Where do you start when you want to achieve digital innovation successfully? In this rapidly changing digital age, being big no longer means being the best. We see time and time again that companies who innovate and challenge the status quo are the ones who get the furthest ahead of the curve, leaving big players behind. In other words, the fast are beating the big. All is well and good, but how does a company go about facilitating innovation? This article will give first-hand insights into how to avoid the most common pitfalls, according to Stephan Koning, Betty Blocks’ very own Customer Success Manager.
Low-code is one of the modern technologies that are pivotal to how well a business can innovate digitally. It allows for rapid application development and faster time-to-market. Thus embodying the very essence of digital innovation. However, progress cannot be made without overcoming roadblocks, which is natural. Developing the right software is hard enough as it is, and companies take great care in hiring the right talent to execute their business strategies. However, in order to drive digital innovation that results in increased customer satisfaction and revenue, there are other factors at play.
For low-code to be a success, every employee involved in the project should have the means to contribute. We call this “Citizen Development” within the tech sphere, and with digital innovation at an all-time high, there is a pressing need for this methodology to become more mainstream. More often than not, companies assign tasks to a specific team without considering the input from other departments. This means that a lot of innovative ideas can get lost without even realizing it, putting the company in danger of losing its competitive edge. Not because the proper tooling isn’t there but primarily due to a lack of processes in place to shed light on unique concepts. By creating harmony between people, processes, and technology, then digital innovation is sure to follow.
Ensure Employee Engagement and Participation
In order to make digital innovation a success, you first need to have people engaged in the effort. Communicate openly about the company’s intentions, goals, and expectations so that employees can contribute in an effective manner. For example, employees in a customer-facing role can give key insights into what clients are struggling with when using the company’s product or app. This information can then be taken into consideration when sketching out the next step in the digital innovation process. The first step is to bring awareness within the company to make employees engaged and empower them to contribute to the joint effort. Next, offering rewards in return for employee engagement makes the incentive a lot more lucrative.
5 foundational steps for successful innovation:
- Regularly communicate the importance of innovation in alignment with company values and norms to foster a culture of innovation.
- Establish an innovation committee tasked with overseeing the entire process of generating, evaluating, and implementing innovative ideas while also actively promoting a culture of innovation within the organization.
- Reward employees who actively contribute innovative ideas and successfully implement digital solutions.
- Encourage cross-functional collaboration by organizing brainstorming events to leverage diverse perspectives and ideas.
- Provide frequent updates to employees on the organization's actions regarding submitted ideas, share success stories, and recognize actively engaged individuals.
Optimize Idea Management Processes
Motivation and engagement are not enough to make a company’s digital innovation strategy a success. When embarking on a digital strategy that is bound to revolutionize the business, many new concepts will be brought forward. It is essential to be able to process all the information that is being submitted. If employees have a place to submit, organize, and execute new ideas, digital innovation is much easier to manage.
- Define a clear plan with specific goals and objectives aligned with the overall business strategy to guide innovation efforts.
- Implement a structured process for submitting, reviewing, and prioritizing innovative ideas, ensuring feedback is provided to submitted ideas.
- Establish criteria for evaluating ideas to ensure consistency and fairness in the selection process.
- Provide guidelines for organizing innovation events to streamline the process and maximize effectiveness.
Provide Continuous Technological Support
Building the proper IT infrastructure is part of the digital innovation strategy and retains momentum to keep the innovation train going. Tools built using a low-code platform are perfect for continuously improving existing solutions with minimal coding effort. Whenever changes are implemented, it is important to be able to track the impact. Submitted ideas with a positive effect on the customer experience can be used to further optimize and improve the company’s solutions. An excellent place to start is by building a centralized portal where information can be stored and managed.
How to facilitate engagement
- Offer a centralized solution accessible to all employees, clearly outlining the submission process and required input for innovative ideas.
- Enable employees to provide feedback once an idea is deployed, fostering collaboration and engagement.
- Provide basic data analysis capabilities within the technology platform to identify patterns and gain insights into the most promising ideas.
- Highlight the most popular ideas to increase visibility and encourage further participation.
The bottom line is that for digital innovation to be a success, you need to have the right people on board following the right principles. Setting up and defining these processes from scratch takes away from a company’s ability to be agile. This is counterintuitive to the very essence of digital innovation. Low-code platforms like Betty Blocks are the perfect crutch for teams, departments, and companies to innovate faster in a more structured manner.
A good example of an organization that successfully achieved digital innovation is the Dutch National Police. By creating an Innovation Portal using low-code, they were able to implement the right processes to get people engaged in sharing innovative ideas and manage them intuitively. Want to learn more about the benefits of low-code? Then read our article about navigating the low-code landscape or book a free demo of the Betty Blocks platform today.
