In an ever-changing technology landscape, can business decisions ever truly be ‘future-proofed’? Senior Product Consultant, Rosie Stano shares her thoughts on why businesses should strive to be more adaptive and ‘future-ready’ rather than ‘future-proofed’.
I hate the term ‘future-proofed’. There, I said it. I’ll admit, as the sentiment is widely understood, I’ll freely use the term with clients along with ‘digital transformation’ (that’s one for another day), but as we start H2, my mid-year resolution is to stop using this, quite frankly, ridiculous concept.
Unless you can look into a crystal ball and tell me you can see the advances of digital technology, the deep implications of Generative AI – or even more simply – the channels your customers are going to want to engage with you on, how can it be possible to fully predict the future needs of the business and your customers to truly make ‘future-proofed’ decisions?
Instead, we need to reframe how we make technology decisions and strive to become ‘future-ready’ and more adaptive organisations.
When I’m talking to clients, we often discuss solutions that are going to be in place for several years to come.
Quite often these businesses have a limited understanding of their customers’ needs and I say this with the greatest sincerity, but if your digital product isn’t driving genuine one-to-one experiences informed by quality data, and also you aren’t conducting common person testing to realize qualitative suggestions or working experimentation at scale, you then don’t totally know what your prospects need and the way their wants are ever evolving, and also you’re not in one of the best place to quickly adapt to their altering wants.
There are 5 issues I believe are actually good that I constantly see the best performing companies prioritise:
They Embody a Tradition of Experimentation
Venturebeat notice that businesses who conduct CRO experience a 223% uplift in business performance. They’re not ruled by hierarchy or the Highest Paid Individual’s Opinion – the ‘HIPPO’ within the room. They embrace change.
Adopting experimentation is a threat. It could possibly really feel uncomfortable at first, be unpredictable at occasions and challenges any preconceived understanding of buyer wants and product design which may be unsettling for groups.
However we’ve seen this shift in mindset is feasible even at extra established and conventional companies. We recently supported Mazda to embed a culture of experimentation, bettering conversion fee by over 20%.
They Undertake Advancing Applied sciences That Can Anticipate Future Wants
From robotics to IoT, there are lots of quickly advancing applied sciences which can be already in huge use or are on the cusp of being adopted by the mainstream. Let’s take generative AI for example: Gartner reported that using AI to improve customer experience is the primary focus for 38% of executive leaders with regards to funding in AI.
Whereas it’s good to maintain a pulse on new applied sciences, there are lots of confirmed AI instruments which can be evolving and are set to have an elevated influence on reworking buyer expertise. Curiously, a current research from Vonage discovered that many customers experience frustration when interacting with brands.
With prospects nonetheless preferring cell phone calls above all different engagement channels, they want these digital interactions to feel more like personal conversations however there’s nonetheless an enormous expertise hole within the sensible implementation of conversational and voice AI.
For content material heavy digital merchandise, we’ve seen the impact content intelligence platforms such as Optimizely can ship for our purchasers.
By way of figuring out gaps in your present digital content material technique, digital groups are extra empowered to make better knowledgeable selections to create content that delivers impact and leverage smart recommendations to ship the following greatest piece of content material in real-time to maximise conversion.
They Make Expertise Choices That Prioritise Flexibility and Connectivity
Ahead-thinking organisations are opening up their tech stacks to favour headless or composable platforms such as Contentful that improve efficiency and agility.
There are various benefits of adopting a composable tech stack from velocity and efficiency advantages and overcoming legacy expertise points to attracting and retaining high quality builders – and to not point out the price financial savings for simply utilizing the platforms, programs and infrastructure your online business at the moment wants.
Merely, within the context of changing into a future-ready enterprise, adopting a microservice method and deciding on an ecosystem of API-first platforms, permits for interconnectivity and importantly the ability to swap in and out various services as and when technology advances and the wants of your online business and prospects evolve.
They Don’t Get Misplaced within the Numbers
While quantitative data, AI and other forms of business intelligence are paramount in delivering a future-ready digital expertise, when was the final time you consulted your prospects to grasp how they’re really utilizing your merchandise?
It’s necessary to realize qualitative suggestions out of your customers, be it testing and validating new features and interfaces all through the event course of to make sure you’re prioritising constructing the appropriate issues for the appropriate causes.
We’re robust believers in often interviewing your prospects post-launch and love utilizing buyer testing and analytics instruments like UserZoom and Contentsquare to realize a deeper understanding of how customers are interacting with a product and see the place their frustration factors are to gasoline how we are able to overcome these blockers.
They Transfer Shortly with Choices
Merchandise can and will evolve and enhance over time. There’s an argument to launch a brand new product as quickly as it’s viable to take action; create an MVP of types (one other time period that’s up there with my record of pet peeves).
Nevertheless, the premise of making a product that serves not less than 80% of the wants of your buyer and your online business aims – particularly when your opponents are scorching in your heels – isn’t a nasty thought.
Have a look at platforms like LinkedIn. The product launched 20 years in the past with a mission to attach with new, like-minded professionals. Quick ahead a yr, and new performance to attach with present contacts by a brand new characteristic to add your deal with guide was added.
By 2012, LinkedIn’s focus was on simplifying the interface and have set of the platform to make the product higher suited to on a regular basis use.
I’ve misplaced rely of the variety of occasions I’ve seen companies delay making selections or spent too lengthy worrying about small particulars which have impacted their velocity to market and effectiveness. Inactivity can be one of the greatest barriers to success.
Now, I’m not suggesting the profitable launch of a brand new product doesn’t must be nicely thought-about and I do really perceive the significance the influence of an preliminary product launch has, however launching a brand new or up to date product needs to be step one within the evolution of a recent product, not the top recreation.
So let’s make a pact going ahead to try to make future-ready not future-proofed selections – be open to testing and experimentation and purpose to create merchandise which can be versatile and open in order that once we are clearer on precisely what the long run holds, we’re in the very best place to pivot and adapt.
#FutureReady #FutureProofed #Choices
