How can you effectively experiment with emerging digital technologies?

Always keep an open mind & be curious what the emerging digital technologies can do, what problems are they trying to solve? "Innovation is not about new emerging products, innovation happens when the solution improves people's lives."

Before diving into new technologies, evaluate your organization's readiness to adopt and adapt. This involves assessing the technological infrastructure, the skill sets of your team, and the financial resources available for experimentation. Understanding your current capabilities and limitations can help you identify areas that need strengthening to support successful experimentation, such as investing in training for your team or upgrading your IT infrastructure.

Just because it's new, its not great. Being innovative doesn't mean chasing new. Access what's needed and how to address that with best ROI. Once that equation is clear, chase it.

Digital is not digital. It's about being human, real and delivering authentic messaging in a channel where people live their lives. Whether it's digital is only a question of channels. Brand equity relies on your digital strategy, so be clear and honest about what role digital shall play in your business.

We are experiencing that our digital strategy is significantly influenced by what we cannot afford to do because we lack either the personnel or the financial resources. In recent months, I have been receiving unsolicited emails every day from agencies and experts who explain to me what else I need to do, what I should do differently, and what I should rather avoid from now on. From our perspective, understanding what can be consistently implemented operationally is a key insight before we invest in any new fields. Nonetheless we obviously see the importance of having clear goals and an idea of how these can be achieved. Digital technologies already and in the future even more will play a vital role in achieving these goals.

I am convinced it's essential to avoid a technology-driven approach when it comes to experimenting with new technologies. First and foremost, find a business problem that drives people (ideally those who could not be solved so far although everyone was tring to) - and suggest trying this "new stuff". Then, make sure to have a strong partner at your side from your ecosystem who is able to deliver this new technology to make sure the experiment will deliver a true solution. This process helps to get people on board and make experimenting be seen as providing business value and not an activity that is perceived as "playing around".

Clearly articulate the objectives and expected outcomes of your experiments. Identify the key questions you want to answer and the metrics you'll use to measure success.

Clear hypotheses form the foundation of any practical experiment. When exploring generative AI applications or other emerging technologies, articulate what specific business problems these technologies are expected to solve or what opportunities they might unlock. Defining your hypotheses not only sets clear objectives for your experiment but also provides a benchmark against which success can be measured.

The "innovation adoption curve" can help you understand what your company is ready to tackle and start testing, and what still needs to mature further - self-knowledge is key at this point so as not to waste energy. Wikipedia: Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures ... diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the members of a social system... until it reaches critical mass. Its categories are: "innovators", "early adopters", "early majority", "late majority" or "resistors".

Digital technologies are a means to an end. A sound hypothesis stair stepping to an economic goal is the essential first step in evaluating which technology to select and how to develop use cases around it. Otherwise the technologies are just buzzwords

Effectively experimenting with emerging digital technologies involves a structured approach to designing your experiments: ?? Define Clear Objectives: Establish what you aim to achieve with each experiment, focusing on specific outcomes. ?? Set Measurable Metrics: Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your experiments. ?? Controlled Testing: Create a controlled environment to isolate variables and accurately assess the impact of the technology. ?? Iterative Process: Adopt an iterative approach, allowing for adjustments and refinements based on initial findings. ?? Documentation: Keep detailed records of your experiments, including the setup, process, results, and learnings.

Every organization should earmark funds for this type of testing and ongoing learning. It starts by designing a testing strategy that answers the why, how and what. Why are you testing? How will you approach? What do you want to learn / what are your key KPIs?

Design experiments that will test your hypotheses in a controlled, measurable way. This involves outlining the parameters of the experiment, including the technology to be tested, the target audience, the duration of the experiment, and the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to measure success. Ensure your experiments are scalable and that you can isolate variables to accurately assess the impact of the technology.

1. Set Clear Objectives: Clarity is critical, whether streamlining processes, enhancing customer experiences, or improving decision-making. 2. KPIs - Other contributors have elaborated this well. 3. Scale Thoughtfully: Digital transformation isn't a one-time event; it's an ongoing journey. Scale your efforts thoughtfully across products and services. 4. Invest Wisely: Consider building D2C platforms, investing in AI capabilities, or enhancing employee experiences. 5. Sustainability Matters: Its not just about growth; its about responsible growth. 6. Human-Centered Transformation: Technology should serve people. Effective change management is crucial. ?? Embrace Digital Transformation 2.0: Trust in humans' ability to deliver results!

Now that you know your risk profile for testing innovation, choose the digital marketing innovations you want to test, but clearly define how your company will follow up and learn (positively and/or negatively) from the testing of new experiments and get to work, start putting into practice the new experiments that could improve your digital relationship with customers and increase engagement.

Implementation is followed by meticulous measurement. Using predefined metrics, I monitor the performance of the technology in real-time. Adjustments are made as needed to ensure the experiment stays on course. The key is to remain agile, ready to pivot based on initial findings.

Enjoy the journey, the goal is not just the finish line, the learning is in each step, learning what is improving your digital performance and what needs to improve - this is the way to continuously increase your digital performance. Measure and learn from each part, compare with your past, but don't lose sight of the whole and continuous improvement.

Optimisation could be a key element here (depending on the nature of the experiment). Step 4 and 5 could probably move between each other. By optimising the experiment based on the data being collected, more learnings could be gathered at the end.

Execute and measure experiments: -Launch experiments to selected audience. -Collect data and feedback. -Analyze using relevant metrics. -Use quantitative and qualitative indicators. -Measure impact and performance accurately.

Implement your experiments according to your plan, making sure to collect relevant data at each stage. Use tools and analytics platforms to track performance metrics and monitor the impact of the technology on your goals.

I’ve worked with several leaders that adopted the “fail fast” method. Practice what your preach and don’t be afraid to pivot or pull the plug on a project that isn’t delivering. I’ve had success, but several experiments that fail to meet the measure of success. I find the future successes are found in the past experiments that didn’t work out as planned. Always keep testing!

Time to come up with questions and start answering them with data: What worked? What has improved compared to the previous digital plan? Which metrics can confirm the improvements? From this careful evaluation, your company will start to learn what can be improved and what still needs more tests or projects to evolve - bring in colleagues and other areas of the company, as well as clients, who will help you consolidate the improvements and what of the improvements has a positive impact on the company's clients.

Interessant de partager régulièrement avec toute la team le resultat des tests et du monitoring. La matrice KISS (keep/improve/stop/start) est très operante pour organiser la suite des opérations.

Learning and adapting is the fun part! Our landscape is ever-evolving, so we never sit still, thank goodness. Study the data, pivot where necessary, ask new questions, share your learnings internally and externally and continue to find new ways to apply and measure the data.

Here are some enthusiastic tips on this journey: 1. Allocate Adequate Time & Patience: Dive into the latest tech trends & stay informed about emerging technologies. 2. Identify Prerequisites: Understand what foundational knowledge or skills are necessary for the technology you want to adopt. 3. Find the Right Resources: Find quality learning materials—online courses, books, & videos—to build expertise. 4. Don't Hesitate to Ask for Help: Reach out to experts or colleagues when you need guidance. 5. Share Your Learning: Collaborate with others, share insights, & learn from their experiences. Technology empowers everyone—from entry-level employees to leadership—to experiment, take risks, & learn from failures. ????

Effectively experimenting with emerging digital technologies involves staying updated on industry trends, setting clear objectives, and starting with small-scale pilot projects. Collaborate with experts, allocate resources wisely, and measure results against defined KPIs. Iterate based on insights gathered, ensuring continuous adaptation and optimization for sustainable business growth. Free tools like Google Trends, Canva, and HubSpot CRM can aid in research, design, and customer relationship management during experimentation.

OK, a lot of these responses are super formal and must be referring to rolling out emerging digital tech across a large organization. If you're a small shop or an independent contractor, carve out time in your week, every week, to tinker with new things and let it become part of your personal life to better understand what it does. Download all of the top apps in the app store and see if you find them useful, use ChatGPT to write a first draft for your Grandma's birthday card, and play with Midjourney. The only way to make a habit sustainable, and to understand the value of something, is if it fills you with joy. Once you truly understand what each tool is FOR, then you can start to be strategic about it at work.

Be collaborative! You will work with other teams and professionals, from the more technical to the more commercial-minded people to implement ideas and projects. This is a great opportunity to also learn from other fields and expand your knowledge.

Here are questions to ask your team: -does the cost fit into our budget? -does the technology solve for what you need? -do you have a strategy on how it will be utilized? -is there a dedicated person who will own this platform and be the subject matter expert?

Few things to enrich and pace your technology experiments - - Keep connected with your business operations on the ground to identify inefficiencies. - Keep connected to your customer needs and the innovations by other industry players to understand how the customer needs are evolving. - Network with your peer CIOs to learn from them. - Do look outside of your own industry to bring learnings and relevant technologies across industries.