How can you create an innovative IT strategy that engages non-technical stakeholders?

Diversity, particularly in the context of innovation, is indeed a strength. Hence, diversity unlocks innovation and drives market growth. Understanding non technical needs bring a complementary perspective to Technical team leading to more creative solution and often out of the box ideas.

1. Understanding Stakeholder Needs: - Identify non-technical stakeholders' pain points, challenges, goals, and priorities. - Understand how they use IT systems and services daily. - Gather feedback and suggestions for improvements. 2.Methods for Gathering Information: - Employ surveys, interviews, focus groups, workshops, or observation. - Aim for comprehensive understanding through diverse methods. 3. Empathizing with Stakeholders**: - Listen actively to non-technical stakeholders. - Identify problems they seek to solve and desired outcomes. - Tailor IT strategies to meet their specific needs.

To ensure the creation of an innovative IT strategy that engages nontechnical stakeholders, it is important to thoroughly understand their needs and expectations. By actively listening and conducting research, the goals, pain points and desired outcomes of these stakeholders can be identified. This understanding allows for the development of a strategy that directly addresses their concerns and aligns with their expectations and aspirations.

This is where you may need to put your storyteller hat on. You can provide the prettiest presentation, the finest bullet points and the sharpest return on investment figures ever. However, if they do not see the end result in their mind's eye, they may not buy into it. Here is where painting a picture of the future can really pay off in getting the stakeholders excited and buying into strategy. Tell a story. Paint a picture. Then back it up with metrics.

To create an innovative IT strategy that engages nontechnical stakeholders, a comprehensive approach is necessary. This includes understanding their needs & expectations, effectively communicating the value and impact of IT management, involving them in the decision-making process, educating and empowering them & recognising and rewarding their contributions. By thoroughly understanding their perspectives & involving them in shaping the strategy, nontechnical stakeholders feel valued & motivated to actively participate. Clear communication, education & recognition foster engagement & support for the IT strategy. Addressing concerns & driving innovation & success, this inclusive approach ensures nontechnical stakeholders involved & informed.

Make it on a page, use pictures or icons and colour. Don’t use any jargon or acronyms and relate each of the technology streams back to the business functions they support. Less is more!

As technical leaders, we typically fall into the trap of focusing on our technical insight rather than the business topic. Note that business people want to hear business and not technical mambo jumbo. Using OKRs (Objective and Key Results) keeps IT aligned with the business and the business aligned with IT. OKR is a goal-setting framework that individuals, teams, and organizations can use to define measurable goals and track their outcomes. Therefore, if we are implementing a new system, the non-technical stakeholders must understand what's in it for them, how it will address their problem, and whether the initiative will improve bottom-line results and throughputs.

To create an innovative IT strategy that engages nontechnical stakeholders, understanding their needs, effective communication, involvement in decision-making, education and empowerment and recognition of contributions are crucial. Involving them fosters a collaborative environment, considering their perspectives. This drives engagement and fosters a transparent approach. Valuable insights can be gleaned, while a sense of ownership and buy-in for the IT strategy is instilled. Clear communication, education and recognition foster engagement and support. The strategy addresses concerns, drives innovation and success and aligns with organizational goals.

To ensure active participation in the IT strategy, nontechnical stakeholders need to be educated & empowered. This can be achieved by providing educational resources, workshops & training to promote their understanding of key IT concepts, emerging technologies & industry trends. Empowerment comes from instilling confidence and autonomy in decision-making, setting clear expectations & offering ongoing support. By involving them in the implementation & adoption of IT solutions, their empowerment is further enhanced, enabling them to embrace & champion the strategy. Through this inclusive approach, collaboration is facilitated, successful implementation is driven & increased support & engagement from nontechnical stakeholders is garnered.

According to my experience, working in short cycles and gathering early feedback from the users is essential to boost the value delivered by technology. Assuming we can define upfront the ideal solutions, just because we, as technologists, have a wider view of potential solutions is a common pitfall that dismisses the user experience and the knowledge gathered by the users over the years. On the other hand, implementing the requirements or improvements proposed by the non-tech stakeholders, without any further refinement or strategic alignment, might result in poor designs and a lack of innovative and experimental approaches.

Get a diverse team from various departments is always beneficial. However a strong guiding force is required to keep the focus of the group.