This one weird trick will determine your success at digital

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This post was written by John Rethans, global digital transformation strategy at Apigee.

You can buy all the right technology, train teams on the latest development methodology, spend millions on a top shelf strategy consulting firm and still fail at digital if you haven't solved for Conway's Law:

Organizations which design systems (in the broad sense) are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations. -Mel Conway, How Do Committee's Invent? (1968)

In other words, if your organization is fragmented, and you create a digital system for customer interaction, your customer experience will be fragmented. Nothing kills digital efforts like a fragmented customer experience.

Conway's law is why start-up digital companies have flat hierarchies and are maniacal about open communication. These organizations understand that creating an exceptional digital experience requires mastering the digital value chain.

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Mastering the digital value chain requires that people - customers, partners, employees, communicate across it with as little friction as possible.

Having worked with executives at dozens of Fortune 500 companies around the world, I've seen the same pattern play itself out again and again - those organizations that communicate well create compelling digital experiences with ever greater speed and creativity. Those who don't fail - no matter how much they spend.

Here are six clear signs your organization headed for digital trouble:

Death by a thousand cuts

Critical projects stall because teams spend weeks trying to get access to data or networks they need. Resolving the issue requires escalation up to one VP over to another, and back down again. Several weeks pass because busy executives don't have time to bicker over file access.

Momentum dies. Spirits are crushed. Requirements are forgotten. Before the project even begins, everyone is praying for it to end quickly. Multiply this across every project being undertaken, and your digital program will die by a thousand tiny cuts.

The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing

Digital transformation kicks off! New business initiatives are launched; apps are built, teams train on agile/devops, APIs are exposed, and 'two-speed IT' is implemented, all as separate projects - with no coordination between them, regard for business objectives, or thought about impact on customer experience.

Millions of dollars, hundreds of man-hours, and thousands of lines of code later, the results are in: digital businesses with no apps, apps that drive no business, unused and unusable APIs, waterscrumfall and two massive IT factions at war with each other.

Buying a platform on an installment plan

It's determined that a digital platform must be built, one that is customer-centric, extensible, enables innovation, provides for business agility, and leverages big data. The value of such a platform? The sum total of all future company revenue.

But the whole organization is designed around the annual planning cycle - not customer experience. Each project is still subjected to narrow NPV analysis that is designed to cut IT cost to the bone and ignores optional value. Meanwhile, digital competitors are investing heavily in building out broadly conceived and funded digital capabilities focused on delighting customers.

The solution starts at the top

Senior leaders need to talk with each other about the implications of the Digital Value Chain. Directly. Across functions. In person. Without proxies. Without slides. No multi-tasking.

I can't tell you how many times I've engaged organizations with major digital transformations underway - sometimes for years - where leaders have never spoken with each other about the task at hand (or elephant in the room). When they do? Magic! Funding appears, resources free up, and efforts begin to align around business value.

Let the people serve themselves

Create a system that enables each participant in the digital value chain to self-serve the information, access and/or data, when they need it.

Communication doesn't necessarily mean 'talking' or 'meetings' (except for the aforementioned leadership mindmeld.) In fact - for the most part you should banish conference calls, PRDs and slide decks. Instead use technology. Prototype. Slack. Create APIs to enable developers to self-service back end resources with no hassle.

Data not Diatribes

Customers, partners and employees using your applications are communicating with you via the data generated by their interactions - are you listening? Digital companies make real-time data about customers available to every employee and empower them to take action to improve customer experience.

At digital laggards, employees opine about last month's sales report, wait for their bosses to 'get it' and pray the data will look better next quarter.

There's plenty of peril in the world of digital transformation - improve your odds for success, and avoid certain failure - make Conway's Law your north star an relentlessly pursue fluid communication along the Digital Value chain.

To learn more, go back to The Next 10 Hub.

Content written and provided by Apigee.