A few months ago, a CEO of a large international legal firm rang me up to talk about a digital project he was involved in. He wanted advice. He wanted to talk through his plan and make sure he was doing the right thing. We talked about a lot of things but the one comment that stuck with me most of all was when he was talking about the digital agency and IT firms he was working with. He said, “I feel like I’m in the back seat of a taxi and I know where I want to go, but the driver won’t take me there.”
At a conference last year, another CEO of a substantial New Zealand organisation told me “the entire IT industry is corrupt”. Prior to that conference I attended a Digital Essentials training course provided by the Institute of Directors where a CEO at our table announced that digital was a ‘black box’ and a ‘black hole’ as far as money went.
So what’s going on? I work in digital and I know there are many brilliant agencies delivering fantastic work for clients. Why are these capable and experienced leaders so frustrated with the outcomes they’re getting from digital? Why do they feel like their digital partners don’t understand them? Why do they feel like there’s an imbalance of power? I talked further to all three of them and found a similar pattern. And it’s a pattern that I’ve seen numerous times before.
1. No digital strategy
All three leaders had a clear goal or vision for what they wanted to achieve, but no digital strategy in place to outline how that goal might be achieved. A good digital strategy answers key questions like what capabilities and capacities would be required to achieve the desired outcome? Who are the audiences? What technologies would be required? What sort of vendor or platform would you need? Where would you need to invest? What’s important to the success or failure of this project? What does the ideal user experience look like? What are the risks?
Digital strategy is very similar to business strategy — there’s a right size for everyone. They don’t have to be big or complex, but they do have to be clear and coherent.
2. No independent and trusted advice
In each case, the organisations embarked on the projects relying entirely on internal expertise and capacity. This is actually great because they all had capable people that were confident in taking on the project — you need these champions within the organisation.
However, unless digital is your full time job, it’s pretty hard to stay on top of quickly changing technology, terminology and ways for delivering projects. Bringing in an independent voice early on to sanity check the digital strategy, help build internal alignment and support decision-making can make all the difference at crucial moments along the journey. An independent individual may also help you answer hard questions like: do we really have the right internal capability?
Often, the greatest value an additional independent person offers is actually capacity. Senior leaders simply don’t have the time available to stay close enough to complex digital projects, so they need trusted advisors.
3. The wrong sequence
In the absence of a robust digital strategy, all three organisations went straight to market to find a company that could design and build them applications and websites. In short, despite various different RFP processes, the conversation largely went like this: “I’m thinking about building something, should I do it? Can you do it? And how much would it cost?” The answers of course were: “Yes, yes and yes.”
Going straight to a vendor and asking them if it’s a good idea to design or build something is much like going to McDonald’s and asking if you should have a hamburger. The answer is yes. McDonald’s is very good at what they do, but would you rely on their advice if you want a balanced diet?
Your digital strategy must be in place before you start talking to companies that can help you with execution. It’s not intentional, but if your execution partners drive the strategy, it will be shaped by what they can do using their capabilities, processes and technology. It might not be wrong, but it’s unlikely to be based on what’s best for you in the long run. (Those Big Macs do taste pretty good though…)
4. No shared language
Getting back to the taxi analogy, the CEO in the backseat talks about business while the driver concentrates on keeping the car on the road. The driver likely knows a great deal about the car and how it works, but not necessarily where to go. What’s missing is a co-driver focussed on understanding where the CEO wants to go, and translating that into directions for the driver. The key here is ‘translation’. A complex digital project only succeeds when all parties understand and communicate effectively with each other.
The most common complaint I hear from clients when reviewing projects that haven’t gone well is “they didn’t do what they said they would”. This is compoundingly bad for the client because they’ve made promises to their internal teams about the project. When they don’t get what they thought they were buying, the easiest thing to do is to blame the vendor (creating an unhelpful ‘us’ vs ‘them’ situation).
“I feel like I’m in the back seat of a taxi and I know where I want to go, but the driver won’t take me there.”
And yet, what I hear from the vendors is always “the client kept changing their mind”. This boils down to the fact that neither party really understood each other, despite all the nodding and apparent agreement that would have taken place.
You need a strategy and an independent translator to create the shared language needed to successfully deliver a complex digital project. A clear strategy actually makes execution much faster because decision-making is easier and more consistent. The vendor is also unlikely to claim you changed your mind if you keep pointing to the same picture (a map if you like) and strategy throughout the project. Quite seriously, that’s actually a great way to start every important meeting.
5. Inadequate project structure
And lastly — the perfect ambulance commonly parked at the bottom of the cliff — the project structure. The reality is that complex digital projects require governance and steering structures that balance the tensions created by inevitable competing needs that emerge during the project. In my experience, the projects that have gone badly have a perfect structure in place right at the very end (the bottom of the cliff)….when all the problems have become obvious. But what good is the ambulance there? This goes right back to the digital strategy: if you don’t have an independent strategy that outlines what you’ll need, what’s important, where the risks are, and what the roadmap looks like — how can a steering group steer?
There’s no such thing as ‘best project structure’ or ‘best project methodology’, it depends on the strategy and the capabilities and capacity required. But all complex projects need regular oversight and input from the client. You simply cannot expect your digital or IT partner to just go away and do it. You have to invest time in the process to get a great outcome.
Of course, there are many other reasons why digital and IT projects can go awry, and sometimes it is actually bad strategy. But most commonly it’s a lack of strategy and a failure to communicate. The digital and IT industry is not corrupt — the individuals that make up the companies generally all want to do their best work and see their clients succeed. I’ve seen brilliant results come from closer collaboration between parties.
At Diagram, we’re passionate about helping organisations develop digital strategies that make them great clients and deliver great outcomes for everyone. Now more than ever, organisations need to make the most of digital.
