Lessons Learned – From Decisions to Data

“Without any focus, digital transformation becomes very ineffective,” explains Kamala Manju Kesavan. “What are you trying to do? Are you cleaning up your technology stack? Are you trying to solve customer problems? Clear strategy and goals are very important.

Of course, there may be ideal use cases where you can both refresh the stack and solve a customer’s problem. But the key to a good digital transformation strategy is efficiency; from the decision-making process to the utilization of data to the sustainability of the organization.

Kesavan (left), director of software engineering at a leading fintech vendor, began by pointing out the importance of customer centricity in digital transformation initiatives and the importance of integrating technology and business goals. “Organizations need to consider several factors from a technical, business and operational perspective,” she explains. “Technology organizations need to assess their current infrastructure and gaps and how to plan for new technologies. But from a business perspective, organizations need to understand [whether] This digital strategy will improve their business goals.

“Operationally, both need to mesh with each other, otherwise digital transformation won’t work.”

Being an experienced Engineering Director (Kesavan’s previous employers were in the retail and technology industries, both in management or director roles) means you’ll have a variety of responsibilities. As the Berlin School of Business and Innovation states, having combined knowledge of management and technical disciplines allows managers to develop feasible goals and strategies. “Engineering managers find it easier to make balanced decisions because they have a complete understanding of every necessary aspect.”

This is consistent with Kesavan’s experience. “As a technical professional you need to be detail-oriented and very hands-on, but in a management position you need to understand a broader knowledge and that also needs to include strategy,” she explains.

“I need to know what happened,” Kesavan added. “That means I need to know how to ask the right questions to the right people, say I don’t know when I don’t know, and connect with people who know. These are things that really help me in my leadership.

Technical background is critical when decisions are being made based on the input of colleagues – whether they are the engineering team reporting to you or the architects working alongside you. Kesavan tells two stories from her retail career, both involving cloud migrations. Among other things, she cited her experience as a SQL developer and Oracle database as key to the decision. The second one relates to project changes.

“They hired me to rebuild the entire system,” Kesavan explained. “But when I talked to other retailers, other architects on the team, I realized that to solve the problem, I didn’t have to rebuild the whole thing. For a particular application, it would be easier if I rebuild it, and then if I also It connects to third parties and I can get to market faster.

“It’s important for a manager or leader to remember that your role is not to be the most technically proficient person in the room, but to create an environment that allows your team to perform at their best,” adds Kesavan. “You need to be able to connect the dots. As a leader, you talk to multiple people and then you know what other teams are doing right.

Data utilization is another area where technically minded managers can overcome the differences between business and IT. As Broadcom’s Serge Lucio said in a Harvard Business Review paper: “It turns out that internal barriers are often the most serious.”

Kesavan points out that data must be your “starting point” and that the raw data needs to be cleaned and structured before analysis. The next hurdle is leveraging data to make tactical, strategic or operational decisions. “We have to take the data, scrutinize the data, and then make meaningful connections to the data—a very difficult task,” Kesavan points out.

In one of these roles, a major project was launched to improve customer satisfaction. Kesavan analyzed production defects, then patterned them and then classified them. “It really helped us solve some of the core problems in more depth and then introduce new features,” she explains. “Sometimes customers don’t know what to ask, but they might be able to tell them [something] is the problem. Therefore, we need to understand the data and be able to make meaning from the data.

Sustainability factors are perhaps the most compelling long-term factors. In the words of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), digital transformation and sustainable development “must go hand in hand.” This ranges from the carbon impact of emerging technologies to using more efficient e-waste to create a circular economy. Research shows emissions will improve, and so will your organization’s reputation with future Gen Z employees.

At North America Digital Transformation Week, June 5-6, Kesavan will discuss digital transformation as a sustainability strategy, ranging from emerging technologies to broader company benefits. What are the key initial steps?

“The first step is to take responsibility for what you do,” Kesavan explains. “Then find out why [the organisation is] using our energy; so how do we reduce our carbon footprint? And then how do I socially positively impact the local community, my employees, stakeholders. This helps identify opportunities for improvement and then develop plans to implement sustainable practices.

Photo credit: Pixabay

Label: Cloud, cloud migration, digital transformation