Last night, I heard one of the best quotes: "Don't try and digitize until you lean your processes." This truism is highly applicable to digital, tech, and data transformations across the board.
The Misconception of Tech as a Silver Bullet
There is a persistent belief that implementing a tech or data solution will automatically fix operating and business model problems. This misconception leads to poor tech decisions and the pursuit of the latest shiny new tech toy, often without considering how it fits into the overall business capability.
Technology and Data as Part of the Business Capability
Tech and data are critical components of business capability. They might not always be front and center, but for most firms, they are essential for functionality. To leverage tech and data effectively, organizations often need to change their operating models to adopt new data and technology solutions.
Breaking Down Barriers to Innovation
To truly benefit from digital transformation, organizations need to remove red tape and political boundaries. Incentivize innovation across all departments, including operations, and allow for fast failure and speculative exploration of data and analytics (D&A) use cases, as long as they show potential business benefits.
The Role of Data Products
Data products can play a crucial role in this transformation, but itโs important to approach them with a genuine product mindset. This means engaging with customers to solve direct business problems, not just focusing on the data and delivery aspects.
Embracing a Product Mindset
A genuine product mindset includes:
- Product Market Fit: Talk to the business first (research), understand their problems, and then determine if you can build analytics to solve those problems. Only after this should you assess if you have the data (or good enough data) to support the solution.
- Integration with Business Strategy: Analytics capabilities (people, process, and tech) should be integrated into the business strategy, not treated as separate or secondary initiatives.
The Importance of Strategy, Culture, and External Expertise
Transformation initiatives need a balanced approach involving people, process, and technology/data. While strategy is essential, it's crucial to eliminate red tape and political boundaries since "culture eats strategy for breakfast."
Additionally, data and technology are not substitutes for human qualities such as kindness, compassion, and judgment. Transformation can be tough, but sticking to the basics (People, Process, Technology/Data) can simplify the journey.
External Help for Aligning Business Strategy with Data Needs
Companies should be more receptive to external help to align business strategy with data needs. Sometimes, neutral expertise can bridge the gap between business and data, providing valuable objectivity.
Conclusion
Successful digital transformation requires a lean approach to business processes, a genuine product mindset, and an integrated strategy that balances people, process, and technology. By breaking down barriers to innovation and embracing external expertise, organizations can drive effective and meaningful change.