In module 3, we used a framework to practice assessing the outcome of your business challenges by placing them in one of these four quadrants. Here we'll use that framework again, but as a roadmap this time. We'll call it a transformation roadmap. This means that instead of placing the business challenge in one of the quadrants, we'll first place your ultimate solution. Then we'll identify smaller steps to achieve your end goal. By plotting the steps to achieve your solution, we'll build the transformation roadmap. Each of the smaller steps would deliver value along the way, which will also make it easier to attain a leadership buy-in for your business case. As a reminder, our transformation roadmap has two dimensions. Along the horizontal axis is the timeline for next steps to the end vision. In the vertical axis is the journey for incremental improvements to 10X solutions. The intersection between these two axes creates four quadrants. Quick wins are projects that you can start right away and they're easy to implement and useful to everyone. Developments are projects that may take longer but still operate within the existing business environment of your organization and its customers. Disruptions are important. These are projects that will help you explore newer, faster, and radically innovative methods to reach your end vision. Transformations mark your end vision. When building your roadmap, this is the quadrant where you want to start with and build towards. Let's go back to our apparel retailing example from earlier. The end goal is to create a personalized subscription service that turns customers' homes into fitting rooms. Let's plot that in the transformation quadrant on the top right. Achieving this end goal may seem daunting, so next step we're going to focus on quick wins. For example, you might draw some insights from your user data to determine what a great sample box could look like. Its size, the design, and the number of items it contains could be inspired by what your customers currently bring to a fitting room in your stores or what they put in their cart before they check out online. This is a valid project in its own right. They create value in a very short timeframe with relatively little effort. So why wouldn't you do it? While it might seem easier and more natural to move to developments next, I encourage you to shift to disruptions in that quadrant as quickly as possible. One of the most dangerous paths is to only go along the horizontal axis. If you stay at this level and within the comfort zone of your organization for too long, you'll only be making improvements and it will be increasingly hard to transform. Disruptions are 10X initiatives but ones that can be achieved in the short term. In our example, we said the customer might talk to a live assistant. You already have a customer helpline in place, but before you launch your service, how might you re-imagine this helpline? You might choose to automate the first step using a natural language assistant to understand both the nature of the interaction and the emotions of the customer to connect with them the most appropriate consultant. That would be a fast and focused project that not only adds value but most importantly demonstrates your will to change and breakaway from existing solutions. Next, you might think about developments, which are often the extension of your quick wins. Developments are continuous in nature and create progress at scale for existing activities. In our example, displaying prototypes of the newly designed box in your stores could easily turn into a grab and go merchandising appliance, which can then offer coherent assortments of products to purchase at a special price. Even though we don't leverage new technology here to turn our customers' home into a fitting room, there's still a lot to learn on the right combinations of products and services from the comfort zone of the stores environment. This can also be an interesting promotional operation, bringing added revenue to the company and can help identify pilot customers for our future offering. This is where you can connect the dots by combining in this example our new in-store experience with the sensors and the assistant project in order to ultimately achieve your vision. Let's give it a name. The Style Capsule. We have now traveled all the way along the roadmap and reached your transformation. You can see that at every step of the journey, you are adding value to your business and pushing the industry forward. Transformation isn't all about huge investments upfront for one project that won't deliver value until a distant future timepoint. It's those small projects that act as stepping stones to your transformation and define your roadmap, and they all add value in their own right. Moreover, by using this roadmap, you can also keep sight of the end vision, the transformation. You won't get stuck in the comfort zone of your organization. Rather, maintain momentum toward the truly revolutionary solution. Having a clear understanding of the steps you'll need to take in your transformation journey will also really support your business case, which we'll cover a little bit later. Up next is your data strategy. That is the data that you'll need to ensure you successfully complete all of your projects along your transformation journey.
