How To Go Digital
In an earlier article Do You Need to Go Digital , we considered the different strategic aspects to going digital, and the possibilities for extending your market reach.
We're going to assume now that you've joined everyone who is going to survive the digital business revolution, and that you've reached the stage where you're considering the practical and financial questions.
Bright ideas and why they fail
Anyone can have a bright idea and in business it's no different. There are two huge blockers that mean most ideas never leave the drawing board, or they stumble badly and very publicly before going down in flames.
The first has to do with knowledge and experience. Industry knowledge and know-how is essential and almost goes without saying, and yet it's amazing how many new entrants have pumped millions into an idea only to discover that it is a clever solution looking for a problem that's not always there. With a digital offering, technical knowledge is also a fundamental requirement. This doesn't just mean the ability to write software code - there are millions of people who can do that. It means pairing that skill with the experience in online services - both building them and running them. It means having the experience to know what works and what doesn't when applying technology to business problems. And it means having the ability to articulate and apply all that expertise in partnership with industry and business experts.
The second sits squarely in the finance side of the operation. Any finance manager can tell you how easy it is to blow all your money on a speculative venture only to find that you've raced off down the wrong path. Unfortunately, what this leads to is paralysis. "We can't commit funds until we know everything" ...... and of course you never know everything especially about the future.
One way to virtually guarantee failure is to create a huge project and commit to everything all at once. If you embark on a two or three year project, technology will change in that time. So will business and in particular your business. People will change the way they demand things and new ideas from elsewhere will come to the fore. And if none of that persuades you, how can you possibly know what will work and when you might see a return on your investment? And yet that's the way most larger organisations approach systems and service development.
Plan, implement, measure, adapt
You'll be embarking down a long road with a blindfold on, so better to take that road in short stages. At the end of each stage - stop. Take off the blindfold and have a look around, evaluate what you've got. Have a look at your industry at that point. Have a look at what your competition is doing and ask your customers what they think of what you're doing. Work with your technology partner to figure out the best way forward given all that new information.
No plan survives first contact with the enemy
Helmuth van Moltke (Prussian military commander)
Follow the tried and tested strategy of:
- Create a plan
- Implement the first step
- Measure your results
- Adapt your thinking and go around again
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth
Mike Tyson
At each stage you can change direction if you want to. You can react to new ideas and possibilities. You can take a break and wait until the time is right for you to move forward again (don't wait too long). You can change your priorities based on what your customers want rather than what you think might be a good idea.
The golden rule is to make sure you have a workable new product or service at the end of each stage. People have different buzzwords for this - Minimum Viable Product is the current popular one. Whatever you want to call it you need something that you can road-test in the real world and then to continue with or adapt depending on the results. It's also a great way to get some of your investment coming back in while you continue development.
Controlling the money
Which leads us back to the finances. We've worked with businesses who are entirely self-financing. We understand them and work at their speed. They budget a modest amount to get them through phase one and into production, and they work towards phase two at a pace that suits their wallet. There's no pressure from us, there is no huge commitment with an all-or-nothing gamble because they can stop at any time and still have a high-quality working product.
What next?
Take a look at the companion article Turning Ideas into Online Services authored by Scott Bamford - our Technical Director.
And if you're ready to investigate the exciting possibilities, why not book a free consultation . The least that you'll come away with will be some thought-provoking ideas, and more likely you'll also get some sound level-headed advice on moving forward.
