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Through my years of experience in mastering and implementing Digital Transformation for numerous businesses, one thing has remained constant and I’m pretty sure you will also agree to: “The path to your end goal is NEVER smooth.” I’ve witnessed scenarios and undergone the process where their stakeholders define so many requirements, developers ask so many questions, and several analysts document every discussion, agreement, design, process and everything needed during kick off. At first everything is on point, exactly how things should be – but this never lasts for long.
The reality is your client’s main focus is running the business, has other priorities and they created a working group dedicated to the project but they too are also accomplishing their tasks on a daily basis. Yes, that is a lot for them to take on. While doing all these, a lot has already happened that you or even your clients might not be aware of. These things, whether good or bad, may even be right under your noses.
Before you see the actual output everything has changed, numerous adjustments were made, and worst case scenario: These changes could’ve even been something that was never a part of the plan in the first place but it’s already there. What else can you do? And reverting it to how you it was supposed to be can cause a domino effect headed towards a bigger risk.
When faced with this situation, timelines are pushed back, major requirements can no longer be catered (and mostly only workarounds are presented), some members of the working group are frustrated, the team lacks motivation and the problems just keep on coming. This might eventually lead to your biggest nightmare, failure of the project.
It’s true that in Digital Transformation initiatives keeping your ducks in a row is never easy, but not impossible if you are onsite. What is the importance of being onsite and how will it make a difference?
Answers to all the questions
Ask Who, What, When, Where and Why. Ask who the users are, who delivers specific requirements, who is your go-to person, who is the decision maker and who can help you out on anything you might need. What are their needs and wants, what should be resolved, what are their expectations, what is the turn around time, what should be the priority, and what happens next. When should specific items be delivered, when should certain tasks be executed and accomplished, and when should it be implemented. Where should the application be setup, where to find the information and resources needed. And the most important of all, the Whys; go ahead and ask why this and why that… ask all the questions you have or may have because all the answers are available onsite.
Your clients will also get to maximize the same privilege. They may have questions that only you can answer and they might need these answers immediately. You can better explain when you are onsite rather than being remote. A more convenient way for you to help them out in anyway, walk them through, present materials that will help give better thoughts for their queries and even give better advice and suggestions when needed.
Understand your clients better
Being on site gives you more grounds to cover. It allows you to see and probably even give you a first-hand experience on the struggles your clients are dealing with and even foresee impending problems or risks. You’ll get to understand how they work, how everything functions, and see the entire operations on a daily basis; the paper works they’re doing, and their end-to-end processes. It’s a lot like walking in the shoes of every stakeholder the project will benefit from.
Gain and share more knowledge
In the digital world where change is constant learning should never pause. Yes, there is an infinite amount of resources available but as the saying goes “experience is the best teacher,” this is why you should be onsite. You may learn a lot from research and other references but the learnings you will get form the people you will work with, the experiences they share and things you might stumble upon during discovery is incomparable to traditional learning. Hey, being knowledge and continuously learning more and more is always key to the digital trend.
Builds the trust and gains confidence
When the client knows that their go-to person is always available, looking after the project and working closely with them helps establish rapport, builds good business relationships and gains client confidence that you are their partner in the business and NOT just in their Digital Transformation journey. If you’re onsite you can definitely manage the project better as if you’re also the business owner.
