Change champion network drives digital transformation
Leading educational software solutions provider
In early 2021, a market-leading educational software solutions provider embarked on a far-reaching digital transformation programme to ‘re-imagine itself in the digital age’, with product development focused on serving the real needs of customers.
As it was ...
The company wanted to deploy Agile rapidly at scale, which – given that it had spent 30+ years doing three 'big bang releases' a year using waterfall project management – was going to be a shock, both to employees and to customers.
Our solution
This transformation project would require a complete shift in mindset and attitude, and was set to be highly challenging for many who were used to the old ways of working.
Julian was brought into the project to start bringing the client's employees on the journey, starting with the Sales and Service teams.
Shifting attitudes at the top
The first task was to get the directors and other senior executives up to speed and bought-in to the new approach.
To do this, Julian teamed up with a technology consultancy to design and deliver two 90-minute sessions to the board.
The first was around general principles of Agile and related approaches, and the second was on how this thinking was being deployed.
Learning from these initial presentations, the sessions were then adapted and delivered to the Senior Management Team.
Establishing a network of change champions
Once the new approach was set and the top-level executives engaged, a group of Agile advocates focused on building evidential belief in the new ways of working to get the rest of the business on board.
Rather than asking for blind faith in the programme, these change champions were tasked with demonstrating the efficacy of the new ways of working. This would be achieved through the use – and success of – the new product release cycles, and the response from customers.
The results: As it is ...
In just six months, the establishment of a change champion network was a great success.
The client's product and tech teams were learning fast – and handover took place, with ongoing project management moving to the in-house team.
