Digital transformation is a mindset shift to audience-centricity

In digital transformation, a mindset shift towards audience-centricity is central. It both drives the need for change and is the ultimate goal of change.

Let me explain.

You will all remember the Web 2.0 revolution. It was triggered by the arrival of social media in the digital landscape, faster than ever (mobile) internet and cheaper mobile phones.

Suddenly, organisations and audiences could engage in an always-on, two-way, real-time exchange of data and content. This allowed organisations to understand their audiences better: what they know, what they need and what they want from interactions with different brands. And when brands analysed this data and feedback, they achieved better results: more people engaging for longer. Naturally, technology developed in this direction too. It has enabled organisations to personalise their relationships at scale using automation and AI tools.

Getting our heads around the shift to audience-centricity isn’t easy. But an analogy from Steve Denning has helped to crystallise the idea for my clients. Denning writes about 21st-century leadership, Agile and innovation. He describes this transformation as “the Copernican revolution in management”.

An audience-first approach

The Copernican Revolution occurred when Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus shook up the study of astronomy. Previously, scientists had a geocentric understanding of the universe (centred around the Earth). But Copernicus advocated for a heliocentric approach (centred around the Sun). This reframing changed humankind’s understanding of the cosmos and our place within it. His ideas were so shocking that the Catholic Church banned his books, only reversing the decision in 1992, 359 years later.

In the analogy, your organisation is the Earth and your audience is the Sun. In the 20th-century, your organisation was the centre of the universe, with your audiences orbiting around you. You operated a one-way or broadcast communication model: developing messaging and content based on what you needed from audiences. There was limited understanding of who your audiences were, or what their changing needs or preferences might have been.

 As a 21st-century organisation, your audience becomes the centre of the universe and you orbit them, alongside many other brands. You choose audiences based on your organisation’s purpose and connect with them by understanding their position on the issues you care about. You adopt a two-way, audience-centred communication model.

 Just like the Copernican Revolution, this is a huge mindset shift. And it’s transformational because while it may start with changes in your technology, it also requires changes across your culture, roles, skills, ways of working, planning, process designs and how you collect and manage data.  

Let’s take a closer look.

Shifting cultures and practices

PEOPLE

Audience-first approach

Before: You focus on your organisation’s objectives and needs. You broadcast information to your audience and evaluate their response two or three times a year. 

After: You know that audience action and participation are essential to your organisation’s strategy and vision. You design audience journeys to facilitate engagement and loyalty.

Digital skills

Before: You have one digital expert or digital team that houses all the digital skills and knowledge for the entire organisation.

After: You have digital thinking and digital skills embedded across your whole organisation and its processes.

PROCESS

Decision making 

Before: You make decisions based on gut feeling or by coordinating different team objectives.

After: You make decisions based on evidence and data, tracking how your audiences engage with offers. You pilot projects and take lessons learnt into new projects. 

Journey design

Before: You focus on products and content but spend little time thinking about how your audience will find what you create. You haven’t considered how to make the customer journey simpler so they’re more likely to complete it, or what other products and content are competing with yours. 

After: You continually design and optimise audience journeys and products.  Your decisions are based on a single supporter view of data combined with your organisation’s plans and strategy. 

Planning

Before: You plan in team silos before combining those plans into one. KPIs are owned by teams. Audience journey KPIs are mostly based on vanity metrics like reach. 

After: Your plans sit at the intersection of your organisation’s needs and the needs of your audiences (clear audience theory of change). KPIs are shared across teams who each have different roles in audience journey design.

TECHNOLOGY

User experience

Before:  Your technology decisions are made based on your existing skills and costs and adjusted to meet your current processes.

After:  Your systems and processes provide excellent user experience for both audience and staff, delivering real-time data reports to improve audience engagement (both internal and external) and efficiency of processes.

We know that the “Copernican revolution” that is digital transformation was triggered by changes in technology. But the accompanying culture and mindset shifts will not happen through technology upgrades alone. 

That’s where non-profit leaders come in. You need to invest in your and your team’s understanding of the scale of change: why it’s needed, how it will benefit the organisation and what it brings to each part of the organisation’s work.  Then, develop the skills to allow audience-centred and data-driven thinking to spread across the organisation. 

Digital transformation is all-encompassing but it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. To gain a better understanding of how it works in your organisation, pilot cross-team integrated working on a couple of projects, making small improvements across processes, skills and technology.

For more on some of the things I mentioned here, have a look at the following blog posts: 

Building teams for 21st-century organisations

Story of shifts Save the Children has been making 

Top 5 tips for digital transformation

Preparing the ground for a digital transformation initiative 

And if you have thoughts to share or want to discuss more, get in touch.