Imagine this - a world where your messages reach the right people and have the desired effect. You know what is going on in all your teams, and the world knows how your company can change their lives.

I know - nirvana!

This was our starting point - setting up We Are Doodlebug. From marketing to internal communications, it is essential that you ask three questions:

1. What exactly do I want to achieve? (Strategic clarity)
2. What is the best way to achieve it? (Customer-centric innovation)
3. How will we make sure the results match our plan? (Operational excellence)

Nowadays we have access to loads of innovative technological solutions - and it is easy to be seduced by the next slick sales rep who promises the earth. But here is the counter intuitive truth - it's not the tech, it’s the people.

We love the tech - but it’s not about the tech!

In our modern, digitally driven world - it feels like the answer is always contained in a server somewhere. Existing ‘in the cloud’. This is a natural response to the messages we see all around us - social media, TV streaming, email messaging - all trying to target you for advertising specifically aimed at your interests and desires.

The things tech can do are really clever - and it isn’t surprising that we are now worried about how our data is used! Or that AI is too powerful. Or that we can be manipulated in elections and events to do things we see as out of character.

This leads to two responses we regularly see when deploying solutions in businesses.

1. A number of users become obsessed with the technology and use it quickly, often without deep thought. This leads to users creating workarounds to get what they want, often at the expense of the purpose originally intended.
2. The other end of the spectrum are so distrusting that they stubbornly refuse to give up their existing work structures - however inefficient they are.

The buyer is rarely the end user.

In the beginning we sold to the person with the purchasing power. Their needs were considered and solutions designed to meet those needs. This led to significant issues with deployment. Innovation is vital to what we do - but many times the innovation comes in getting the end user using it in the correct way - to get the correct outcomes.

Gaining clarity over the pain and rewards for each stakeholder is vital.

Our hardest projects to get right are for those who don’t appreciate this - so we seek clarity early on in the process.

The product is only the beginning

As a team, we joke that the product is sometimes superfluous to the outcome. That’s not totally true as in order to create change, we have to do something new - and this normally includes making certain that the businesses we work with have the most up to date and efficient digital systems. But the key is always the people.

Change management vs project management

Our ‘Aha’ moment was the realisation that the beautiful GANTT charts and trello boards only got us so far. Frustrations were always centred around human interpretation of what we were attempting. If we worked in a silo, meeting a technical specification was sub-optimal.

This is where our experience truly came to the fore. My background was in systems change in schools and academies, and Sarah Hubbard - our Operations Director - has a background in IT change management. It’s fair to say we kicked ourselves!!

We noticed that on the launch of new products they suddenly started to show immediate, positive effects. Dialogue with our clients and their teams was two way and resulted in positive change. Client teams learnt how to use the systems effectively and were confident to use us as a resource.

Two stand-out projects were connected to public sector systems - and all the complexities and frustrations that entails.

1. We developed and launched a set of 40 sites for a multi academy trust in the UK - managing change for the chalk face teams, head teachers, internal communications team, marketing team and the CEO and his central team. Feedback from the CEO and the teams at all levels indicated they were able to focus on their core work (outstanding education for young people in challenging circumstances) and the websites became a tool that operated smoothly in the background.
2. A commercial wing of an NHS trust - their marketing lead (a one person operation!) has stated it was like having her own team. Again - we were able to provide the wherewithal to implement her strategy seamlessly.

I will go into more depth on these in future articles.

So - this is how we got to:

Clarify. Innovate. Excel.

While the focus initially is on the clarify section, the others are necessarily intertwined.

Lastly - ask yourself two questions:

1. What do I want to change about my business and its systems?
2. Do we have the expertise internally

Answer yes to question 2. - take the insights I share here and try them in your context. We know they work, but feedback is incredible in making the service even more optimal.

Answer no - subscribe to our feed and DM me when you are ready to see how change management and technological transformation can change your life and business.