Complex tasks should not be rushed. As the old saying goes ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’, so why should your digital transformation be?
Processes such as technology, marketing and sales processes must be built over time. They should be tried and tested, and improvements made. This is a continuous process, not something that is done in one day. Nor is it a task that technically has an end date.
This is a development process over time, that should never really end.
Now, that doesn’t mean to say that you can have a trivial process plan that you implement in an ad hoc manner: doing whatever, whenever.
No. Rather it implies that you should constantly be working on improving your digital transformation.
For example, it is good practice to align your processes with your goals, business values and ideals, and long-term plan. Continuously reviewing your digital processes will allow you to make improvements. This is especially useful when any goals or plans change so you can also adapt your processes.
But, just thinking about continuously working on your digital transformation can be overwhelming.
- How do you manage everything?
- What processes do you put in place and how?
- When do you have time to do everything?
What’s more, trying to do all this while growing, expanding and scaling your business for further success.
But it is not impossible when you have the right plan and strategy in place.
Below are 5 tips to continuously work on your digital transformation.
If you don’t like reading, watch the 5 tips to Digital Transformation in the video below.
Tip 1: Continuous Digital Transformation
When you begin to digitalise your processes, and you are starting to reach the middle of your to-do list. There seems like there is an endpoint. As though when the list is complete, you’re done! The digital transformation is over.
But then when you realise that your list is continually growing and that there isn’t actually an end point, it becomes demotivating.
That demotivation causes you to not want to continue with the project. To continuously add more things to your wish list, only to push them aside for a rainy day.
Rather, what you should do instead, is to implement a digital transformation plan that is an ever-evolving process. That means, you allocate frequent time to work on it – and you stick to that schedule.
By continuously working on digital transformation, you can ensure that your processes are current and not outdated. This allows you to adapt to changing requirements by constantly making improvements.
If digital transformation is only done once, it will never be renewed, and eventually, become outdated, only causing problems done the track when processes no longer function.
Tip 2: Task Backlog or Ideas Pipeline
With so many good ideas generated from great conversations, or while doing other tasks, it is important to write down ideas for digital transformation. But writing them on scrap pieces of paper or in an agenda won’t suffice. Likewise, switching between tasks to work on an idea is not productive.
What you should do instead is create a task backlog or ideas pipeline. You can do this on many platforms. If you’re not using a platform yet, consider applications on your phone that you can also access from a computer such as Google Suite or Trello.
Regardless of the platform you use, ensure that your ideas pipeline covers the following.
Wouldn’t it be great if…
Whenever you think “Wouldn’t it be great if” you can easily add the idea to a running list of ideas (not to a post-it or scrap piece of paper).
Enrich Ideas
Allocate time to review the ideas pipeline so that you can further develop and enrich those ideas (for example, add more information rather than a couple of words). This is also a great time to review if your ideas are actually good ideas, combine similar ideas and assign prioritisation. Maybe you have had the same idea over multiple weeks, have an ideas pipeline will help you see that and prioritise it as an urgent task.
No-Go Criteria
Create a Go or No-Go criteria list to identify if you should pursue the idea. For example, you can analyse the idea against pain points. Is the pain point big enough to invest in this idea? Or another way to put it, is the cost vs benefit worth it? Remember, there is time and cost associated with solving the problem. Ensure you analyse your return on investment and determine the better business impact.
Digital Transformation Continuity
Make a continuous effort to review tasks and make improvements, as covered in Tip 1. There is no point in having an ideas pipeline if there is no plan to continuously work on digital transformation.
Tip 3: Test and try new digital transformation processes
Not everything has to shake up the business and turn it on its head, testing and trying new things is a great way to find better alternatives. You might create new procedures from the trial and error that would have never been identified.
Testing is also useful to identify “imaging if” scenarios. This is especially useful when implementing large changes. Likewise, this will allow you to identify other business processes that need to be updated.
Don’t use an old business process in a new system if it is going to slow you down. Rather, what you should do instead is a test on a big scale and analyse the results. Identify what improvements you can make and where.
Tip 4: Draw diagrams that are on your mind
It is very hard to discuss digital transformation with others when it is all in your head. Especially when others have not been involved in your frustrations and why processes must change. They may not clearly understand what you mean or have a completely different interpretation of your idea.
Rather, what you should do instead is draw out some diagrams and make it something that everyone can conceptualise and communicate about. This will allow you to clear ambiguities (or for people to have aha moments), to add missing steps, and identify “well what if this happens” scenarios.
Additionally, drawing a diagram helps to see where you can add tweaks to be effective down the flow chart and what changes you can implement.
This helps people to understand how the problem will be solved and is especially useful when handing it over to staff or onboarding new staff.
Tip 5: Business Analytics
Part of the digital transformation process is trial and error. This is part of business analytics. Conduct the right research on what people will take on before investing in digital transformation.
So, what you should do instead is invest in your own learning – make it a task for yourself and your professional development to start learning about business analytics.
Relevate Academy has free digital courses that you can enrol in today. Enrol in your free course here.
