Digital Transformation: How to pick the right Team Members 

Digital transformation isn’t just about implementing the latest innovations; it’s also about rethinking the way you use technology in your company. This is a multi-stage process that requires resources, including people and skills. The right people are a powerful asset for successful digital transformation, bringing a combination of individual strengths and diversified expertise. A well-chosen team can save you time, cost, and wear and tear on your nerves. DigitalMara offers some tips for assembling a team that will help you conduct this transformation smoothly and painlessly.  

Organizations in the fields of banking, insurance, logistics, government, healthcare, manufacturing and retail routinely use digital tools that are outdated: 15 years old or more, encountering a lot of issues, with many important processes that haven’t yet been digitized. Newer technologies allow us to transform these companies, making their operations more efficient, less costly, and sustainable.  

In general, digital transformation is aimed at improving the technological experience for both employees and customers, strengthening resilience and security, making operations more efficient and automated, improving data management, and optimizing costs.  

Roles you need in your digital transformation team  

Digital transformation is a multi-stage process that seems to require a fairly large team. Each stage assumes a certain number of tasks assigned to a certain specialist. But it is important to build a team for transformation wisely, using different specialists in different roles at different stages, and thus reducing the costs.  

Each of the roles listed below contributes to the success of digital transformation by bringing specific expertise and skills to address the challenges and requirements that appear at various stages. All specialists have their own responsibilities but work in close connection with each other.  

1. Planning and preparation stage  

This is a very important step that shouldn’t get short shrift. It’s important to take care in outlining your goals, assessing and understanding the current state of the system, and identifying which areas need improvement and processes that can be automated or digitized. At this stage, you typically need roles such as a Visionary Strategist and Business Analyst. They are essential for creating a clear digital strategy that aligns with your overall business strategy, and then selecting the right technologies to support the digital strategy.  

• Visionary Strategist (business-technology)  

Having a strong vision that encompasses the whole picture, this person is responsible for developing a comprehensive digital strategy that addresses business objectives, emerging technologies and trends. The strategist provides guidance to the digital transformation team and makes sure that all interested and involved persons understand the goals and steps of the process.   

Among this person’s responsibilities are supporting the growth of an innovation culture and communication among all people inside the company; building partnerships with external organizations such as technology vendors; creating reports on the progress of the digital transformation initiative; and providing regular updates to senior leadership and stakeholders.  

• Business Analyst  

This person is responsible for understanding and analyzing the business requirements for the transformed system. The analyst collaborates with a variety of stakeholders to determine their needs and requirements and conducts feasibility studies. The analyst uncovers specific opportunities for process improvement, optimization, and automation, and defines the functional requirements. The outcome of all this is the project documentation, including project specifications and roadmaps.  

The Business Analyst works together with a QA and Solution Architect. The first tests the old system thoroughly to identify all pain points (security, usability, performance, data, etc.). The second helps with functional and technical requirements and project estimates.  

2. Implementation stage  

This is the biggest stage, the one that absorbs the most time and resources. Here all activities related to developing, implementing and integrating the new system are carried out. Developers create the new system architecture and processes, design new user-friendly interfaces, test the new components and workflows to ensure they are functioning properly, and adjust them if necessary. Special attention is paid to organizing data management and embedding security measures.  

During the implementation phase, you’ll require roles such as Solution Architect, Software Developer, Data Scientist, DevOps, QAs, Security Engineer and Project Manager. They are crucial to building and integrating new digital solutions, working with data, and ensuring a seamless user experience.  

• Solution Architect  

This specialist analyzes the current software system and identifies its capabilities and gaps. A solution architect with a strong understanding of domain-specific business needs can translate business requirements into technical requirements and design a technology solution. This person determines the technical architecture for the project, including required hardware, software, and network infrastructure, and the best technology stack.  

Further along in the project implementation, the solution architect provides technical guidance for developers, project managers and other team members, ensures that components are compatible and there is smooth integration, as well as security and compliance with standards and regulations.  

• Data Scientist   

Transformation assumes a change in approach to working with data from various sources, including internal systems, external databases, and third-party tools. An individual expert is needed for this task. The data scientist is responsible for collecting and analyzing data, creating dashboards for data visualizations, and developing predictive models. Apart from that, this individual ensures that data is accurate, complete, and consistent across the entire system and is stored and processed securely, in compliance with all regulations and standards.  

• Security Engineer  

Security is a crucial layer of transformation. It is essential to design and implement security policies and procedures that will protect the company’s digital assets. The security engineer is responsible for conducting security audits and assessments across the entire system, detecting risks, and responding to security incidents. This person configures firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and encryption technologies, and ensures that digital transformation complies with standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS.  

• Software Developers, DevOps and QAs  

Development itself is a solid part of the transformation and requires a team of professionals: developers, DevOps and QA engineers. Developers are responsible for developing and implementing new digital solutions, integrating new digital solutions with existing systems, ensuring that data flows smoothly between different systems, and that there are no compatibility issues.   

The DevOps person configures infrastructure, works with CI/CD pipelines, and automates the development and deployment process to reduce errors, improve efficiency, and speed up software delivery. The QA specialist conducts testing at every stage of the software development, to identify defects and ensure high quality.  

• Project manager (PM)  

The PM is closely involved in the development process, ensuring transformation is progressing in the right way. The PM makes reports and monitors overall progress, performs checkups on resource utilization and budgets, sets project milestones and deadlines, plans and schedules project activities, indicates problems and takes corrective action.  

3. Adoption and optimization stage  

At this stage, the team integrates new systems into the existing business processes and ensures that employees and stakeholders adopt these changes effectively. It’s necessary to monitor progress by measuring key performance indicators and continuously optimize digital processes, driving improvements in both operations and the customer experience. Within the culture of ongoing innovation, the people in these roles are each expected to keep abreast of progress and be ready to take action within their responsibilities.  

The following roles can also be identified here:  

• Change Management Specialist: a person responsible for managing the overall change process and ensuring that employees are trained and supported in using the new systems and processes.  
• Customer Success Manager: the one responsible for ensuring that customers are satisfied with the new systems and processes and addressing any issues or concerns they may have.   

How to build a digital transformation team  

To succeed with your company’s successful transformation, you need to build the right environment and have the right people in place. Skills and expertise are important, but good communication is as well. It’s best to have an established culture of collaboration, empowerment, cross-functionality and trust. Transformation is a team activity.  

Here are some basic steps to set up your digital transformation team:  

1. Identify the key stakeholders, those who will be impacted by the digital transformation project.  

2. Define the roles and responsibilities required for the digital transformation team and define the skills gaps.  

3. Build a team of internal specialists, and if necessary, hire new talents or engage entire external teams.  

4. Provide training and support and ensure all members have access to digital tools and resources.  

5. Encourage collaboration among team members and foster a culture of innovation.  

Final words  

Transformation is a continuous process that never really comes to an end. You transform your processes, culture and customer experience to adapt to the changing business landscape and other challenges. After a certain iteration is delivered, it’s important to conduct regular system assessments to check the effectiveness of new technologies and processes and to ensure consistency with current business objectives.