Digital just became a necessity

Fight or flight, pivot or pause.

The world’s Magic 8 ball just got kicked into the sky and who knows what it might say when it lands.

But that’s exciting right? Old doors shut, but new doors open, customers change, needs adapt and priorities are turned on their head.

I’ve said this in a previous post, the world has been forced, at pace, further into digital. This time it’s more than just digitising your services or making your business more accessible - because if you could do that, you’ve already done it. 

This is something different, digital is no longer just an efficiency, it’s the tool for rapid development to quickly get out in front. Your customers have changed, their journeys have changed, and I’m afraid sitting it out, amounting debt in government backed loans, isn’t creating a foundation for success, it’s hibernation at best. And hibernating while others are redefining the rules just doesn’t make sense.

Admittedly, there are industries that will be hit harder than others. The CEO of an airline with the entire fleet grounded isn’t thinking about ways to generate revenue from planes on tarmac, but they probably are using the additional bandwidth to focus on innovation, something that usually takes a backseat to the day-to-day running of the business. Now is the time to capitalise on uninterrupted thinking, focussed minds and unprecedented bandwidth.

One of the biggest issues an agency has to deal with when running a project with a client is that the client still has their day job. The project is usually in addition to what is normally expected of them, and so finding that capacity, finding that time and focus, practising real deep work (fantastic book btw), never happens.

So yes this is a time to pivot, redefine customer wants and needs, minimise impact and innovate out of a crisis, but, let’s be pragmatic - that simply isn’t an option for a number of industries. But what is not only an option, but an absolute unique opportunity, is maximise that bandwidth - practice Design Thinking, build a strong foundation for the long term growth and expansion, not just short term survival.

There really isn’t a better time to be strategic. Great strategy happens when we can focus, have clear minds and determination in our bellies.

Short Term Adaptation Workshop

If you’re worried about now all this might be affecting your business and need some help assessing the situation, finding some solutions and prioritising an action plan we are happy to talk. With our clients so far we’ve dissected customer journeys, pinpointed anxiety points or areas no longer possible, and rapidly defined new propositions and acquisition strategies.

Long Term Foundation Workshop

What would you love to have in place when all this is over? What’s that project that simply doesn’t get a chance to surface or get on the radar? What’s that initiative you plan with good intentions every year but never get around to?

Take advantage of an interruption free, Design & Innovation Sprint, the time to fully dedicate yourself to something like this is rare. The chaos of day to day will soon return, make the most of the free bandwidth, and leverage the downtime. Just get in touch to give us a brief idea, or even to chat through high level plans. Without doubt we’ll have a suitable workshop (on Zoom, it’s actually pretty effective) to be able to help you plan and find a solution.

We’ve used this time to adapt our Proposition Workshops, time to sit down and rethink how we execute Design Sprints and Innovation Days. Time well spent to improve our product for long term benefit for when things are back to normal.