Introducing SochWorks Digital IQ: We Use Human Intelligence to Bring Technology Solutions to Life

Digital transformation is a both a buzzword and an umbrella that legitimately encompasses and describes for large-scale, directed organizational change with the intention of improving a brand's or organizations digital capabilities in an integrated and holistic manner across the enterprise. It typically touches on four key pillars: technology, data, processes, and people.

Digital transformation as a buzzword has seen its day, which is not such a bad thing. Most businesses are either digital-first/digital-native or have at least minimal areas of the business that are already significantly or wholly digital. The idea of an organization needing to do a massive overhaul and 'transformation' across all aspects of the company is increasingly an image and reality from the recent past.

That said, the digital capabilities brands need today are the not the same ones they needed ten, or even five, years ago. The key question to answer today is: in order to build the capabilities I need (fully aligned to my business objectives), can I accomplish it with a small handful of well-executed and coordinated tech projects, data infrastructure updates, process improvements, or upskilling key stakeholder expertise and skills? Or, is something more strategic, far-reaching, and all-inclusive needed to get from where we are today to where we need to be? Answering this question as objectively and candidly as possible makes a notable difference in what type of initiative(s) you need to plan and budget for and what magnitude of organizational change you need to be prepared to shepherd your organization through.

We are introducing SochWorx Digital Capability IQ: a framework to help consult and advise you on how to best attain the capabilities, expertise, and ways of working you need to be successful.

Many marketers and revenue growth leads focus on new technology and data infrastructure, and there is a good reason. These pillars are necessary from the standpoint of enablement, but they are not sufficient from the standpoint of delivering business impact. Prior to figuring out what tech you need (or if you even need something new in addition to what you already have) and prior to building a massive data infrastructure, pipelines, and integrations, it is important to go through the steps of proper business alignment and discovery to uncover the capabilities you truly need in order to deliver excellence across the customer life cycle:

• the user experiences you want to deliver

• the levers you need to target your prospective customers with relevant creative and messaging in the most relevant and timely contexts possible

• build engagement, loyalty & revenue growth from your existing customers

• request, record, and respect your user's privacy & consent preferences at all times.

The framework is pretty simple. Executing on it requires commitment, discipline, planning, and strong execution. There is a reason working with an external partner can be helpful for many organizations. I attended an excellent conference presentation recently delivered by Liz Miller: "Holistic by Design: The Hidden Power of Data for AI - Why the best AI strategies start long before the first query is run." She reminded us that while everyone is generally aiming to "do their best", we nevertheless frequently lack a sufficient benchmark or model for what "excellent" or even "good" look like in practice. And just to put a finer point on this, the benchmarks for good and excellent are not just your own, as in adding five pounds to your squat or deadlift this week compared to last (great to do, mind you). The benchmark is also set by your direct competitors and the adjacent digital marketplace at large.

The risk of doing nothing or being complacent where you stand today is that, when Netflix or Amazon or some scrappy, innovative upstart creates new and engaging user experiences and more frictionless journeys for a sufficient number of consumers, the expectations shift for everyone. I might tolerate really lousy user experience design from a highly specialized retailer that sells products related to a niche activity I enjoy: traditional archery, for example. They have expertise, wide product selection for a very specific activity, and I am loyal because I want them to be around. For commodities and widely available consumer products, that simply is not the case. Expectations, and the bar for good and excellent, are set by the larger market: a market that is increasingly global, digitally sophisticated, and innovative. Standing still is not an option for most businesses.

If you've been neglecting key areas of your businesses related to digital maturity and digital capabilities, you're business is likely already at risk in several ways:

• risk of losing out to competitors delivering better user experience, service, and engagement experiences

• regulatory risk from lack of full privacy & consent compliance

• marketing performance risk due to poor data governance, measurement practices, and proper measurement & integration implementations (i.e. your data infrastructure overall cannot properly support the needs of your business)

• inadequate customer data analysis & activation

• Sub-optimal customer retention, growth, and loyalty performance due to under-utilization of existing customer engagement and marketing automation tools you already own or failure to invest in proper omni-channel customer engagement tools

It is certainly possible to achieve business alignment, perform diligent discovery and requirements gathering exercises with key cross-functional stakeholders, to assess your current state and generate a comprehensive readout of where you stand today and where you fall short in the digital capabilities arena. That said, having a trusted, independent, skilled advisor to guide this process, generate the necessary artefacts and deliverables, and someone with the breadth of expertise and depth of industry tenure to help you set realistic standards for excellence (or even 'good enough' for today's needs) pays dividends to all subsequent projects you implement to upgrade your capabilities.

I launched SochWorks to help brands succeed by building strong digital capabilities, skillsets, data infrastructure, and ways of working that maximize digital maturity. I can help you navigate your internal politics with empathy, patience, and reasonable timelines. Let me help you navigate the organizational change that is part of any medium or large scale retooling of your technology, data, business processes, or upskilling your team. I'm passionate and skilled at helping you align, plan, prioritize, and execute meaningful changes that improve your digital capabilities in ways designed to positively impact your business.

I'll help you prioritize those projects, set reasonable timelines, work with your financial people to frame these projects in terms of benefit to your business, I will ensure proper executive sponsorship and leadership along the way, and I will have a personal commitment and stake in your ongoing success.

Ready for a conversation? Let's talk and see how we can build something even better, together.

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