Become a partner, not an executor
The world of digital products and services is developing rapidly. The requirements for them are becoming more and more complicated. Nowadays, any business is thinking about or trying to develop its own ecosystem: marketplace, internal CRM, automation of business processes, etc.
Companies cannot resist the fact that the systems inside them will only become more complicated, and their services for a client are getting increasingly digitized, and there is a need to improve interactions with him.
We have been involved in the development of IT/brands/products for more than 10 years. Our experience proves that custom development, as a direction of business development, does not lead to an effective result. Since the business itself does not have the competencies of management and the formation of a detailed vision of digital development, all clients’ projects remain one-time attempts or small steps on the way to a digital platform.
This is not the fault of either a business or IT contractor. This is how the market works: IT contractors are burdened with constant operating costs. They have clock-bound contracts; they have no economic justification to immerse themselves in your product at the proper level, to work on the competencies of your team, to monitor the project after its launch, etc. To show the minimum profitability, they need to follow a strict plan scheduled day by day.
Now let’s imagine that a contractor has to make a clear work plan for a complicated business transformation at a time. Taking into account the complexity of the processes, it would be a correct approach to evaluate the results and to amend the plan from time to time, rather than to work based on the Terms of References made half a year ago.
Product development is a systemically repetitive process, regardless of company size, its experience in the market and industry. Therefore, the contract with a contractor immediately creates unjustified expectations of the business that it has “made” a product.
We are witnessing this process of frustration, burning budgets and misunderstanding what to do next in our customers, successfully fulfilling our contracts.
Today, an IT service has come very close to the heart of any business, so contract-based relationships don’t work anymore. What is the solution?
— Transform your services to integrate into your client’s business processes smoothly. An expensive offer at the start and the definition of a product or service for a year ahead entail high risks for everyone: a client may be afraid of big investments, and you may miss with a vision.
— Divide the stages of work and analyze the results together with the client. Adjust the course of a project, admire the success and mistakes that occurred on the way, which you encountered not at the end, but on your way to victory.
— Engage a client in the process. The more peculiarities and complexities he can see in your work, the more he is immersed in participation, the more he understands the need to move on. The longer your cooperation will be. Arrange mutual workshops: draw CJM, audience portraits, present modern trends and successful practices of other products.
— Work to form a client’s team. Sooner or later, partially or fully, you will have to transfer the product into the hands of your client’s team. So that the product’s activity does not suffer at this moment, his team should be ready for this. The product success after the contract completion is even your greater success. You didn’t just launch a service, you helped strengthen your client’s business and gained his trust for many years to come.
Based on our experience, we have transformed our approach to development and design services:
— strategic planning;
— developing the vision of the companies’ future digital growth for 3–5 years ahead;
— conceptual vision, design and branding;
— forming a team for a client’s project with this team gradual transfer to the internal unit of a client’s company.
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