The Digital-Transformation (DX) era has arrived. It’s no secret that the pandemic significantly increased the speed of digital transformation (DX) and highlighted the importance of adapting and accelerating the adoption of emerging technologies. Coupled with the increasing innovation requisites that modern business demands, (DX) trends are on a continued rise and trajectory. According to Statista, global investment in digital transformation is expected to almost double between the years 2022 from 1.8 trillion US dollars to 2.8 trillion US dollars by 2025.
To remain competitive in this ever-evolving landscape, product leaders need to prioritise and adapt their strategies and embrace the changes that are most likely to influence product growth, increase revenue and drive an enhanced customer experience. To achieve this, we need to stay on top of the latest trends in digital transformation that also support product team enablement and optimisation. Our article highlights the top areas of digital transformation for the modern product leader.
What is Digital Transformation?
First things first, what exactly is 'Digital Transformation'? Digital Transformation refers to the implementation of digital technologies to unlock benefits such as improving efficiency, value, or innovation. In the world of product leaders, this would refer to the digital technologies that you use to develop, launch and manage your products at every stage of their lifecycle, manage product governance and collaborate with your team.
Common goals for its implementation in modern product management include agile ways of working with smart collaboration capabilities, faster delivery times, improved and increased innovation and product growth practices, faster access to insights, and comprehensive product compliance.
Top Three Digital Transformation Trends and Key Takeaways for Product Leaders
- Cloud Technology
Cloud technology is the on-demand availability of storage, files, software, data, and servers hosted over multiple locations and separate from its end users.
Cloud technology has transformed the way product teams and stakeholders operate, enabling product leaders to access data from anywhere in the world at any time. Team members are able to work more efficiently and collaborate on tasks and update product information documents remotely.
The pandemic has brought about a significant shift in the way we work. There is a huge demand for hybrid-work models which blends in-office and remote work from home with teams working across the globe in many instances. With teams being more dispersed than ever, team members need to be able to access product information and collaborate from wherever they are. Therefore, it is critical that you have the right cloud technologies and digital tools in place to enable team members to thrive and function when they're most productive.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)
Artificial Intelligence is “a system capable of rationally solving complex problems or taking appropriate actions to achieve its goals in whatever real-world circumstances it encounters”. Machine-Learning is one part of Artificial Intelligence. They are not interchangeable terms. ML is what gives AI the ability to “think for itself”. Systems observe repeated user actions and then off the back of this provide you with recommendations or specific information.
ML can help product leaders scale data analytics, expedite research, automate tasks, and alert users. Whilst ML is great at identifying patterns and anomalies, it can’t explain the why. This is where AI comes into the picture. AI systems can help product leaders understand the 'Why', make sense of the data, and in this way, they can enhance, improve, create and shape their products to deliver growth and revenue. For example, Skyjed's AI engine provides product leaders with a shorter path to insights, enabling you to take decisive action and anticipate your next advantage.
Skyjed's unique AI engine calculates up to 200 data points (including financial and non-financial areas) to identify a Product health index, which includes an aggregated Product Health Score so you can quickly see the overall health rating or risk level of your product. This is further broken down with a key health rating across the key domain areas of product health – revenue, value, customer, innovation and regulatory.
With greater visibility, product leaders can make AI-powered data-driven decisions, increase operational efficiency and innovate faster. Knowing where your key areas of product risk are significantly reduced with greater ability to focus on key areas of risk faster and with the data and insights readily available.
It is predicted that ML and AI technologies will contribute about $15.7 trillion to global GDP by 2030. With more businesses jumping on the AI and ML revolution, it's only a matter of time until it becomes a competitive necessity.
- Automation
Automation consists of a wide range of technologies that enable a process or a system to operate automatically and minimise human input. With automation, product management lifecycle management can reap benefits at every stage of the product management process.
The use of automated tools will give time back to product leaders by reducing manual and repetitive tasks. Automated solutions like Skyjed save product leaders time in the following ways:
- Access to ready-made Product Design and Product Audit templates reduces the need to recreate product information documents that are used time and time again
- Data acquisition - Automated systems will help you gather data much faster. You can utilise API integrations to connect it to your data sources, and also prompt specific users or collaborators to input the desired data into the system.
- Reporting - Automated boardroom-ready reports are one of the more popular uses of AI in product management. Having these readily available will reduce the time it takes you to build reports from scratch or chase your business analysts to provide the data.
- Optimised Product Approval Process – Automation can help you manage your product approval process effectively and ensure the right collaborators and testing protocols are in place. AI platforms can create specific workflows and approval groups that must review before the product moves on to the next phase of development or launch
- Product Trigger Workflows help you monitor significant dealings and product risks with ease. Automation will help you monitor these risks on a ‘set and forget’ basis, prompting you when numbers meet a moderate risk threshold. That is before the numbers become significant allowing you time to course-correct and resolve the issues before they take hold.
- Planner event scheduler where important product design or monitoring reviews can be scheduled in advance with reminders and notifications ahead of time allowing product managers to plan easily and effectively.
With so many possibilities to continually grow and automate product processes, product leaders will find a leaner way to manage their products, which leads to a more efficient workforce.
Our playbook on Automation will walk you through in detail the different ways that Skyjed automates your product processes. Download it here.
Are you ready to start your DX journey?
These digital transformation trends are not going away, and will only become more significant. It is a landscape that is constantly changing and iterating. Product leaders need to adapt to changes quickly to stay ahead and continue to grow revenue and their products but need the smarts to be in touch with the growing and changing needs of their customers and consumers and to stay ahead of competitors. The product leaders that embrace DX now will have the power to change the game and find product success.
To see how Skyjed can help you take advantage of these digital transformation trends, watch our Skyjed demo.
About Skyjed
Skyjed is an all-in-one modern product lifecycle management and governance SaaS solution designed for product leaders.