Transformed

CHAPTER 48Keys to Successful Transformation

In this chapter, we want to share what we have come to believe is essential in order for a company to effectively and successfully transform.

We have discussed each of these key concepts in this book. Everything we have described is meant to increase your chances of success, but it's also true that not everything is equally critical.

Here we put the focus on the ten things we consider to be most critical for increasing your chances of success.

1. The Role of the CEO

While theoretically not impossible, it is extremely difficult to transform successfully without the active support of the CEO. The other items on this list will make obvious why this is the case.

And to be clear, when a CEO decides just to designate some leader as being responsible for “digital transformation,” that is not what we are talking about. This common mistake makes it all too easy for the rest of the company to continue business as usual.

Understand that while product management, product design, and engineering may be at the center of this transformation, the impact necessarily goes far beyond the product organization.

It's not unusual to find that you also need fundamental changes to finance, human resources, sales, marketing, customer success, business operations, and more, and occasionally the CEO will need to get involved.

More generally, the CEO really needs to be the chief evangelist of the product model.

2. The Role of Technology

At its most fundamental, ...