How Global Technology is Working Smarter & Differently in 2020

We are officially halfway through 2020, and I wanted to share my thoughts about the focus areas that have driven McDonald’s Global Technology team’s success this year. What are some of your key learnings and ways of working from the past few months? #digitaltransformation #employeeengagement #leadership

Each January, I put together a “Year in Review and a Look Ahead.” It provides a reflection on the accomplishments of the past year and is an opportunity to set the direction for our teams for the year ahead. I always want to start the year on an inspirational note. This year, I wrote that in 2020, “we are going to work smarter and differently.”

We are halfway through the year. We have truly had to work smarter and differently in ways we could not have predicted, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, in Global Technology, we have been operating with a long-term mindset for the past few years. While we weren’t planning for a global pandemic, we have made key technology investments that will set us up for the future to drive growth and made significant changes to support more agile delivery. All of these are paying off by allowing us to pivot in the time of crisis. I am proud of our McDonald’s Global Technology team and what they have accomplished - and I know there’s more to come. As I think about the past few months and look towards the future, I wanted to share some focus areas that have driven our success, despite the challenging environment. 

1. Be Solution Oriented: Stay-at-home orders posed a challenge for many teams across the department; how are they supposed to test if they can’t go into labs? Rather than focusing on the problem, our teams turned it into an opportunity to think creatively and come up with a solution: home testing environments. Check out Priyal Patel, one of our QA Analysts in Toronto, who set up a QA lab in her home! There were several instances of set-ups like this across Global Technology; this type of ingenuity and creativity kept us going. “Agile” is a cultural shift, and this resourcefulness exemplifies that.  
2. Use Data to Make Decisions: Our Data & Analytics team proactively produced a set of rapid response dashboards to provide the business with insights about the impacts of Covid-19. Their dashboards allowed us to filter and drill down by different levels by geography and channel. Meanwhile, the Architecture team led the development of dashboards that show the health of systems essential for the enterprise during Covid-19. This information has been a critical input for our recovery plans, as the data helps stakeholders around the business understand the scale of the pandemic’s impact. 
3. Take this Opportunity to Accelerate Change: Prior to the pandemic, we were well on a transformation journey. We have embraced agile, and together with our product-centric focus, features are rolling out much faster and with higher quality. A product-centric org allows us to create product backlogs that can change when priorities shift. This mindset and way of working have served us well. We have been able to stay on track with our development activities amid the pandemic, and quickly pivot to prioritize capabilities that drive recovery. Some of our plans have changed, and that is okay because we have set the foundation to be able to adjust for changes.
4. Remember why we do this. Ultimately, we’re here to serve the customer, and we have a renewed sense of focus. Leadership conversations are centered on re-prioritizing capabilities that will allow us to respond to changing behaviors. Our technology teams worked around the clock to support the daily changes happening in our markets and restaurants. We’ve strengthened relationships with our functional partners within McDonald’s and with providers like Capgemini, AWS, Microsoft (the list can go on) to respond in crisis, and these relationships will pay off for years to come. Bottom line: we’re well positioned and ready to take the opportunity to continue to evolve in service of our customers.
5. Keep Connections Strong: We’ve always been a relationship-based company, but I think you can take for granted the rituals and routines that build those relationships. And as a global company, we normally connect virtually with colleagues around the world. With that said, I think we all underestimated how meaningful it was to have quick conversations in the elevator. I’ve been impressed by how our teams quickly embraced enterprise technology to drive connections. I know there have been many virtual happy hours, games of trivia, and visits from cute “coworkers” (i.e., pets and babies). Our teams have had to virtually host strategy sessions, onboard employees, host business reviews, hold trainings… the list goes on. It takes a concerted effort to make virtual meetings successful. I think it will be awhile before we are all back in the office like “normal,” so this up-front effort will pay off as we continue to work remotely. Our organization is spread across the world, but we know we must operate as one team, try to find the humor where we can, and keep our connections strong to accomplish our goals. 

The pandemic isn’t over and is ever-changing, and we have to continue to change with it. We must work smarter and differently. Our investments over the past few years are paying off, and we can’t let the opportunity to better serve our customers slip by. This is a career-defining, leadership moment. 

What are some of your key learnings and ways of working from the past few months? How are you working smarter and differently? I would love to hear from you in the comments.