Find the power in multiple perspectives, learned experiences and collective insights.

How can I demonstrate the value of digital transformation and experience to help get support within my organization?

Decisions are critical. More people are required for validation as too often, the wrong decision can have lasting effects on a business. As a whole, we’re seeing the C-suite embrace digital as the future, so it is a good time to prioritize digital in your organization. 

Today, more than ever, data needs to be easily shared and understood. Your CEO will not have time to understand a matrix of hundreds (or thousands) of data points. Instead, present them with the results with visualization, which makes it easier to understand the data and its implications. At Contentsquare, for example, we use features such as zoning, heat maps and session replay, as we’ve found these are the easiest visualizations to understand across the board. The first step to gaining buy-in is to first establish the problem or the opportunity and then get others to truly understand it. We’ve heard from some brands that the board doesn’t want to change the messaging or experience even though clients are asking for it and are struggling with the current status quo. 

In this type of a situation, do your best to consistently communicate the same data across the organization to have a bottom up impact. Work with customer support to solve part of customers’ requests directly on the website. Develop an email campaign to proactively provide information to your users. Provide your merchandising team with new cross-sell behaviors. Embrace the data and use it to make a positive changes so you can demonstrate the value of digital for others firsthand. 

How have you adjusted your digital transformation strategy in light of COVID-19?

Covid-19 has helped everybody understand the needs and benefits of becoming more digital. Now, this means a lot of things in different areas.

Internal Impact

People have been forced to figure out how to organize between teams, quickly, efficiently and with little planning. Zoom became a lifeline as both usage and its stock popularity increased. Even big players, such as Microsoft Teams, are focusing heavily on developing these tools and capabilities. Google also revamped their Google hangout into Google meet and pushed it into Gmail. 

This has also placed a spotlight not only on how teams can collaborate internally via digital tools, but also what other tasks and requirements are necessary for operating successfully while digital. For example, the success of remote work is not only dependent upon organizational tools, but also by enabling controls remotely, which for many involves a very high level of security. Consider the NASA Curiosity team, which is responsible for the Curiosity rover that is currently on Mars. The team is abiding by stay-at-home orders which means that yes, they are currently controlling the rover remotely, from their homes. Not only does this introduce some major technical challenges, such as being able to safely bring home very expensive technology, but also security questions about recreating a highly sensitive ecosystem at home. 

External Impact

Covid-19 is an unstable moment in time. During all uncertain times, things are moving fast. The stock market is very volatile. The information people are receiving is changing all of the time. The guidelines for safety in the U.S. differ state by state, and in some cases, city by city.  During this uncertain time, it’s more important than ever to leverage data, knowledge and information to inform and adjust your business strategy. This is a situation in which the best way to be proactive is to be reactive; be willing to change and adjust your strategy as doing nothing or staying the course when the data is telling you something differently will inevitably impact the business. 

To be successfully “reactive,” get the right information and analyze it as soon as possible. As we always say in the data environment, “Without data, it's just another opinion.” Unfortunately, during a crisis such as this, there are more opinions than ever.

What should I focus on in my digital transformation journey?

It is difficult to provide one blanket answer for this question, as it is different for every company depending on where they are currently in their journey. However, one area of focus that applies for everyone across the board is to monitor your website. Set up alerts so you know when KPIs or behavior changes. This is a critical component in eing reactive with the right tools in order to understand what is happening, make the right decision and get back to normal - or, ideally, better than normal.