apply appropriate measures and incentives aligned with an evolutionary mindset

Process
• Don’t try and do it all at once. Pick something that is critical to your business and create the conditions for success (e.g. the right tech, processes, capability governance, etc.) and then prove the value
• Successful organisations first focus on outcomes, then build the features, initiatives, and capabilities to achieve them
• Use an adaptive business case approach by constantly observing outcomes, then setting and re-setting your measures. Pivot based on the most recent evidence you receive

Governance
• Be clear on the customer problem you’re trying to address
• Adjust your ambitions, technologies, methodologies, and ways of measuring success to match your market and customers
• Empower your teams to focus on leading measures (getting things done), not just lagging measures (targets)

To hear this insight led discussion in full, watch the webinar OnDemand here. Also download the key takeaways infographic here.

If you would like to discuss any of the themes from the webinar or need help with a digital project please get in touch.