How does Digital Transformation work?

Digital Transformation is hardly linear. Stages do exist, but many coincide. Here are some of the phases that we can find ourselves in when amidst a Digital Transformation journey:

• Identification Stage.​ During this stage we identify areas where digital enablement is meaningful to the business and should be brought into play. This does not entail everything and anything. It does rely on critically reviewing processes and opportunities to figure out which of them are suitable for digitization, while determining technologies that could be used in each case.
• Planning Stage.​ A lot of thinking goes into this stage. This is the phase where we lay out the masterplan, we dive deeper into critical paths, interrelations, goals and implementation strategies. We discuss the change management tracks. We identify stakeholders and set up key performance indicators. It is important that everyone involved understands the importance of their roles and how they fit into the overall picture. The more effort invested here, the smoother the implementation stage will be.​
• Implementation Stage.​ Many organizations feel that once implementation starts, planning and identification are over. This is hardly the case in the real world. Sure, we set our sails to deliver what has been planned, but this is a deeply iterative process with a lot of experimentation, A-B testing, fast-failing and collaborative work. The most important thing here is to ensure that our work produces the impact envisioned, not digitizing steps for the sake of it.
• Evaluation Phase.​ This stage transcends the entire transformation journey. We don’t just wait until the end to evaluate whether objectives have been met. Part of the art and craft that digital transformation is, stems from our boldness to continuously revisit our judgements and checking our biases to ensure that progress is not being made at the expense of real business impact.