In this article, we share our five-step process for creating a digital strategy roadmap.
Last week we began the series “Digital Strategy Roadmaps: A Step-by-Step Approach to Success”. Over subsequent weeks, we’ll post articles sharing best practices around digital strategy roadmaps. In the week we continue the series with the key stages in building a digital strategy roadmap.
Stage 1: Evaluate your current state and gather objectives
The first step is to gauge and document your current state and gather objectives against the issues that are experienced, felt or foreseen today. During this stage you’re asking:
“How does the method / service / system work today?”
“What’s not working so well?”
“How can we want this to figure better?”
The current state evaluation forms the idea for your future state recommendation and roadmap. It’s all about building the business case for the longer term plan and fixing realistic expectations round the execution of that plan. In no particular order, the subsequent sorts of activities are typically undertaken:
- Discovery with business owners and customers to spot sets of problems and objectives
- Study and/or audit of existing systems, technology, and processes
- Review of existing analytics and performance metrics
When an evaluation is completed thoroughly, you’ll feel confident that you simply have identified all the prevailing “moving parts”. Knowing the entire picture, you’ll be ready to start linking vision and objectives to concrete initiatives.
Stage 2: Vision a future state supported business and user objectives
Next, define the longer term state through problem-solving against key objectives. Aim for a well-rounded picture that’s well balanced and not just the view or opinion of one business owner or individual.
Business Stakeholders
The first step is to spot and gather objectives from your business stakeholders. The aim is to know the high-level “desired and required” requirements for the organization as an entire .
End users
The second step is to collect objectives from your end-users. By now, you ought to have an honest idea of what the organization feels may be a need or priority. lecture customer end-users about what they need and wish may offer you a rather different result.
Business stakeholders and end-users represent two sides of an equivalent coin. Both sets of feedback should add up. Combined with earlier steps and you’ve got an entire vision of what your digital strategy roadmap must deliver. counting on the complexity of the transformation, the task may take more or less time, be more or less complex with more or fewer groups of stakeholders and end users to solicit input from. within the end, you’re trying to find insights that support your future vision. It is often as simple as saying: “This digital project is going to possess a positive impact on X business goal.”
Stage 3: compile the objectives and therefore the initiatives
Now that you simply know what your current and future states are, you would like to link all you’ve learned thus far to initiatives (things to action) that meet the objectives AND capabilities of the business.
The complexity of this stage is usually underestimated or skipped altogether.
It is assumed that a digital project will magically drive an organization’s objectives, but that’s not always the case. The proper technology will drive business objectives as long as the business can and can support the change(s) you’re proposing.
Who is responsible, accountable, or otherwise involved?
Who is championing the project? Who can make directional decisions?
Who is going to be impacted by the changes proposed?
What factors have to be considered to make sure the change is accepted and successful?
When you are building your digital strategy roadmap, you would like to consciously link it back to the business’ goals and objectives and consider feasibility and viability (capability). Capability is a crucial factor which will influence your sequencing and prioritization of discrete initiatives within your strategic plan.
Stage 4: Synthesis
Once you’ve got your requirements, objectives, and initiatives in situ . Now, it’s time to map it out. Your maps are often visual, textual, or something in between.
You will have to organize everything you’ve got gathered into one communication that’s easy to read and understand. This might appear as an easy side-by-side comparison; a spreadsheet list; a table or chart; or a visible diagram. no matter format, your digital strategy roadmap may be a summary of:
What the present state is
What the longer term state could / should / must be
What business objective(s) you’re hoping to realize
What the requirements of stakeholders and end-users are and the way to unravel for them
Stage 5: Roadmap
Finally, stage five – putting it all at once into a step by step decision to execute.
Sort / Weight Priorities
Assigning priority to your initiatives are often complicated. There are many prioritization methods which will help with sorting. A simplified version of the MoSCoW method usually works well if your group of stakeholders is on the smaller side: Must, Should, Could, Won’t Do.
You can also try Now, Later, Not Doing. Or a basic priority numbering system: 1, 2, 3.
Dependencies
There are often dependencies within complex projects. If these go undocumented, then it’s easy for projects to stall or become derailed. an in depth , prioritized roadmap enables your team to figure within the smartest possible way while delivering the longer term state. An e-commerce experience can’t be redesigned until the inventory management database is updated with additional product attributes. Clean data may be a dependency on an optimal front-end experience.
Sequencing
What must be wiped out “waterfall” style and what is often done concurrently, in dual track, or agile? Sequencing is all about assigning your initiatives to a viable order of execution.
