Roadmap to DT is Not (Just) Through IT

We've all heard that software developers shouldn't also be tasked with UX design. In fact, the application development life-cycle should consist of a number of specific roles, including a product owner who knows and is plugged into the underlying business objectives. Whenever I speak with decision makers on the topic of digital strategy, I use this analogy amongst others to point out that the same rules apply to IT when it comes to development of a digital strategy. 

Digital transformation is experiential, not just technical. While the ubiquity of our digital lives was first enabled from technical advances such as mobile, cloud, social and data/analytics amongst other capabilities, the focus should be on the personas, scenarios and stories that can come to life in a Design Thinking and Inclusive Design approach. It's the people, whether they be customers, employees or partners that are the first order of business - the technical steps to achieving DT should be down and perhaps even last on the list.  In practice, I have seen ideation sessions as the beginning step in a digital transformation that bring to light capabilities that had absolutely nothing to do with technology - a coming together of otherwise disparate activities that would have gone unnoticed were it not for the exercise of getting the appropriate expertise in the room and engaging in knowledge sharing.

There is much riding on your "user experience" within the digital playbook you'll eventually create.  The digital strategy that underpins that playbook requires at least as much input from folks outside of IT (and perhaps some of it outside your organization entirely) as an enterprise or line-of-business application. I would argue that a far greater amount of interaction and direction from various expertise within and outside the business and across multiple concerns is needed.  The risk being that if your digital outcomes don't line up along strategic touch points at the very least, the first of your efforts will end up removed or put to the appendix in your playbook.  While there is a lot to be said for fail fast and iterations (separate topic), quickly demonstrating value outcomes ensures a much smoother ride for all the obvious reasons.

Certainly IT plays an important part in ensuring the enterprise delivers on the list of initial enterprise capabilities. Engineers, developers, and other software/IT professionals play a vital role in securing and making available these capabilities.  The reality may be that most enterprise IT departments are ill suited to lead the digital transformation effort.  For starters, IT in many enterprises is still seen as just a cost-center, not a strategic partner.  The pressure to control or reduce costs which one could argue has been the central focus of IT for the past decade or more has also reduced the creative capacity and ability to innovate, relegating the budget processes to capacity planning and number crunching in an excruciatingly boring yearly exercise.  Certainly we all remember the rallying cry of many thought leaders years ago admonishing companies across industries that unless your core business is software or IT related, you should get out of the business all together.  There are numerous examples of enterprises having out-sourced all but a skeleton crew of their IT departments and who now look to create innovation centers-of-excellence or digital labs to regain the expertise needed to compete in this new reality - the one we are all in now where digital transforms the way we interact, sell, communicate, empower or engage in some other as of yet unexplored opportunity to innovate and excel. 

Even in cases where IT departments were not gutted or the creative talent still exists, you should not expect that IT be solely responsible for the digital strategy and in particular, demonstrating the ROI or putting together the business case. Certainly something as pervasive as a digital strategy which transforms a particular segment (or all) of your business requires the up front LOE aligned along the chain of various responsibilities.  You wouldn't tell a homebuilder to just go out and build your new home that will take you into the next decade based on a couple of high-level statements via email.  Something as complex as a digital transformation will require the same amount of strategy, design, upfront planning and oversight across concerns.

Everyone involved comes at transformation from their own perspective and that applies to the digital kind as well.  It's much too easy to get lost in the weeds in an IT only led effort.  Without the vision behind it, propelling it forward, built on sound business planning and based on intimate knowledge of needs, there's no impetus to see it through.  Promise becomes forgotten projects, or even worse, IT makes a valiant effort in pushing a technology capability to reality and no one even knows the power they now have to transform business.  It just sits there in the bin of unrealised potential while the the much more digital savvy (and properly focused) competition races ahead.

I would very much like to hear what others in the field have to say on this broad and important topic.  I'm sure there are perspectives that I have all together missed here in this short post and welcome comments as well as collaboration and conversations on the approach to transformation.  Above all else, Digital Transformation is a team sport!