33 Questions to Ask Before Any Digital Transformation Agenda

Covid19 has fundamentally impacted our lives as well as the way we operate businesses. Disruption is happening so fast and we must believe that the time now is to transform the business to sustain and thrive in the digital age.

To find better ideas for digital transformation, first, we need to understand the situation, go behind the surface level, and think better. We need better questions.

Below list suggests some incisive questions that will lead us to find better answers to situations we face in digital transformation. It is generative to encourage divergent and creative thinking. What're your questions to ask before any digital transformation agenda?

Questions about location, utility and instant gratification

1. Do you have a place-related business that is positively or negatively impacted by the proliferation of mobile devices? Does mobile technology change the rules of your business and the expectations your clients might have? Will mobile bridge the gap between the physical and online world and create a hybrid future in which users will seamlessly move from online to offline?
2. Can you leverage the mobile ecosystem for smart interaction with your users based on time, location, activity, and profiles? Is this relevant to your business and something your business can tap into it?
3. Is your business ready for instant gratification (“we want it now and here”)?
4. How utility is driven are your activities and will porting these utilities to mobile platforms help you in your relationships with the market? If you’re not utility-focused yourself, what is the risk that challengers will push you out of your position?

Why ask these questions?

Most of the user is suffering this thing call nomophobia (“no more phone phobia”) as a result of the rise in the need for mobile devices. Mobile devices have become our pocket companion for information. How many phone numbers do you still remember without searching on your mobile devices? Nowadays we swipe open our mobile devices to look for answers on the spot. We all are used to instant gratification. We are now living in right here and right now world. This indicates the demand from the customer is changing too. The bar for customer service has been raised to a new height.

Another shift caused by mobile devices is that it enables us to get online wherever we are and whenever we want (of course your mobile devices must have mobile data and you’re not using a lousy mobile operator). This allows us to receive personalised offers or speed up the checkout processes.

Questions about transparency, proximity, responsiveness, humanisation, bi-directional communication and accountability

1. Are you capable of transparency and openness in your culture, communication, and attitude?
2. Do you have the ability and willingness to respond to questions and clarify the organisation’s standpoint on certain topics or issues? 
3. What are the relative and perceived distance between an organisation and the outside world? Do you have the ability to react rapidly with the right tone-of-voice and quality of response? How true is what you are claiming, both from a product-side and what your organisation stands for?
4. Do you willing to change in order not to lose the trust of clients?

Why ask these questions?

The internet and typically social media have changed the world. It makes the world another place where individuals got new ways to let their voices be heard. Communication can become interactive, bi-directional, and more balance with social media now. Can we just ignore this? Refuse to play the social media game? The answer is no because it is a logical evolution in our world and every individual and organisation simply has to learn how to deal with it.

Social media can be a threat, but it also creates huge opportunities to drive business value if we leverage it correctly. Social media can transform businesses digitally from the inside out, with the potential to elevate customer experience and increase credibility in both B2B and B2C audiences, as well as nurture prospects for future sales.

Question about price, self-service, speed, experience, personalise, APPfication, product bundle vs unbundle and operating model

1. Is your business bundled and monolithic by nature and is digitisation a force that might trigger unbundling of part of your products or services? Or do you need to bundle your products for better offerings?
2. Can your products or services benefit by being personalised, based on a better understanding of your market?
3. Is your activity subject to complex processes in such a way that simplifying and enhancing the user experience creates a competitive advantage?
4. How fast can you respond to changes in the market, to new offerings from digital challengers and new developments?
5. Is your operating model design for continuous improvement and evolution? Can you scale your technology, processes, and people (capabilities) for business?
6. Are there verticals that make for attractive and easy-to-market propositions? What would happen to your business when new entrants challenge you in once or more of these verticals? Do you understand the new language in which to market these verticals?
7. If you are potentially unbundling, simplifying or APPtifying your product or services, what does it do to the perceived value? Can you keep your present pricing models? Can you reach a new balance between what you need to earn versus what people are willing to pay? Can you deal with new pricing models like freemium or subscriptions?
8. Do your business has a function or service component that can now be offered through digital self-service? Is this an opportunity or a threat?

Why ask these questions?

Digital technology has a tremendous impact on the way how we can package the product or services. The combination of being online and mobile leads to a new anytime, anyplace and anything which has a huge impact on the way how we bundle the products, services, or functions. Every industry is susceptible to unbundling, and the innovation economy is pushing many of them in this direction today. Look at the personal finance to ecommerce to travel sectors. This trend started a decade ago. One of the effects of unbundling is the ability to make things better, simpler, and much easier to use. Nonetheless, product bundling is often considered beneficial because it helps offer a diverse product mix to the customer, while minimizing the costs. So, what are you (un)bundling today?

There are only two ways to make money in business: One is to bundle; the other is unbundle.

For digital transformation, simply investing in new technologies or talent isn’t enough. You need to embed it with operating models that are fit for your transformed digital business and it is sustainable for the long-term. Many company advocates agile and transformation with frequent new products offering or recruiting a handful of talented people but can they do that reliably or sustainably? Often they do it once but then try to make it part of the company’s DNA but fail. Often they practice agile until the digital transformation team is fragile. Upgrading the operating model is important.

There are three big questions an operating model needs to answer: How do we work? How do we invest? and how do we scale fast enough without the team’s burnout?

Question about fragmentation, bypassing and virtualisation

1. How big is the risk that former partners or suppliers will jump over you to try cut you out as their middleman?
2. How real or virtual are your services or products? What part if the supportive services can become virtual and is this an opportunity or threat to your business?
3. Will by-passing in your market lead to more choices and alternatives for your clients? Will there be more touchpoints for your clients to get informed or buy your products or services? 

Why ask these questions?

Digital technology has introduced a new paradigm that is bypassing. Now your partners and suppliers can play a different role in the value chain because the technology allows you to bypass you. It has become a logical thing for them to cut the middleman if they can create similar or more value without you. Do you take initiative to jump over the others or are you the middleman?

One of the side effects of bypassing is that more players will fight for attention at more levels in the value chain. You will encounter more competition in each layer of the value chain once you go digital. The time when you invest in one channel to obtain a certain result will be more scattered. The time that you could sell through one type of channel is over. The time you could offer customer care via one contact point is over. The customers are everywhere so do your competitor. Thus, you need to be everywhere. You’ll probably have to play more roles yourself than you ever did before.

This means you have to master more skills for a more fragmented future.

Question about reviewers, recommendations, and ambassadorship

1. Who are current opinion makers in your market? Will they maintain their positions, or will they be replaced by a new digital reviewer or influencer? If you are a reviewer or influencer yourself, is digitalisation an opportunity or a threat?
2. How much is your business impacted by recommendations from the market?
3. Do your clients settle for less qualified (but free and easy to access) guidance? Does simplification in your market make it more difficult to have clear differentiators towards competitors?
4. Can you activate your existing relationship with both internal and external customers (i.e. staff, clients, etc) to become your ambassadors and thus part of your influencer or reviewer?
5. Can you activate your audience to help you achieve your business goals?

Why ask these questions?

Our world is becoming less complex (some say is more complex) with digital technology. Most people do not realise that the world now is determined by so-called reviewers. They make choices and selections, so we only have to deal with a limited offering that best fits our needs. The days that we need to read 10 pages of in-depth analysis before buying a new television is over. Now we judge by short reviews, comments, recommendations, and ratings. Do you know who is your “reviewers” and influencer? Do you have the opportunity to become the reviewers yourself or are you existing reviewers losing power to the new challengers who are taking over your role and starting to influence your audience in alternative ways?

Question about the community, collaboration, self-empowerment, sharing economy, and the power of the crowd.

1. Does your business have community potential? Do you have a traditional, strong relationship with your market that could be activated and brought online?
2. Do you have a place related business that is positively or negatively impacted by the proliferation of mobile devices? Does mobile technology change the rules of your business and the expectations your client might have? Can mobile bridge the gap between the physical and online world and create a hybrid future in which users will seamlessly move from online to offline?
3. Does mobile technology bring additional power (i.e. information, access to competitors, peer-pressure) to your clients in such a way that it potentially shifts the power of balance in their advantage?
4. Will the phenomenon of peer pressure and the power of the crowd strengthen who you are or on the contrary, create a potential threat to who you are and how you do business? Will the market drive you forward or hold you back?

Why ask these questions?

Digital technology allowing us to talk to, connect, and collaborate with people who are like-minded across the globe. People do discuss brands and companies in communities of their own. Companies can benefit from what people have to say as they share experiences, reviews, tips and much more. As a result, they are empowered than ever before, often better informed.

Online communities are the foundation for collaboration between people, they can unleash the power of the crowd and they are the facilitator of the emerging sharing economy. People do discuss brands and companies in communities of their own.

It is important to notice that collaboration is not about platforms or technology. It is really about engaging people on a shared journey. The biggest challenge for companies is engaging people to participate.

If you can bring your story across, you will be able to involve people in helping your business through online collaboration.

Involving people in your business, allowing them to come up with ideas or suggestions will make your company or brand more open, more human, and ultimately more appreciated. Collaboration creates “we” feeling and if you can involve people on a structural basis (both internal and external customer), they will become true and authentic ambassadors of whatever you do.

The dynamic of the sharing economy has a major impact on how people are spending their money and their lifestyles. We see indications that a part of our society has shifted the interest from purely “own” a thing to spend the money on experience and share the thing they’ve “own”. The power of the crowd has grown exponentially through digital platforms. Depending on the context, it can be both an opportunity and a threat to businesses. Instead of waiting for a crowd to harm, companies should find ways to harness the power of the crowd to their benefit. 

Question about culture, data, insights and process.

1. Do we consistently monitor our client activities and internal business performance to create business value? Will we be able to monitor in a hybrid world, in which online and offline experiences merge?
2. How data driven is our business? Do we understand short-term and long-term trends and behaviour and are we able to translate this into business value?
3. How often do we review the business processes (old and new)?
4. Do we have the right culture to support the transformation?
5. Do we have a outcome-based digital transformation goal?

Why ask these questions?

Culture is about the attitude of your company and the people behind it. Every company is different, depending on the maturity, risk-tolerant level, experience, staff, and the management team. Some companies turn out to be a lively organisation, open for new ideas, and very keen on innovation. Some are laggards and take years to introduce something new. Some are over-ambitious to see the result within an absurd timeline. Do you have the right culture and the right support to change? Do you have processes and peoples that drives you to execute the change and implementation?

We are now living in the age of agile development and being in permanent beta.

For a successful digital transformation, data should be at the heart of the business. Data collection and analysis are the foundations for decision making. Company need to know what to mine and utilise the data to identify the patterns or anticipate behaviour and to offer personalised services and products. This will, in turn, attract more users which generate more data to keep improving. It is a loop of continuous improvement that the businesses will need to build into all of their products and services.

Big data, data analytics, A.I has become the buzzword and only a few people grasp the concept. Marketers are trying to connect the dots to see the big picture but the most company are far from actually using the insights out of data. Many businesses currently simply lack the digital architecture, the tools, and skills to implement data-driven operations structurally and systematically that benefits both the client and the business.

When a goal is a project or performance rather than outcome-based, by the time it cascades down to the team level, no one understands why they’re doing it. People will end up in a cycle of building a thing within a timeframe they’re given and moving on to the next. An outcome-based approach means decisions about what you’re going to build and how you’re going to build it are pushed down to people much closer to the customer, who probably have the best intelligence available about what works and what doesn’t. The digital agenda should be based on the outcome you want the customer to achieve rather than the activities you do internally.