Defining the Transformation
We often have clients ask us about work they can do before a business transformation program gets underway, given how complex, cross-functional, and time-consuming major changes can be.
In response, we’ve compiled a transformation preparation playbook, including the various facets that are helpful to think through in advance of starting an operational or technology transformation. These include:
Phase 1: Preparing your organization
Decision-making and prioritization
Work management
Structures and processes
People and roles
Communication and alignment
Capacity and expertise
Phase 2: Defining the transformation
Customers and success criteria
Strategy and goals
Value stream / customer journey mapping
Financials and risk management
Transformation roadmap
Phase 3: Planning the transformation
Program structures and practices
Transformation teams and cadences
Key enabler readiness
Testing approach and defect management
Training approach and change management
Implementation approach
Today’s blog addresses the second phase: defining the transformation.
It includes questions to ask in each of these areas. Since every organization and every business transformation is different, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. It’s more about getting on the same page throughout your organization. We’ve included guidance where we can, and we’ve included real-world examples to illustrate how this can look.
The transformation preparation groupings build on each other, so it’s typically most effective to address them in the order listed. If needed for timing or buy-in, Phase 1 and Phase 2 can be tackled in parallel.
Customers and Success Criteria
Who are your customers (internal & external) and what value do they get from you?
What value are they NOT getting from you that they expect?
Why did they choose you in the first place?
How satisfied are they with your products/services?
Where are there areas of frustration or friction for your customers?
What are their alternatives to working with you?
What new products/services could you provide that would be valuable to them?
It can be tempting to try to answer all of these questions internally. The customer care team and sales team may have a pretty good sense for external customer wants and pain points, but we’ve found that there are always insights to be gained by getting input directly from customers. This can be a different conversation than we’re used to having with customers, so take care with:
Who to reach out to (don’t expect 100% participation!)
An agenda that gives direction to the conversation, while leaving most of the time for customers to talk
Clear feedback loop (even if you don’t add their feedback to the product roadmap in the next quarter, just showing that you understood feedback and are advocating for them with the rest of the team matters a great deal)
You may also find a neutral facilitator of great value in this step. This can be someone from an unrelated department within the company, or a consultant. A neutral facilitator takes away the (understandable) desire to explain or defend the status quo.
Strategy and Goals
What is your top-level mission?
What are your guiding principles as an organization?
What are your key performance indicators (KPIs) as an organization/function?
What are the underlying operational metrics you need to move in a certain direction to achieve your KPIs?
What are the major pillars or elements of your strategy needed to succeed in your mission?
What are the roadblocks keeping you from meeting your goals and how do you remove them?
Don’t feel the need to get fancy with documenting your strategy and goals. There are a LOT of frameworks and approaches, some of them with their own software offering or consulting group. If someone within the leadership team has an approach that has worked well before, consider that the top option unless proven otherwise.
When in doubt, we tend to rely on OKRs – objectives and key results – cascading from the leadership team through the organization. We find that OKRs work best when you’re clear about goals that you must hit (some people call these committed goals), and which you’re bravely pursuing but may not fully achieve. In absence of this clarity, we can set too small of objectives and key results, simply to check the box. We vote for real progress, even if that involves some misses of KRs!
Value Stream / Customer Journey Mapping
What is the flow of core business value from initial customer interaction to termination of services?
How are key customer interactions going? Where are there moments of delight, confusions, or frustration in:
Onboarding
Requesting changes or upgrades in service
Billing and payment processing
Situations of non-payment
Financials and Risk Management
If you are a revenue-generating unit/organization, do you have a clear picture of your revenue forecast for the next 12 months?
Where are there opportunities to grow your top line? Where is there risk of losing revenue?
Do you have a clear picture of your budget (operational, capital, projects, etc.)?
If you had to cut 10% tomorrow, do you know which expenses come off the board?
What mechanisms do you have in place to manage and mitigate risk (compliance, audits, security, etc.)?
Transformation Roadmap
Crafting a compelling vision for the future based on customer needs, unique capabilities, and industry conditions often takes the form of a multi-year roadmap for making the most of emerging technology enablement.
Baseline Current State
Discovery Interviews
Business Process Mapping
Evaluation of Tech Stack
Competitive Benchmarking
Envision Future State
Art of the Possible
What It Will Look & Feel Like (Customer & Employee Experience)
Strategic Business Requirements
Target Operating Model
Define & Evaluate Gaps
Current vs. Future Gaps
Solution Identification
Value/Feasibility Evaluation
Operating Model & Org Design Changes
Change Management Planning
Business Case Creation
Create Roadmap
Roadmap Creation (“Where Are We Doing & How Are We Going to Get There?”)
Team Structure & Resourcing Approach
Change Playbook Creation
Iterative Review & Refinement with Leadership & Stakeholders
We find the roadmap and a one-pager describing the future state vision are the most-used artifacts coming out of this set of activities. The future state vision reminds us where we’re going (and, hopefully next in the conversation, why it matters). It’s aspirational yet achievable. It gets us excited about the journey, even when the road is hard.
The roadmap shows us how we’re going to get there. Each person on the team should be able to see where they fit into the activities (typically through workstreams, often enhanced with formatting to show the stakeholder groups involved). Importantly, each person can also see how their part of the path connects with others’. Transformation always has cross-functional dependencies, and coordinating across departments and teams will be a major factor of success going forward.
Next up: planning the transformation. My teammates will get into a lot more detail on how to structure a transformation program, what teams and cadences can look like, how to approach testing, and much more.
