Why Human-Centric Design is Critical to Digital Transformation

Today’s clients expect more. According to a recent Salesforce study, 66% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations Moreover, 70% of customers say understanding how they use products and services is crucial to winning their business. These expectations call for organizations to pursue new human centered digital transformation initiatives that improve customer experiences and drive future innovation and growth.

To transform digitally, many organizations often focus on the technology capabilities they need to adopt. However, while having the right technology is critical, it’s only part of the story. Digital transformation means rethinking how organizations use technology. It also involves talent and processes to find new business opportunities and revenue.

Human-centered design keeps the human experience as the core focus of digital transformation. This post explains why organizations need to link their users' needs with their technology and operations. This connection is important for competing in the future.

What Does Digital Transformation Look Like?

While digital transformation looks different for every organization, there are phases that most organizations undergo on their digital journey. The extent to which you should look to transform depends on where you currently are.

Prior to 2020, it seemed that digital transformation was a "buzzword" with many different interpretations.  Enter 2020 and the landscape of digital transformation changed overnight. IT leaders already traveling down this road have since drastically increased their speed of transformation. 

Organizations that were not already on this path had to change direction. They redirected money and people to meet the unique needs of the business.

For many organizations, the pandemic sparked digital business changes. We adapted to the needs of employees, customers, and other people. New digital options pushed them, and they now prefer these options.

The end-goal for a digital organization is to drive coordinated innovation with continuous improvement, in support of employee and customer experiences. Organizations can reach this goal by modernizing their IT, updating applications, and moving to the cloud. Put together, these IT initiatives deliver an environment that supports cloud-native application development for faster innovation and positive customer experiences.

How Operating Models Must Transform

As technology evolves, so too must operations and processes. DevOps practices and Agile methods should be used to gain the full benefits of new technologies. This can change an organization’s culture. Operational shifts involve:

Operational shifts involve:

• Aligning IT businesses’ teams to deliver customer value.

• Transitioning from large, siloed teams to smaller, agile teams.

• Enabling a continuous integration/ continuous delivery (CI/ CD) pipeline based on a product backlog and defined metrics.

Impact of an effective DevOps and Agile culture:

• Accelerated innovation to meet changing customer expectations.

• Supports an end-to-end innovation process, which includes:

  • Idea generation from diverse user inputs.

  • Leveraging design thinking to create customer-centric products.

Talent Transformation

The 5 Digital Workplace Trends of 2022 You Need To Know

So what’s continuing to drive change in 2022 and what technologies can help get you there? Through our work with organizations across different industries, these are the top 5 digital workplace trends we’re seeing this year that you should know more about.

Learn More →

The Great Resignation has further accelerated the need to integrate human-centric design into digital transformation initiatives. Following the unprecedented mass exit from the workforce in 2021, talent is becoming more and more scarce. Organizations must now rethink their methodologies for recruiting, engaging with, and retaining employee talent.

Hybrid work is now common in many organizations. Business leaders face the challenge of boosting collaboration and productivity in remote teams. Digital strategies in technology and culture should improve employee engagement and satisfaction. They must also keep remote employees secure.

Progressing Your Digital Journey Forward

In the end, there are many parts of technology transformation. Business leaders should think about these as they move their digital journey forward.

The organizations that change the best plan for technology and processes. They also consider the people involved in the change. For many organizations, transforming culture while at the same time driving innovation is not a simple task.

No matter where you are in your digital transformation journey, Burwood Group can help you. We can support you in reaching your goals. Burwood has proven expertise in helping organizations across industries align their business goals with transformation initiatives.

Burwood has strong IT integration skills and partnerships with top technology platforms. We help organizations create culture and innovation frameworks. These frameworks prepare them for long-term success.

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