6 considerations for new IT leaders in digital transformation

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The journey of digital transformation can be daunting, even for experienced IT professionals. For new IT leaders, here are some tips and steps to get your company’s digital transformation initiatives on track.

While digital transformation has become more common in large enterprises in recent years, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has accelerated digital transformation initiatives in smaller verticals. Under normal circumstances, implementing digital transformation is stressful and complex for businesses. As the pandemic has changed consumer behavior and put pressure on businesses to adapt quickly to stay afloat, new IT leaders are more likely to make mistakes that could adversely affect business operations.

If they are working to lead digital transformation to navigate the crisis brought on by the pandemic, the following six considerations can provide help and guidance.

3 things to avoid during digital transformation

(1) Not people-oriented

Many leaders believe that digital transformation is driven by emerging technologies, but employees and customers are also decisive factors. Therefore, people must always be at the center of the company's digital transformation plan. After all, running a business, using technology and innovating are inseparable from the joint efforts of people.

Amazon and Apple are two companies that have done a great job implementing a customer-centric strategy. When planning your vision for change, it is important to put people first.

(2) Don’t blindly follow the trend

While emerging technologies should not drive your digital transformation needs, you should choose technologies that can help your digital transformation. Don’t make the mistake of blindly following the herd – for example, just because conversational AI is the latest tech trend, doesn’t mean it will help your business or its customers. Focus your development team on the technologies your business needs, not the latest trends.

(3) Unbalanced team composition

The more people involved in a company's digital transformation program, the more support it will receive. The more talent a company has, the more expertise and skills it will need during the digital transformation process.

IT leaders integrate existing teams into the digital transformation process to take advantage of everyone’s knowledge and skills. Digital transformation initiatives are often successful when participants include people who provide different perspectives and areas of expertise. It is important to ensure that the experts on the team demonstrate specific attributes that support the ultimate goals of the business. Examples include IT experts, CIOs, third-party vendors, HR personnel, and mid- and senior-level managers on the digital transformation team.

3 key things to implement during digital transformation

(1) Clearly communicate the goals of digital transformation

Digital transformation can be daunting, especially when it comes to automation. Employees may feel uncertain about the process and frustrated by information overload, and some may even feel their job positions are threatened by emerging technologies. As a leader, it’s your job to prevent this fear and burnout among employees by implementing a strong communication plan that outlines clear goals.

To achieve this, leaders need to:

•Communicate digital transformation goals early.

• Anticipate challenges and resistance and address them quickly by providing information about the benefits of digital transformation.

•Explain not only what digital transformation is doing, but why it is doing it.

(2) Prioritize employee experience

Employees are the greatest asset of a business. Therefore, it is crucial to prioritize the employee experience during the digital transformation process as this may greatly contribute to the success of digital transformation. Employees who benefit from the change will support the change and contribute to a better working environment.

Improving the employee experience can:

•Maximize employee engagement.

•Help employees develop their careers.

•Provide education and training to enhance employee skills.

(3) Define goals and benchmarks for success

IT leaders leading digital transformations need to ask themselves some questions: Why are they making this shift? What do they hope to gain from digital transformation? And how will they measure success?

Answering these questions will allow them to track progress and communicate with the team about areas for improvement. Setting goals and benchmarks will help develop a strategy to guide the implementation of new technologies.

Some metrics to look out for include training results (number of trained people in the organization), project results (number of projects using design thinking), and customer satisfaction (responses to specific tasks, usability metrics, etc.).

It is undeniable that the way many companies manage their daily workflows has changed. This is a true digital transformation. Digital transformation brings huge competitive advantages to fully digitalized companies. For leaders who are entering the field of digital transformation for the first time, the above suggestions will help guide the teams they lead to implement digital transformation.