Digital Transformation 2016 was one of those awesome events when a bunch of seriously talented people get together and talk. We had a great time meeting a wide variety of people both at our stand and in our break-out session. But the best thing by far was that the resounding message from everyone was – even if it’s called Digital Transformation – in reality it is all about people. And that is the essence of any transformation piece of work, if you forget to think about the people then you may be setting yourself up for a fall.

I chose the word ‘people’ very purposefully too as a transformation is not just about your Customers but also about the internal staff and stakeholders. For a full organisational step change you really need to take in to account your stakeholders, how their roles will potentially change and how together you can make the changes that really matter.

But it is not just transformations that require you to think about people – you need to evolve your business in line with your customers too. If your target customers are using a specific online channel to make purchasing decisions, you need to be there too. You need to change your habits and evolve your digital touch-points to deliver what your Customers want, when they want it, how they want it. By aligning yourself to your Customer’s evolution you limit the risk of disruption. That way, you stay ahead of the curve by being able to meet their ever-changing needs.

Transform or Evolve?

In our breakout session Transform or Evolve? I shared how we use Innovation techniques to understand a problem fully before starting to design the right solution. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who came along to the talk. And for those of you who didn’t, you can see the slides here:

We strongly believe that the only way you can stop your company from stagnating is to build an innovation ecosystem. You must split your time between explorative, transformational projects and exploitative, evolutionary projects. That way you can ensure that you whilst you do the big step change work, you continuously improve your offering.  So, you won’t get left behind waiting to implement large changes.

Thank you to the wonderful organisers, Scot-Tech Engagement, for another fantastic event that we were proud to be UX Partners for. We had a great day talking to people about how to use design thinking to get better outcomes. If you’d like more information on the techniques we use and the outcomes we have achieved then drop me an email.