UXA2023 Sarah Heimeier - Digital transformation – A framework for success

Note that this is an unedited transcript of a live event and therefore may contain errors. This transcript is the
joint property of CaptionsLIVE and the authorised party responsible for payment and may not be copied or
used by any other party without authorisation.
www.captionslive.au | [email protected] | 0447 904 255
UX Australia
UX Australia 2023
Thursday, 24 August 2023
Captioned by: Bernadette McGoldrick & Kasey Allen

View Slide

CaptionsLIVE Raw Transcript
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 81
STEVE BATY: Hello, everyone. Come in and take a seat, please. Let's get
the afternoon session started. Could you take your seats, please? Please,
take your seat. Alright. We begin the afternoon with a slight change of
topic. (LAUGHTER) It wasn't that funny! (LAUGHTER) We've got a slight
change of topic. We're going to welcome Sarah Heimeier to the stage to
talk to us about digital transformation. So, if you're still coming inside,
let's do it quietly, but take a seat. But please join me in welcoming Sarah
to the stage. (APPLAUSE)
SARAH HEIMEIER: Welcome. Thank you so much for coming. So, I'm
Sarah. And I wanted to start off with a story. So, this is the view from the
home that I grew up in. I had a pretty great childhood. I grew up on a
rural property just outside Ballarat in Victoria. On a mountain top with
views across the countryside, and in the middle of the family room, the
roof had this great big dome in the middle of the plaster. And the light
bowed in the middle as well. As a kid, I always thought that was a little
bit strange, but, you know, that was just the family room. Over the years,
it started to get bigger and bigger and bigger. Until, eventually, the
plaster started to break away from the walls, and Mum decided that that
was about time to get a builder in to have a bit of a look at it. When
Jason, the builder, walked in, he was shocked, he was like, "Oh, my God.
I have no idea how that hasn't collapsed." He refused to even walk into
the family room. He was like... He basically just refused to even come
into the room, and I would just think about all of the times my brother,

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 82
Matthew, had slammed the front door and Mum had been like, "Don't do
that, the roof will collapse!" (LAUGHTER) Because, literally, it could have.
Or all the times my dad would get on, or in, the roof, and we would be
laughing away, watching TV in the family room, not knowing at any
moment in time the roof could have easily collapsed on top of us because
he was basically putting pressure on the beams. And over the years, and
then what ended up happening was Jason actually did walk into the family
room and he put up a metal pole to help support the roof temporarily.
And our roof is like a lot of digital transformation projects - the framework
is technically there but it's moments away from collapsing because the
foundations weren't laid properly. And so today I'm gonna talk you
through how you can avoid this fate, how you can build a strong
framework to help support your digital transformation project. But before
we begin, what is digital transformation? Digital transformation is the use
of digital technologies to create new or modified existing business
processes, people, culture, technology and customer experiences to
enable or modify, to allow us to meet whatever changing business
requirements we have, and then also any other requirements that we
have as a business. And so it's really about enabling that future vision and
strategy that we have as an organisation. And so getting away from the
dictionary, what does all that mean? How can we make meaningful
change that will be good for the customer and good for business, and
being able to align that? Which sounds pretty easy, like, right? Turns out
it's easier said than done. In fact, the vast majority of digital
transformation projects actually fail. Up to 95% of them fail. And that's
quite a lot, considering most organisations go through a digital
transformation at some point in time. I have been part of projects that
haven't got across the line, and I'm sure you have too, and I've also been
part of that 5% of projects that have been wildly successful. And in my 10

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 83
years of design, I've seen exactly why certain projects fail and others
flourish. And there are five main reasons as to why they may fail. Number
one - being unprepared for setbacks. You need to be able to adjust and
change and be agile for all of the unexpected things that might happen as
part of a digital transformation. Number two - not having a clear vision
and conflicting priorities. You need to have a vision and a strategy of
where you're going as an organisation, and then be able to adjust and
change based on that.
Number three - resistance to change. And so this is where everyone
has culture shock to the change, they don't want to adjust, they don't
want to move, and they really don't see the value in the digital
transformation. And then number four - doing too much, too fast, all at
once. And so this is where everyone's basically working on things that
don't have a solid business case to implement. And then, number
five - lack of leadership. And so this is where leadership needs to be
there, supporting the digital transformation, because transformations go
for a really long time and you need to have support from executives and
you need to have support from everyone across the organisation to be
making that long-term commitment for it. And then there's one thing
every failed digital transformation project has in common - poor
foundations. The dodgy roof. And every successful digital transformation
project has a strong framework that is functional and effective. Because
when you have a strong framework, then you have the perfect blueprint
to succeed with your digital transformation and you get in that top 5%.
So, today, I'm gonna share with you the framework that I use. It's tried
and tested, and there's only three letters - or letter - that you need to
remember. D, D and D. So, the first one that we have is: Define.
And so the first part of "define" is define your objectives. And so
this is really around... (LAUGHS) ..getting everyone aligned! (LAUGHS)

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 84
Sorry, the slides are hilarious! (LAUGHS) (LAUGHTER) If I do say so
myself! It's really about getting everyone aligned and on the same page,
and making sure that everyone knows what you're working on and what
you're doing going forward. And so what I love to do - and what I did
when we were working on a new loan management system - was basically
bring everyone into the same room, get them on the same page, and
really start to define all of these different components of our project, to
make sure we all knew what we were doing and we were all together for
the journey. And then the next part is around defining the ways of
working. And so as part of that loan management system, what we were
doing was understanding, "How do we work together? What's everyone's
role? What are they doing as part of that?" And so what we were able to
define as part of that was, "When are we meeting as a team?" We were
working with a team that was international, and so what we did was, we
had stand-ups in the afternoon to be able to meet and connect with each
other. And then the other part around defining those project objectives is
really about making sure that everything is aligned to your strategy as an
organisation, and then your project is made a Big Rock, so everyone
knows why it's important and why they are working on it.
And then as part of that, making sure that you have a Steer Co,
who's your executive team, who's giving feedback on those project
objectives and bringing everyone together. And you're giving them
updates constantly as well. Then you want to define your current
experience. And so this is really about understanding everything about
what's currently happening in your experience in detail. And so knowing
what pain points exist, what are the opportunities that you have, and
what are the positives? And then one of the parts that often is missed is
really around defining the value and the differentiators of the current
experience. Because if you don't understand that, then those can

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 85
sometimes be the things that get thrown away, and they're sometimes
part of your secret sauce as to why people come to you as an
organisation.
And so when working on a phone-based advice experience, where
we were basically trying to understand that current experience, I spent
time with a headset on, listening to calls, and then just sitting next to
them and really observing that experience. And being able to see how
they had three laptops set up to be able to - two screens and then a
laptop, to be able to see what was happening, to be able to go through all
of the different manual processes they had. One screen, they'd have an
Excel file, email where they'd dial out to the customer, Salesforce, then
they also had on their screens, like, everyone had taped all of their
compliance requirements to make sure they said it. So, mapping that out
so then we can really get into the detail of what are we doing and deeply
understanding that current experience.
Then you want to define your future experience. And so this is
getting really clear on where are you heading as an organisation? What
are you doing? And making sure that everyone who's part of the project
knows what it is, and why, and what's gonna be part of that digital
transformation and that journey you want to head towards. And it's
making sure again that it's aligned to your strategy of what you want to
do as an organisation too.
And so when working on a new Treasury experience, what I did was
I spent time observing the team to really deeply understand all of the
different components of how you do trust management. And being able to
understand what, like, when do they do selling, what are some of the
manual work-arounds that they do, how does all of it work? So, then I
could start to see all of the manual, fun activities they got to do in Excel. I
didn't end up using Excel. They wouldn't let me touch their stuff!

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 86
(LAUGHTER) (LAUGHS) And then as part of that, being able to then go
through and define all of these different components as part of that future
vision. And one of the key parts that we found as part of that project was
to really deep-dive and define the roles that we were building for, and
what were the needs of the team. Because what I found was that they
didn't actually want to scale the team. Most teams want to scale, but
they're like, "If we have to scale, there's probably an issue." And the
reason they'd need to scale is because of all the manual activities they
were doing. And so I spent time understanding, what do their roles look
like in the future as part of this digital transformation? And really deeply
understanding that they wanted to keep about three people in the team,
they really wanted to spend more time with product, they wanted to
spend more time with the operations team to basically spread the good
word of Treasury - which, why would you want that?! And so being able to
spend that time with everyone else meant that I could understand the
type of tools that we needed to design for the organisation as part of the
digital transformation. And so as part of that, defining all of these
different components of how they relate to each other, around strategy,
the benefit, the value that we're delivering, not just for the experience
but for the people as well. Because all of it, as we've heard today, all of
it's interconnected, and as we know. And then, now that you've done
that, it's time to decide. So, this is where you decide on your selection
criteria. So, this is where you're starting to look at new tools and figuring
out which ones you want to go with. And so your selection criteria should
be informed from your future experience, and using that to then put
together a criteria that you're then able to use to go forward with, to
assess different platforms. And so it's really about understanding what
exists in market and then what is your vision and where is that overlap
there? Like, is there an overlap? Have you gone, like, way too big? That

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 87
you actually can't find anything in market, that you actually have to build
something yourself. And being able to map that out and understand it.
Like, "Do we have to build certain components ourselves?" And so what I
did was, when deciding on a new decisioning platform, is that we went to
market basically to understand, like, "Do we want to go to market? Do
they have what we're looking for?" Because we had a lot of components
we were looking for around machine learning, around being able to have
our credit team do it all themselves. And we decided that certain parts
would actually be built in-house, and then other components, we would
be going out to market to select that tool with, which then brings us to...
Decide on your technology. And so this is where you're going out to
market, doing those assessments with different technology teams,
technology companies, to understand what are they offering? Does this
match your vision? And either, like, looking at their websites to refine that
list because there are so many ones that exist in market, or getting them
to do showcases for you. And so what we did for that decisioning platform
was that we narrowed it down from 10 to 4 different options. And we
spent time with them, doing detailed showcases with them, to really
understand how did it come to life? Was it something that we could
implement as part of our current ecosystem? And would it allow us to
bring it to life, in alignment with our vision? And then once we did that,
we were able to then narrow it down to two different options. And so this
is where we had one option, which looked like it was built in the '90s and
no-one updated it, ever. Surprisingly, it still had fancy tools, which I was
shocked at. And then the other option that we had was like a start-up,
where they spent a lot of time making the interface look really great, it
was missing a few of the features, and then we were able to then
basically do that comparison and that assessment of it to really figure out
what's right for us, and what do we want to go forward with? And as part

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 88
of that, doing those detailed case studies of giving them different
artefacts to test it out for us. And so then, as part of that transformation
project, what we did was we spent time putting together our
recommendations of, "This is which one we recommend as a team, that
we should go forward with." Thankfully, for my own soul and happiness,
we went for the one that looked very pretty but it also still worked!
Because the other one, yeah, it was basically a very fancy Excel
document. And then the next part is to decide on your Minimum Loveable
Experience. And so you have your technology, and now it's time to figure
out, "What can you build in the time frames that you have?" So, this is
really about that marrying of the value and the effort together to make
sure that you're able to deliver within those time frames, and then also
making sure that you're solving all of those pain points that you have
identified in the first phases of the experience.
And then what I did was, for another project where we were doing a
transformation of how we deliver financial advice, and we were bringing in
goals-based advice, where we were using people's current goals and
aligning that to their finances. To test it out, what is our Minimum
Loveable Experience? We spent time, basically we created a game board
that we tested out with our customers and with our financial advisers to
get them to start to tell us, like, what are they looking for? What level of,
like, our goal achievability measure did they want? And what other
features should we include as part of that? And what we found was,
actually, that the goal achievability measure that we had, that measured
how likely you were to achieve your goals, that was the key component.
And so then we were able to then map out, on our timeline, this is what
we're looking at delivering, and then make those adjustments to be able
to bring that to life to go, "Well, actually, we should focus on these other
pieces that we're gonna deliver more value with." Going back to another

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 89
example that I have been talking about, around the loan management
system, what we did was we spent time defining our Minimum Loveable
Experience and then we spent time defining our experience, and defining
as well, as part of that, "What are we gonna deliver in a week?" So, we
had a 2-week sprint, where the first week was experience planning, the
second week was delivery planning. Being able to map that out with all of
our key team members, to be able to understand, "What are we looking
for to deliver as part of the experience?" And then, "Can we actually
deliver it?" So, going through and defining those stories to really
understand whether it's gonna be something we can do as a team. And as
part of that, we built out an end-to-end blueprint that basically brought
that experience to life. And then used that to play back to teams to make
sure that this is what we're looking to deliver - is it right? Is it gonna get
us to where we think? And is it gonna solve those pain points that we've
identified as part of our current state? And we really used it to basically
get that alignment with each other so that we could all be on the same
page. And then, with that blueprint, what we also did was we highlighted
all of those different parts to highlight, "What are the parts that we're
changing? And what are the parts that are gonna stay the same in the
experience? That we're gonna rebuild on the platform that we've selected,
so that we can then show team members that this part is gonna actually
change and this part is gonna be new?" So, we can start to use that to
communicate to the wider teams.
And then we have Deliver. And so deliver is really about delivering
your technology. So, you've selected it, you've defined your Minimum
Loveable Experience, and now it's time to deliver all of it - surprisingly!
And so this is making sure that you're able to implement the right thing
and apply that continuous delivery mindset, where you're basically
thinking about what you're doing, planning, doing, and then reviewing it.

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 90
And so making sure you're iterating incremental. Just because it's a new
technology stack, it doesn't mean that you've made all of the right
choices during the discovery phase, and so making sure that you're
constantly reviewing to ensure that you're gonna give the customers the
best experience.
And so one project that I observed was where we were delivering a
tax calculator for financial advisers and customers, and what happened
was, what was delivered ended up not being used by anyone. And so
when we did, like, a bit of a post-mortem on the dead tool, we found out
that there wasn't enough discovery done and there wasn't enough, like,
continuous, iterative and incremental improvement that was made
through it. And so what we found out was that they weren't using it
because it didn't give them enough confidence and clarity. And so what
then had to happen was there had to be a pause in the project, where we
then went forward and did more discovery so we could then improve the
experience going forward for the users, so that they actually used the tax
calculations and it wasn't just something that just went in the bin. And
going back to that example that I had around the loan management
system, so to make sure that we didn't have that sadness of having to
pause everything and then redo discovery, we spent time, after we had
that 2-week inception, so we had that experience planning, then the
delivery planning, then we spent two weeks afterwards to make sure we
were set up for success, that we had everything we needed to be able to
have a successful project. And so that included making sure that we had
our delivery plan defined, and then also refining those designs to make
sure that everyone knew what we were gonna be delivering was right,
and then also that we had a plan to go forward to validate our
assumptions so that we could make sure that we weren't gonna deliver
something that was wrong. And then the next part is deliver on your

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 91
change management. And so the key element of a project is making sure
that people use it. Like that example I had before where no-one used it,
you want to make sure that people use it. And so change management is
more important than delivery. Because if people who are gonna use it
don't understand the value, or it's not gonna be right for them, then
there's no point in building it. And which is why change management is
more important. It's not just comms, and it's about continuous
stakeholder engagement and engaging with them constantly, and taking
them on that journey of working with them closely, letting them know
what you're doing, like, what is the "why" behind it, making sure that
they align with the "why" that you've crafted together.
And so to make sure that I have the right people involved in all of
the sessions, what I will do is I'll map out all of the different stakeholders
and highlight who are the key influencers and who are the key
decision-makers. And then it allows you to then know who needs to be
involved in what session and who's really essential to either have, like,
one-on-one sessions constantly with, or to engage and make sure that
they're always making those choices that are required. And so on that
project around the advice creation, what we were doing was we were
creating a new way for financial advisers to create financial advice. What I
did was I mapped out that landscape of what all of our stakeholders, and
I then figured out who was part of our core team, who were the people
that were gonna be working on the project day-to-day, and who were
part of our extended team? So, subject matter experts we were gonna be
engaging with. And so what I was able to define as part of that project
was we had our three Steves. We had Bondi Steve - he lived in Bondi!
(LAUGHTER) He was very tan! (LAUGHS) Tannest of all the Steves.
(LAUGHS) And so he was our project director. And then we had Tech
Steve - not sure if you know where he works. And then we had Product

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 92
Steve, so he was our product manager. And so being able to identify all of
the Steves, and then myself, as part of that core team - who do we need
to engage and work with across this project? - and then obviously define
which Steve is which so we didn't get them confused.
And then we had the... When I was working on an application
experience, we were defining a new way to apply for a product. And so
using a slightly different framework to make sure that we're defining
who's gonna be involved in the end-to-end journey of the project. And so
using the RACI formula to see who's responsible, accountable, and
making sure we're really identifying all of those different people as part of
the project. And so we're able to then define, once we started that
project, who all of these different people are and who do we need to
engage across all of these different sessions that we're having to start to
define the experience that we want to deliver?
And so as part of that project, we spent time mapping out, creating
an engagement plan to identify all of the people who are gonna be
involved at different points in time. And what we were able to then do
was engage different team members to make better experiences as we
needed it. And so, say, when working on, bringing the data team allowed
us to then understand from them how we could use benchmarks to
validate information, how we could make the application easier for
customers so that we didn't have to ask as many questions, so they could
get easily through the experience without us having to ask them 50
questions. Or how we could make sure all of our controls were embedded
in the experience without having to not be compliant.
And then we have deliver your North Star. And so this one is really
about - so, you've delivered that Minimum Loveable Experience and now
it's time to take it further. And so it's really about making sure that you
have everyone engaged and involved as part of the project. And then

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 93
evolving what you've delivered and testing it with people, and then doing
continuous discovery with them to make sure that it's working for them
and they're using it. And so one of the projects that I worked on was
around the collections experience, and so what we were doing was we
delivered a bit of the experience, and then we put together basically an
end-to-end discovery plan of how we engaged them and how we would
chat to them. Some of the questions we were asking were around
whether there were any gaps in - trying to figure out if there were any
gaps in our knowledge, and understanding what are the tools they were
using. And so as part of that, doing an experience survey with them so we
could use that with executives to be able to then play back how
customers are finding the experience and what are some of the things
that they really enjoy as part of it? Or what are some of the things that
they aren't using that hasn't improved their ways of working? And still
taking the same amount of time. And what we were able to then do was
understand all of that, and then have some really good metrics that we
could then play back to the executives, to let them know that people are
actually using what we've delivered, and therefore we should probably,
like, continue delivering more, but also get that buy-in from them that
we've delivered something that's of all and is going to be used by the
collections team. And so what we were then able to is highlight all of the
different screens in a user flow, where we mapped it all out to show what
are we gonna update in the next part of the project, so we were able to
get everyone on the same page.
So, there we have it: Define, decide, and deliver. So, the framework
for a successful digital transformation. And every digital transformation
also needs four critical factors embedded in it. So, we had the three Ds.
Now we have the three Cs. Four Cs - I can't fucking count! (LAUGHTER)
So, now that we have four Cs, the first one that we have is culture. So,

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 94
this one is really around making sure that everyone is working closely
together, they're engaged, and they have really good relationships with
each other. And it's about bringing them on the same journey so that
you're able to work effectively together. And it's also about making sure
that everyone is committed to the plan and the vision that you have
because if people don't know the value, then you're gonna have problems
going forward in the project.
And so an example that I have is when working on a decisioning
platform to make decisions around how people apply for a product, the
team was starting to get really frustrated and they were basically like
this. And they were struggling to work together effectively. And what we
needed to do was come together and spend time realigning all our values
of who we are as a team, and making sure that everyone knew, "This is
how we want to work together so we can give effective feedback to each
other and also connect with each other, and also demonstrate all of these
values within a team that's able to basically work as one." And also
develop those relationships because all of the different values that we had
were really around aligning us to have positive intent for each other, so
not assuming the worst, and then also being able to have those open
conversations with each other, so we're able to raise any issues that we
have at any point in time. And as part of these open conversations, it
allowed us to then have vulnerability with each other, and then also build
how we were able to connect at different points in time. And so it meant
that we weren't just yelling at each other, it meant that we were actually
building a culture within our team that really worked well so we could
deliver at speed.
And so what I did on another project was we set up our ways of
working and our cadences, where what we were doing was we had all of
these different ways for us to engage, and then on Fridays we would have

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 95
Friday Fun - obviously, Friday is the funnest - and we'd basically play
different games with each other, where we'd do, like, drawing games,
we'd do - try and figure out, like, where the different, like, Google Map
location was. And being able to have those fun moments and celebrate
what we delivered as part of that project.
And then the next one is around communication. And so this is
really around having those check-ins with your executive team, making
sure that you're connecting with everyone, you're having your
stakeholders engaged, and you're having check-ins with your subject
matter experts. But it's also about having honest and transparent
conversations with everyone. And making sure that they're all on the
same page as well so that you're not getting to the end of the project and
it's like, "Well, why did you deliver that?" It's like, "No, we're having that
continuous engagement." And so on that same project, what I did was,
we had our sharing cadences as well integrated into how we connected
with each other and how we shared with others. And so one of the ones
that we had was around the Steer Co. So, we'd come with specific
questions that we would have to ask the team. And this would be part of
our executive team members on the Steer Co. So, they'd be giving us
direction as to where we're going as an organisation, and then also
helping answer questions for us as well. And we'd come at them with any
blockers that we had, or also just general questions about what we were
gonna do next as well, to get input on. And then the other part is sharing
at showcases. So, sharing to the wider organisation so that everyone has
an update as to what we're doing and why. And so at All Hands, we would
be sharing how we were going - so, are we green, amber or red? And
letting them know why we were at that stage, and also if we delivered
something, we were able to scale up the product and bring more users
on, then we were able to share with them, "This is what we're doing," and

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 96
celebrate that success together as well. And then the third C, which is
cost. So, this is really about that marrying the value with the effort. So,
for any digital transformation project that you have, you really need to
make sure that everything is worth the effort. Because it's such a large
project and it's gonna cost you a lot of money, and so you want to make
sure that everything makes sense and that it has a solid business case.
And so on a project that I was working on around an application
experience, what we did was we put together, basically, like, opportunity
areas, and used it as our business case by providing different metrics
around how that part of the experience was going. And so it had our pain
points of what wasn't working well. And so one of the things that we
found was that the quality of customers that were coming through wasn't
the best, because they weren't qualified, they weren't actually gonna be
able to apply for the product, and so our agent time, our sales agent
time, was being wasted, as well as the customers' time. Because they'd
go through the whole process, wait ages, and then they wouldn't get the
outcome they were looking for. And so mapping all of that out so we
knew, as part of that transformation, "What do we need to do? Are we
gonna get the value from it?" So, being able to highlight as part of that,
"What is the activity base costing? How much does this cost us to do?
Also, how much will it cost us to build as well? And is this worth it? Should
we do something else? Should we prioritise another opportunity instead of
this one?"
And then we have change. So, everything should change. It's part
of life, it's part of business, and it's also part of digital transformation
projects. And it's the only key to success. And being able to get
comfortable with that change and being able to flow and adjust based on
that allows the project to evolve over time. And one of the key things to
enable - to make sure that you're accepting of change is to make sure

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 97
that... Is to make sure that you're measuring things, to make sure you're
on track. Because if you don't have a direction of where you're going,
then it's going to make it hard to measure as to whether you're still on
track as you make all of those changes. And so around, when we were
designing an application experience, we used the time spent by agents
and how long it was taking them to get through applications, how long it
was taking customers to apply for funds and get that money - we were
using that to measure to see how we'd improve the experience and
whether it had gotten better, or how it was going. And as part of that one
as well, what we had - as part of designing a new loan management
system and bringing that to life, what we also did was we do fortnightly
retros, where we'd go through the good, the bad, and the opportunity.
And so this would be really around understanding, "What do we need to
improve and what are those changes?" We all know a good retro. So,
what we found was that we needed to allocate five minutes at the end of
each meeting to be able to spend time and allow other team members to
ask questions and clarify, as we had people on the team that English was
their second language, and so allowing them that time to ask those
questions, so they didn't go away, and we made sure that everyone was
on the same page.
Or as part of that project as well, making sure that we had
transition plans for people, so that each time we had someone leave, or a
new person come on the project, that we had a really easy process to
make sure that they were onboarded as part of it. And what we found was
that having confluence pages set up meant we were able to have them
get on board and we didn't need to do so many new ways of working
sessions. They were able to know what was their role and what they
needed to do as part of the project, and how they were gonna be
involved.

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 98
And then, as part of a project where again we were doing advice
creation for financial advisers, what we decided to do when we were
creating that system was we'd get up to 70% confidence. Because we
knew things would change once we delivered it, and so not spending that
time perfecting everything, and ensuring that we're spending the time on
discovery but not all of our time on discovery, and refining the design so
that everything is incredibly perfect. And what we found was, when we
were doing this, that we were deep-diving on how we provided tasks for
agents, for our financial advisers. And what they ended up doing was,
how they said they were gonna use it ended up being slightly different.
What we were able to then do was deliver it, test it, figure out what
worked, what didn't work, and being able to adjust it as we went. And
because we hadn't invested so much more time into perfecting it, it didn't
feel like throw-away, and it meant we were able to easily make that
change and move forward without having to worry about losing time
because we'd spent an extra two weeks or so testing it. We were able to
just deliver it and see how it worked.
And then the other part of change is to be able to pivot easily. And
so on that same experience of delivering a new financial advice
experience for financial advisers, what we initially did was, we got
customers to give us all of their details at the start, after our first
conversation, where we explore their goals, and we'd gather all of their
information. And then we would have a session where we would explore,
like, "What are some of the actions you could take around your advice?
And what could you do as a customer?" And then we would then basically
give them a plan of how to achieve their goals. What we found, because
we were measuring how we were going, we found that, actually, like, we
didn't have any difference in conversion rate. What we decided to do,
because it was such a big task for them to provide us all of their details,

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 99
we decided to then pivot, adjust, and only collect a small amount of
customers' details in between those two conversations. So, we'd explore
their goals, collect minor, like, basic information - like name, address,
salary - then we would have our next conversation, so they could see the
value in engaging with financial advice. And then we would then have a
final conversation, where we would collect all of those extra details that
we were missing.
And so let's recap. So, here we have it: Define, decide, and deliver.
So, digital transformation projects aren't unlike other projects that you've
done. They're just at a larger scale and potentially have a lot more people
involved. And so, as part of your project, it's important to define your
objectives, your current experience, and your future experience, then
decide on your selection criteria, your technology, and your Minimum
Loveable Experience. Then, finally, it's time to deliver your technology,
deliver on your change management, and also on your North Star.
And any project only works if these four things are in place, which
are around culture, communication, cost, and change. And making sure
that these elements are all embedded in your project as part of any
digital transformation. And so you might be wondering what happened
with the roof of my family home. (LAUGHTER) Did it survive?! So, it
did - just. After months of having a metal pole in the middle of the family
room roof, we finally got it fixed. But it took over four months and it
ended up going into winter, which isn't the best time to change a roof of
an existing home. (LAUGHS) And it cost tens of thousands of dollars and
it caused a lot of stress. And this is what happens when your digital
transformation project doesn't have the right structures in place. It's
about getting clear on defining, deciding, and delivering. And just like a
great roof will last you many years, your digital transformation project will
have a lasting impact on the business.

View Slide

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page 100
Thank you very much for coming along. (APPLAUSE)
STEVE BATY: Thank you, Sarah. Questions for Sarah? We've got a few
minutes for some questions. If you do, put your hand up. If you don't, I
have one to ask myself. Alright. Before we let you go, so, somebody
posted via Zoom, through the virtual channel, asking, like, as you go
through that process, what was the specific role of the experience design
in that process? So, you're talking about a team of people who were, like,
from different areas. What was the experience designs contribution? The
CX or UX contribution?
SARAH HEIMEIER: How, as part of that process, I always find it's really
around, like, guiding the process and making sure that you're
collaborating with everyone. And I always like to take the role of basically
bringing that collaboration together. So, running the workshops, bringing
everyone on the same page, bringing the subject matter experts
together, making sure that you're defining what you're gonna be doing
with the product owner or manager, and making sure that you're all
aligned. And so it's really around working with everyone else, designing
that experience, putting together a blueprint, making sure that they're all,
like, everyone is happy with it, doing playbacks, running showcases. So, I
think it's the full end-to-end, involved in all of the steps. Especially, part
of the selection criteria and assessing those platforms. Like, it's really
essential to have design as part of that, because otherwise you'll end up
with the '90s tool that just puts you back. Instead of going forward as an
organisation.
STEVE BATY: Awesome. Any other questions for Sarah? Please join me in
thanking Sarah. Thank you so much!

View Slide

UXA2023 Sarah Heimeier - Digital transformation – A framework for success

UXA2023 Sarah Heimeier - Digital transformation – A framework for success

uxaustralia
PRO

More Decks by uxaustralia

Other Decks in Design

Featured

Transcript

UXA2023 Sarah Heimeier - Digital transformation – A framework for success

UXA2023 Sarah Heimeier - Digital transformation – A framework for success

uxaustralia PRO

More Decks by uxaustralia

Other Decks in Design

Featured

Transcript

uxaustralia
PRO