Below is a process we have identified that draws heavily from our own experience implementing custom collaboration and content management solutions on the Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365 platforms, as well as principles found in design thinking and user-centered design.
The conversation should always start with customers and employees, not features and functions. When you start with features and functions, you never properly establish context and therefore do not define the problem. For example, the appropriate question to ask is not “Should we implement social?” It’s more about “How can social impact our customer experience?” It’s all about asking the right questions.
With that in mind, here are the five steps you need to create the digital workplace:
- Clarify the context: Identify your customer experience, as this is the starting point for establishing the proper context for everything else that follows. Keep in mind that this is not intended to be a long, drawn-out exercise, but should be used to extract the key principles that can be clearly communicated, understood and followed!
- Focus on users: Understand roles, functions, behaviors and impediments by asking the right questions and observing actual behaviors. Determine information needs and how they differ throughout a particular process — address both “knowing” and “doing.”
- Spec out a game plan: Develop a roadmap that lays out the implementation plan that describes the overall approach and budgetary requirements. This is both the business case as well as the game plan that can be used to gain executive buy-in for funding of the project. This should also include change management components and communication strategy.
- Experiment/measure/learn: Your roadmap will outline your plan for piloting your ideas, measuring response/behaviors and the process for applying what you learn. At this stage you are actively managing your pilot(s), reporting findings back to stakeholders and refining your roadmap.
- Rollout and support: Once you have incorporated employee feedback and made refinements you are ready to launch company-wide. Since the scale of this effort will differ dramatically from the pilot program, you need to develop a rollout and communications plan and support model that provides adequate user support during the critical initial launch period. It’s also important to implement a support model that includes both subject matter as well as technical resources and incorporates change management best practices.
So, this may seem like a lot of work, and you may be thinking, “Is it really worth it?” We believe that a well-thought-out game plan and the application of sound practices related to user-centered design, communication and change management can significantly diminish the challenges associated with moving toward the digital workplace. As to whether or not it’s worth it, we believe the question is really, “Can you afford not to?”
There are two forces at work that are driving the need for the digital workplace — rising expectations and intense competition. These forces are in play in both the “war for talent” and “battle for the customer.” Employees have much higher expectations in terms of overall work environment driven in part by their experience as consumers — and actively engaged employees are more productive and innovative. Rising customer expectations are nothing new and it’s easy to imagine the acceleration of demands for “easier, faster, better and cheaper” will continue in the future. With that in mind, the question that every executive needs to ask is, “Are we prepared for this?”
Learn more about getting the most out of today’s enterprise technology tools by downloading our free e-book, “7 Keys To Mastering The Digital Workplace.”
