Contributors
Chief Operating Officer
January 8, 2025 • 3 Min Read
The “fail fast, fail often” mantra has served as a defining approach to agile innovation for tech companies and entrepreneurs for decades. This approach takes on new meaning and urgency when it comes to the significant investment of time, effort and cost that comes with digital transformation.
Such initiatives are complex projects comprised of blended and dispersed teams, multiple partners and vendors, and evolving technologies and innovative AI solutions.
But viewing failure as an opportunity to quickly learn and pivot isn’t enough. The key is knowing when to make tough calls. Here are some guidelines to help you “succeed at failing.”
01.
Don't wait until the project ends to adjust the scope of work.
Every project leader should routinely ask themselves and their teams what’s working, what’s failing, what needs to be adjusted, and what else the team can do create value for the business at a faster pace. This requires leaders to look beyond meeting project milestones and take a close look at resourcing plans.
By implementing consistent checkpoints, leaders can make midstream adjustments that may lead to significant efficiencies in the long term.
02.
Use data to make informed decisions—even if they're tough calls.
Having data in place to inform decisions around pivoting is critical. The success of ongoing initiatives must be continuously monitored through surveys, Q&As, and postmortems at the conclusion of project phases.
It’s also important to recognize that the implementation of new digital experiences requires user input and testing validation throughout the process. Forming a continuous loop of research, design and testing ensures user feedback is collected ahead of implementation so it can inform decisions about subsequent phases of work.
Making tough calls is part of leadership. Helping people understand why the call is being made is part of being an empathetic leader.
03.
Have the courage to change teams and vendors as needed.
Many digital transformations are multiyear efforts that evolve over the course of implementation. At RGP, we recently faced a situation where one of the software products we selected for our own digital transformation was no longer adequate for our business needs.
We had to acknowledge that we required a different solution. This was a difficult decision not only because it extended our budget and timeline, but because of the relationship we had with the vendor. Nevertheless, we identified a new approach within a matter of weeks and moved forward with a new vendor and design team.
By acknowledging failure as soon as possible, accepting it, and shifting their team’s mindset to one of learning and flexibility, leaders can help their organization build muscle for navigating unexpected change of all kinds while optimizing chances for success.
A version of this article was previously published on Forbes.