Five ways to align digital transformation with data-driven practices

Let's examine a couple of ways you can align two transformation programs to achieve complementary and reinforcing results. Your digital transformation program has a number of initiatives that enable new markets, develop new products, and should be targeting an overall improvement in customer experiences. You may have a separate program aimed at enabling the data driven organization that enabled citizen data scientists and leverages big data technologies to drive leadership and managers to leverage data in their decision making.

To align these programs, you have to consider how to enable data driven decision making around the digital transformation program. Here are a few ways to do this: 

1. Ensure digital transformation programs are grounded with key performance indicators (KPIs) that are early indicators of whether programs are achieving desired results. In addition to any financial metrics, consider KPIs in customer experience, employee engagement, and operational efficiencies that can be early indicators of financial success.


2. Develop a data gathering and sharing strategy especially for new products and applications. I want to see metrics on marketing activities, product usage, and system performance to help guide decisions on priorities and roadmaps.


3. Leverage data to update customer segments and user personas so that the digital strategy can evolve as new capabilities are deployed. Strategic activities should not be considered one-time events and should be updated with new data and insights.


4. Engage a growing number of employees with data and insights when embarking on new initiatives. Transformation programs often begin with a short list of initiatives and participants, that should evolve over time to include a larger scope and participation. When bringing on new participants, align them early to both digital and data-driven thinking by leveraging insights captured from successful initiatives.


5. Review enterprise systems, especially the CRM and marketing automation tools on new data sources and workflow changes that enable a digital business.    

Don't leave these as afterthoughts. Be explicit when working with initiative and team leaders to ensure these data-driven practices are incorporated in their programs.