No two digital transformations are the same. And nor should they be, as each organisation can be said to have unique transformation needs and a desire for outcomes that differentiate their product from that offered by their rivals.
But when it comes to the process, most organisations will encounter similar pain points and challenges. There are many moving parts to digital transformation, multiple aspects to consider and plates to keep spinning. To avoid the common pitfalls, a framework that offers a firm foundation for any digital strategy is key. After all, McKinsey says 70% of digital transformations founder because of poor planning and management.
With a wealth of frameworks on offer, the trick is to apply the right one to each digital transformation task.
Fortunately, as a leading digital partner, MMT has made available three market-leading agile transformation frameworks rooted in our two-decades-long experience of helping some of the biggest UK and global brands become digitally better.
The North Star, Compass and Engine frameworks discussed in this article enable you to discover the value that resides in your digital portfolio, improve speed of delivery, and ultimately optimise return on investment and manage expectations around it.
Steer your digital strategy with North Star
According to recent statistics, worldwide spending on digital transformation reached USD1.59tn in 2021, increasing by more than 20% on the previous year. But if all of that budget isn’t being put to optimal use, the organisation and its customers miss out.
Digital strategy is the key focus of our North Star framework. It enables our clients to:
Set the digital transformation vision
Align the IT/digital department and the wider business
Track value through delivery and beyond - for single digital products or scaled multi-team transformation programmes
Focus on delivering value to customers
A large agriculture intelligence agency appointed MMT to address the key challenges it had experienced with digital product strategy and delivery. The problem was complex due to the conflict of digital consumer experience requirements for established versus new markets. If not turned around in 18 months, the loss of customers could have meant significant losses to the business.
Lack of insights and measurement to develop a strategy to improve the delivery of digital products, along with leadership changes that left gaps in technical product knowledge of legacy tools, meant the organisation trailed competitors and was in urgent need of a rapid digital transformation.
With North Star, the business was able to:
establish a Value Model for determining and measuring value
identify areas for improvement
implement best practice and governance
As a result, the company met the deadlines and celebrated delivering new products and services to its customers, rapidly providing quantifiable value.
Compass points to agile best practice
MMT’s Compass Framework brings together our specialist knowledge and experience in running complex agile operating models at scale.
Compass draws on a number of elements of digital transformation strategy to help our customers gain competitive advantage:
Introducing agile development methodology across teams and embedding best practice via consultancy, training and coaching
Measuring the agility of internal engineering teams to help pinpoint improvement opportunities
Installing additional resource and expertise via team augmentation model
Implementing value-based prioritisation methodology to boost speed to market
For one of our clients in the retail space, Compass allowed to drive better outcomes from its digital transformation strategy. The benefits included accelerating speed to market, maximising ROI of digital products and - crucially - establishing the new Engineering Capability Centre. This approach has empowered the organisation to build a digital product within weeks which would have previously taken months.
Engine is the beating heart of digital product design
Partnering with MMT can help you discover market-leading digital solutions, reduce digital waste and deploy value-driven digital products at speed and scale.
Working with us, organisations can replace legacy technology with a leading, connected digital ecosystem that provides outstanding digital experiences for your customers on any device.
MMT’s Engine framework:
embeds a product mentality
establishes a culture of collaboration covering all aspects of delivery from day one of the first sprint
improves the speed of delivery through iterations which naturally adapt to feedback and change
places focus on delivering value measured and tracked by North Star (described above)
Engine replaces heavyweight business requirement documentation and detailed design specifications with a lightweight, easy-to-understand view of what the product is, the problems it solves, and the steps that are needed to build the solution.
With North Star, Compass and Engine to call on, enterprise-level digital transformation is accelerated. The frameworks enable ongoing Agile development by putting in place the metrics and processes that unlock improvements as a project progresses.
And when unforeseen issues or opportunities emerge, the frameworks offer the agility to respond to them effectively.
If you’d like to discuss how North Star, Compass and North Star frameworks can benefit your organisation, get in touch with our team of digital transformation experts today.
