Digital transformations fail their goal by going too wide too soon

We have seen and run large transformation offices. The promise of organization wide unlock of 2-3x returns, agility of business practices, and so many other promises turn out to be empty after a year of hard push. Hard doesn't mean you shouldn't do, just it means you need different approach to success.

So many details you can say a digital transformation stalls on:

• missing talent or experience,
• not the right tech or architecture,
• org schema wasn't revised well,
• internal politics and pushback,
• misalignment of stakeholders.

Easy to hide behind all of these excuses. They are all forseable from day 0, yet they end up in the post-mortem or on steerco decks months after the start of spending? Yep, always.

If so many pitfalls for a project and known ahead of time, why would you even attempt it? Market pressure, loss of market share, competitiveness, my peer companies will beat me, etc. Or just pure "let's make our org the best it can be" good intentions behind. In our modern world, there is not really a choice to go digital on as many aspects as you can.

But then how not to loose the company on the new bet? Every leader wants to be a hero, a saviour of the company, a market genius. But the most successful ones do one thing right: hedge their bets.

Take a calculated risk, prove it works on the minimum cost possible and then double down to scale it.

Choose a smaller vertical slice of your company and transform that first. A new digital sales channel while you operate all other areas. Maybe lower a little bit their operations, like 10% to move in-house talent to the new initiative. Experienced operators learning new skills will beat any new hires in DX.

Talent shortage? You need 4-5 really good people, augmented by 1-2 from the market. Hard to fail on this in a thousands of people org.

Not the right tech or architecture? Start with a Tech North Star of how it should look like in 10 years and build only the new pillar on it. Don't fall back on existing ones, keep to the new approach for the whole project, scrap or integrate afterward.

Org schema wasn't revised well? Smaller orgs are easier to shift and change before scale, learn and integrate the insights before costly office politics kick in.

Internal politics? Pushback? Easier to isolate a small team with a clear KPI/OKR for them, support them from top when they inevitable hit red-tape roadblocks. Success beats politics, hard to argue with "but it drive 20% revenue growth" in steercos.

Misalignment of stakeholders? Minimize resposnible people. 1 decision maker with budget and ownership at the same time. Bring on board the others based on success metrics, not on promises. Smaller scope makes alignment easier too.

Focus your digital transformation to a 3-4 months runs, each with tangible results. The only way for a permanent improvement of your organization.

What was the worst problem you had to face during a digital transformation?