How to Prepare for a Digital Experience Platform, Part 2

In the second part of our three-part blog on transforming customer experience, we set out the advantages of adopting an agile approach.

As part of our three-step approach towards implementing a Digital Experience Platform (DXP), we first looked at what it takes to prepare for success in managing a CX project covering how a business outlines its vision and agrees on a strategy using a recognized workshop methodology. In this, our second post, we shall focus on the roadmap and the development of a Minimum Viable Product as the two big leaps towards the introduction of a DXP.

This post describes Step 2 and addresses the following questions:

• What does ‘roadmap’ mean in the context of a DXP and how do we measure progress?
• What is a Minimum Viable Product and what role does it play in our CX project?
• What outcome will result from the MVP?
• What are the takeaways from Step 2?

Setting Off on the Strategy-based Roadmap

The Interaction Room (which we covered in our earlier post not only clarifies the status of your digital maturity, it also begins to define your vision and draw an outline of the roadmap for upcoming projects through the right prioritizations and visualizations. Insight into which CX goals are essential – and on course – needs to be translated into concrete steps to drive the DXP project forward.

The roadmap ­– or strategic plan – provides timely and vital information on what the focus needs to be for a further course of action and breaks down the project into individual stages so they are easier to manage and can take account of uncertainties and different scenarios to achieve the final goal.  

For example, if the goal is to develop a campaign to drive national or international customer acquisition, further useful interim and connected projects would be in the areas of lead generation, campaign management, user experience and online performance – each prioritized in line with the roadmap.

The roadmap for “customer development and loyalty” would look different. Here, urgent project efforts would be more in the sphere of cross- and upselling, customer loyalty programs, and strengthening service activities.

Project Management: Agile and flexible with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Once the focus and prioritizations have emerged from the Interaction Room workshop, you can make a start on the project specification. As part of an agile project approach, we recommend the development of an MVP.

What is a MVP? 

The concept of the Minimum Viable Product came out of Lean Startup methodology. An MVP is the first minimally viable version of a product developed to satisfy the needs and requirements of customers or end-users with the least possible effort. Depending on the main objective of the team and its key stakeholders, ‘viable’ may be substituted by three alternative terms. These terms help sharpen the concept of the MVP depending on the context:

Minimum Testable Product. Any experiment in which (small) hypotheses can be classically tested. The first are the those that offer the greatest benefit in terms of knowledge about feasibility, function, value propositions, risks or opportunities.

Minimum Useable Product. Any attempt which offers the user a (limited) benefit and which enables him or her to give feedback on a possible improvement of the product. The focus remains on those aspects of the final product that promise the greatest added value in terms of benefits or feedback.

Minimum Loveable Product. Any prototype that the user likes so much that he or she would actually buy the product, use it permanently or recommend it to others. Ideally, the Minimum Loveable Product would result from the insights gained through Minimum Testable and Minimum Useable Products.

The development of a Minimum Viable Product embraces every product metric but does not claim to be the finished article. Once complete, an MVP needs to be evaluated in the broadest terms – always with a view to the fact that further improvements and changes can take place at any time.

Concrete workshop outputs for the MVP:

• Technology: We understand the current situation and have a definition of the target situation
• Personas: We have a working knowledge of one to two target personas
• Touchpoints: We are building an understanding of our defined target groups
• UX: What should be considered in terms of user guidance?
• Performance: We understand the weak points of the prototyped product and know where more work is needed.

Once the MVP is ready, you are in a good position to come to a professional judgement and to evaluate early on whether the result meets your expectations – or whether more is needed.

MVP: Critical Evaluation Questions

Did we get our technology approach right?

• Which new and additional technologies do we need to implement our roadmap?
• Which technologies do we need specifically? Do we have a system landscape that needs to be taken into account? Which interfaces are necessary?
• Are there other (existing) solutions that we absolutely must include in our technology concept?

Do we need another consulting approach?

• Which topics do we need to think through strategically?
• Do we need further workshops to go into other/new areas?
• Do processes (internal/external) need further analysis?

Takeaways from step 2: MVP and optimal roadmap

The agile approach with an MVP is definitely superior to the classic waterfall methodology with a ‘Big Bang’ moment of go-live. It allows for a perfect and fast immersion in the digital vision coupled with the development of a suitable corporate strategy. Stakeholders in the step-by-step project get the right and important insights into the customer approach and can then make flexible adjustments. The result is much more sophisticated, smarter, more targeted and – last but not least – also more cost-effective.

Look out for our next post where we shall look at the subject of finding the right service provider and the right technology for the project

In the meantime, would you like to learn more about Ibexa’s DXP and how ARITHNEA’s consulting services can help you to implement your project in the best possible way? Arrange your demo and consulting appointment now.