A digital transformation is a journey. Unlike a journey by train where the tracks have been previously placed out, and it's a predictable and consistent path, digital transformation journeys often come with twists and turns, ups and downs, and discoveries.  

The Roadmap for a Successful Digital Transformation Journey

To achieve success, maintain an overarching strategic roadmap for your journey. It should trace business objectives to deliverable elements and components using well-defined features and capabilities. Remember that they should be forecastable and measurable. This process will help keep the target objectives in focus and prevent drifting. 

Be Flexible and Incorporate Feedback 

Build feedback into your planning and welcome it. Meaningful, data-driven feedback will help ensure that outcomes are what they should be. Remember that the results could differ from what you thought they would be when you started.   

 Good feedback can come from several sources, including:   

• Sprint demos   
• Beta customer testimonies   
• Data captured on user behavior   
• Changing market conditions   

Allow feedback to challenge your plans. Be flexible and use good feedback to update your solutions to improve them. 

Managing deliverables incrementally and constantly reprioritizing (i.e., backlog grooming and sprint planning) allows you more room to create opportunities to adapt your original plan, which is why the Agile methodology is ideal for digital transformations. 

Always Involve Your People 

Success is much more than delivering a  technological solution. Digital transformation is introducing change that will be felt by your customers, both external and internal. Introducing this change to people and how they adapt to it ultimately defines success. 

 Having a comprehensive change management plan is critical to success. 

 A good change management plan will cover the following:  

• Awareness: Address the reason for changes with frequent, timely, and tailored messaging   
• Desire: Generate a passion for the upcoming change  
• Knowledge: Share how the changes affect each person and how they will do things differently  
• Ability: Transform this knowledge into an ability to embrace change.   
• Reinforcement: Support the change, encourage the newly adopted behavior, look for friction points, and address them quickly 

Communication, as always, is critical. Educating your team and organization about changes will make the journey smoother and increase adoption rates. 

Start a conversation today if you need help creating success in your Digital Transformation.  Fill out the form below to get more information.