Digital Transformation should be the means, not the end.

Do you remember when 'Big Data' was a thing? When companies were panicking that they were tiptoeing along a precipice between data that was manageable, and data that was "BIG"? In Millennium Bug style immediacy, the volume of data a company owned seemed to be expected to reach such epic proportions, that we had to give it inverted commas, and capital letters.

Here’s Gartner’s definition of 'Big Data', circa 2001 (which is still the most broadly accepted definition): "'Big Data' is data that contains greater variety arriving in increasing volumes and with ever-higher velocity." (Variety, volume, and velocity - the 3 V's of 'Big Data'.)

The title, 'Big Data', is pretty misleading really. 'Big' doesn't seem to quite cut it as an adjective, when we're trying to describe reaching terminal velocity in data collection, or having access to more data points and segments than we have ever had before. It's referred to as a noun, a static location, a phenomena, with no indication of the required considerations; integration, management, effective analysis.

Many businesses and individuals seem to be lacking the same nuance recognition when it comes to the phrase, "Digital Transformation". In the same way that everyone said, "Holy moley, data is BIG now, and that means we need to worry about it", businesses the world over are saying, "Jeez Louise, digital is a thing now; we need to do something about this."

As a TL;DR version: Digital transformation should be adding value to your business, assisting your consumers in interacting with your business in the way they want to, or achieving a higher level of efficiency. It's not something you should do because you've got corporate FOMO.

Even the phrase 'Digital Transformation' makes me squirm a bit. Firstly, because it's one of those typically cringey phrases that Exec-types chuck about with gay abandon, often with minimal understanding of the operational or commercial implications. Secondly, businesses shouldn't suddenly be saying, "Oh, hang on, we need to do digital". Over the course of the last 10 years, the way we interact with businesses has changed vastly (banking in branch, to online banking, to app based banking; shopping in store, to researching reviews before buying in store, to buying online with all information at your fingertips) and these trends should be monitored and addressed bit by bit; not by deciding to overhaul your entire business because you're jealous that you're not using augmented reality to sell goods online.

If you're going to have an effective 'Digital Transformation' plan, your aims or goals of the project should not be to do digital. I can only imagine that terrifyingly, this is what many 'Digital Transformation' plans look like:

The following is entirely off the top of my head (so bear with me), but if I were to build a similar plan, it would look a bit more like this:

These are the questions I would ask myself or my team during the project planning process:

1. What problems do we need to solve? This is going to anchor the conversation, so you've always got something to refer back to when you go a little bit off-piste, and should help stay away from 'Digital Transformation Buzzword Bingo'*.
2. Is the solution evolutionary, or revolutionary? If you're only slightly evolving the existing infrastructure or approach, maybe you need to think bigger, or include this action within a BAU work-stream instead.
3. Is the juice worth the squeeze? What is the projected benefit for the business, and how much time/money/energy will it take to see it through? If you're going to increase customer retention by 3%, but it's going to cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds to implement, ROI could well be negative in the long run (however good the PR would be).
4. In the case of user journey / consumer retention aims, are you slotting into the users' usual behaviour, or expecting them to adapt to yours? For example, banks switching to apps made complete sense in the wake of fewer branches, increased competition from the likes of Monzo, and younger generations point-blank detesting paperwork. If you're a gardener, users are more likely to be looking for your business on search engines. Any app you could create would need to be revolutionary to encourage users to change their behaviour in order to engage with you in this way.

The most successful advancements in recent years have been solutions to consumer problems, which simultaneously tackle the market challenges businesses are facing - Uber is great when you're nowhere near a taxi rank/provides the command of an auto fleet without owning any cars; the Amazon Echo is perfect when you're baking and your hands are covered in flour/facilitates data collection, improves engagement, and acts as a gateway drug to other services; grocery delivery is ideal for busy parents and professionals/begins to circumnavigate the 'decline of the high street' issue.

Yes, we are in the midst of a digital revolution, and yes, we need to evolve, but 'Digital Transformation' as a phrase needs to be treated as a verb, a journey, a means to an end; it should not be considered the destination.

*For your entertainment, here's a printable 'Digital Transformation Buzzword Bingo' sheet for your next meeting: