The idea
Having spent years getting their digital operations in basic working order, businesses need to once again begin inventing new propositions. The problem is that invention requires a fresh pair of eyes and new tools, different from those used in operational improvement.
Background
The past 10 years have brought wholesale change to the setup of digital businesses, both legacy (Walmart) and pureplay (Amazon).
These companies have:
- hired capable digital leadership.
- instilled a product culture, fusing the best of technology, marketing, design and business analysis.
- hired technologists and designers to do the hard work of improving non-existent or bad systems.
- concentrated technical architecture work on their core and/or legacy systems.
- expanded core offerings into different channels (mobile, e-commerce, responsive design).
Our friends at Government Digital Service did all of this successfully, brushing out the old ways of working and transforming how government services are delivered.
Their phrase ‘the strategy is delivery’ was a great rallying cry to motivate their staff to make important, incremental improvements in the face of an entropic government IT culture. That entropic culture is also seen in many businesses, whose responsive builds and UX iteration cycles extended reach and overhauled legacy systems, but mainly consolidated existing value rather than create new streams of revenue and attention.
What Now?
All travel agents now have a usable site and reading the news online is easy. Many sectors now have a decent digital reflection of their core business online – but that is the problem: so does everyone else.
The strategy is now competition through distinction rather than just getting up to speed.
The strategy needs to be invention rather than just delivery.
This is where we come in. Recently we have worked with a variety of organisations, from large corporations to startups, who are all seeking to create new propositions, channels and strategies for their organizations. Our unique experience with data as a design material and views across diverse sectors allows us to have a running start at any new proposition.
We use a combination of Lean product development and our own custom designs methods to meet these differently sized challenges. We create not only new products and services but to also imbue our clients’ businesses with new ways of working. We invent but also leave the tools for invention.
The strategy is invention.