What are the best practices for measuring partnership impact on digital transformation and innovation?

1 Define clear objectives and metrics

Before you engage in any partnership, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. This means setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your digital transformation and innovation strategy. For example, you may want to increase your customer base, revenue, market share, or customer satisfaction by leveraging your partner's technology, network, or expertise. You should also define the baseline and target values for your metrics and track them regularly to monitor your progress and performance.

2 Use a balanced scorecard approach

While quantitative metrics are important, they are not enough to capture the full value of your partnerships. You also need to consider the qualitative aspects, such as the quality of the relationship, the level of trust and commitment, the degree of alignment and fit, and the potential for learning and innovation. A balanced scorecard approach can help you evaluate your partnerships from four perspectives: financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth. For each perspective, you should identify the critical success factors, the measures, and the targets that reflect your partnership impact. For example, you may measure the customer perspective by looking at the customer retention rate, the net promoter score, or the number of referrals generated by your partner.

3 Adopt a feedback loop and learning culture

Measuring partnership impact is not a one-time activity, but a continuous process that requires feedback, communication, and learning. You should establish a regular feedback loop with your partner to share data, insights, challenges, and opportunities. You should also solicit feedback from your customers, employees, and other stakeholders to understand their perceptions and expectations of your partnership. Moreover, you should foster a learning culture that encourages experimentation, innovation, and improvement. You should celebrate your successes, but also learn from your failures and mistakes. You should also be open to adjusting your objectives, metrics, and actions based on the feedback and learning outcomes.

5 Demonstrate and communicate your value proposition

Finally, you need to demonstrate and communicate your value proposition to your partner, your customers, and your other stakeholders. You need to show how your partnership contributes to your digital transformation and innovation goals, and how it creates value for all parties involved. You can use various methods and channels to communicate your value proposition, such as case studies, testimonials, stories, videos, podcasts, webinars, or events. You should also highlight the benefits, outcomes, and impacts of your partnership, rather than just the features, activities, and inputs. By doing so, you can build trust, credibility, and loyalty among your partner, your customers, and your other stakeholders.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?