For the first time in a long time, I took an international flight. In 2021, you need to complete some new forms…
A passenger locator form, this lets people where you are going and why. A negative COVID-19 test certificate 48hrs before departure. A copy of your vaccine certificate, 0 1 or 2 doses.
The airline I flew with had a handy portal when checking in. The portal ‘associated’ these records to your digital boarding pass via an upload tool.
Seems simple enough.
However, when you get to the airport and try to check in, it turns out that the upload portal was merely a facade.
The airline operator doesn’t have the technology to access the uploaded info. You needed to remember to print a paper copy just in case for manual checking.
It’s not over yet.
You then get a small slip of paper to be presented at the boarding gate to say you’ve been ‘checked’. The number of people I saw who lost this piece and had to go through this process again was significant.
You might be thinking, well, that was a nice story, but what does that have to do with technology value creation?
I’ve been having an increasing number of conversations with firms looking to speed up digital transformation.
The first step most teams want to take is building a facade similar to the example shared here. Technology teams can forget that their applications help real people do real things. If they don’t work as expected in the real world this has a real impact to peoples lives.
Instead of asking how quickly can I do this transformation programme, the best teams ask…
What can I help our client do now that they couldn’t before? What’s the most value we can deliver within our current limitations. What will people see and think when they see this.
These same teams will monitor the impact positively and negatively.
Looking at technology related churn, NPS changes and customer survey results.
How often do your tech teams actually use their product they are building? Have you seen changes to NPS after a recent software change?
How would you value the benefit of getting this type of change right or wrong?
Until next time.
Thomas
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