Digital Transformation: Lessons Learned

Doing Digital, have taught many lessons. If you are enabling a large Digital Transformation, which is end-to-end. Then you are bound to learn many lessons, below is the list of few key lessons learned in Commerce, while building Brand Web Sites:

1. Base Product Readiness: Ensure to give enough time for base product readiness while doing any Digital Transformation. The current example is: Commerce Product (utilizing WCS/WCM/UI/UX/IIB/OMS/WMS) in the form of a Brand Web Site. Customer has embarked on the journey to build multiple Web Sites for various service lines / product offerings.  The idea is to have for every product - its own unique website, with unique User Experience. Ensure all the issues in the base product are resolved, before moving it to UAT and PROD. Take your time to resolve all the User Experience (UI Issues) related. Let the base product be fully tested by Customer, then plan to launch it.
2. Avoid Multiple Product Roll-outs: Once the base product website is fully tested via SIT & UAT, please ensure after Go-Live, at least a month is given for the base product to be stabilized in Production environment. If you are planning for rolling out multiple products at one time, you are carrying huge risks. Try to avoid it as much as possible. Have a staggered roll-out plan for each product website. Ensure all the stakeholders agree to the roll-out plan.
3. Single Plan for Single Brand: If you are having multiple roll-outs for multiple product websites, avoid carrying a single Master Plan for all of the brands. Instead, create a single plan for each product, ensuring all the deliverable s are tracked and risks raised on timely manner. Avoid a big bang planning for all brands at once. Break your planning into one brand at a time. Replicate the success of base product planning to rest of the brands.
4. Critical Resourcing: Please ensure you have enough critical resources available running in parallel scrum teams for the development of multiple brands to be in parallel. Each brand should have a Scrum Team, led by a Scrum Master. Ensure the tasks are assigned and tracked every day for progress while highlighting critical risks to the customer.
5. Continuously Monitor, Measure, and Adapt: Finally, as Digital transformation is a dynamic process that requires continuous monitoring, measurement, and adaptation. Organizations should establish key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with their transformation goals and ROI, regularly assess the progress being made against them.

To summarize, the key to success for any digital transformation starts with right amount of planning, ensuring base product readiness, avoiding multiple product roll-out at once and key aspect of resourcing.