In the context of digital and agile transformation, we need to understand and articulate the what problem we are trying to solve.
In fact, to be more specific - what is the problem we are trying to solve for our customers? The customer needs must be front and centre of our minds. This may sound quite obvious. However, a lot of transformations aim to make the organisation more productive, more efficient, more innovative etc. All great ambitions but ultimately, they fail to answer how it would help their customers. So the notion is to focus on customer-centricity. Place the customer at the heart of what we do.
Customer at the heart of the experience
Additionally, we must aim for, what I refer to as, a clear line of sight between people using our products and people developing our products. In other words, a direct connection between customers and developers if we are talking about a tech company.
Perhaps in a small start-up, it’s easy but in a large corporation, this becomes incredibly difficult because we have multiple layers between these two groups. We have sales, account management, professional services, product management and so on and so forth.
Your litmus paper test is, can a software engineer describe how a customer uses their product?
Can a software engineer describe why and how a customer uses their product?
It is vital, when we are embarking on a transformation initiative, that first of all we understand how we are going to help our customers. What problem are we going to solve for them? How will their lives be better as a result of our efforts?
Second of all, does everyone involved know this is to a level of detail that is meaningful? And ensure that knowledge is not with a select few.