“I am in software, so I am digital,” claims a software engineer. It’s a fallacy.
“What is Digital?” Based upon their experience, the audience may answer as software, computers, workflow, automation, social media, or agile.
“I have converted the paper workflow into a form on the computer. We are now paperless. Everything is digitized and neatly stored in the database libraries.” – Software Product Leader. Behind the scenes a user is complaining – “This computerized documentation is slower than paper”
Digitizing is not Digitalizing
“I have applied for a job in a Digital company. They are into IoT, Cloud, and BIG Data. After I joined, it’s no different than any other software company. It’s just fixing bugs in somebody else’s code! and long working hours.”
Digital is not about software
So, here’s my opinion – Digital is about customer experience and consumerism. Technology and Software (Computers, software, agile, AI/ML, workflow, etc.) play a role, but they are just a means to an end.
“Customer” <<>> “Experience” <<>> “Consumerism”
Story of Mrs. Jane Doe going Digital
Mrs. Jane Doe loves cooking. She believes she makes the best chocolate cookies in the world. She wants to go digital – she wants more people to experience and consume her cookies. A good business is a growing business. A friend tells her about “anything-you-want.com,” where there are a million users registered. She can publish her cookies and her location; the platform has delivery partners that will deliver her cookies anywhere in the world. So, she has only to make yummy cookies and not hire expensive and cranky software engineers!
The results were excellent; there were 100 delivery requests on day-1. Mrs. Jane Doe improved the consumption of her service (cookies). When she went back to the site, 60 users had rated her cookies as 5-star, 30 users had rated her cookies as 4-star, and 10 users had rated her cookies as 2-star with comments as “Too sweet and sugary. Avoid”
Hmmm, more consumption means more feedback (experience ranges from good, bad, ugly). So, in her next iteration, she added customization to her cookies to request reduced sweetness. She observed the next 100 orders, and it looks like she has made an incremental improvement. 65 cookies rated as 5-star and 35 cookies rated as 4-star. She had no objective/subjective data to improve her cookies. There were no comments at all.
She had an idea; she published a discount coupon code with the next order; the discount coupon code would be activated only after a feedback comment. After this incremental change, she observed the next 100 orders, and voila! she had comments (at the cost of giving free cookies). The comments ranged from Boring package, Expected more cookies in the package, same looking and tasting cookies without variety, too hard for my teeth, and too mushy and melting. She was now armed with feedback from a poor experience and ready to make more changes. She was determined to improve her rating! A higher rating means more orders!! So, it’s experience and consumerism. Digital is cool.
Digital is a new way of doing business. Well, it’s the old way that is packaged in a new way, with “technology” as an enabler and accelerator.
So, how does this relate to a career in technology?
Modern technology is architected as a set of services. It’s paramount that the consumption and experience of the service are measured. Measurement and feedback improve the service. Feedback could be defects or improvement opportunities, and addressing them enhances the experience and consumption of the service. Collect data about consumption and experience – logs, click-streams, and user feedback circles. Analyze data to improve the service quality attributes – functionality, reliability, scalability, etc. It’s a digital pursuit to improve a service experience and consumption.
This continuous improvement mindset drives digital. The user/customer is at the center, not technology. Technology is applied to improve the services. Don’t just hear them; listen to the user’s feedback. If the user is a critique, you are lucky. It’s an opportunity to improve. Whether you are building a platform or an application, it’s a service with a user/customer that uses the service. Move away from software to service.
It’s a digital economy powered by services. Digital is customer experience and consumerism.
While striving for technology expertise/excellence, focus on users/customers. You can then add “digital” to your CV.
Digital Journey 