User experience: the secret ingredient to boost engagement and boost the success of digital transformation programs

In our rapidly moving world, it is well understood that digital transformation is an imperative for companies who want to remain competitive. As CTO and co-founder of InsideBoard, I am convinced that user experience is key to stimulating user engagement, and therefore to the success of any digital transformation program. In this article I will explain our visionary approach to creating a superior user experience. I will also demonstrate how using a Digital Success Platform has a direct impact on your team’s success.

Selling the future: digital transformation as an internal marketing challenge

Digital transformation goes well beyond a simple upgrade of tools or processes. It often is a massive change of business practices which requires a total endorsement by employees. This means that you have to “sell” to your team the vision, goals, and benefits of the new approach. This requires internal marketing, and just like for consumer marketing, this means working on two key aspects: the digital channels and the user experience.

User experience, the engine of engagement

User experience is fundamental to stimulating the engagement of employees. A well thought user experience must be simple, practical, stimulating and personalized. The success of digital transformation initiatives hinges on offering an optimized user experience that guarantees the adoption by users.

It is precisely to answer this challenge that we at InsideBoard have created the first Digital Success Platform. The main idea behind the platform is to create a unique digital link with employees, fully dedicated to their digital transformation and their daily operational challenges. This all-in-one digital platform centralizes all the information that employees need to make their daily tasks easier: from practical content all the way to adoption, usage, and business goals. The main idea is to offer a simplified and effective user experience.

A digital meeting point to strengthen community links

The Digital Success Platform offers a dedicated space for communication and collaboration among members of user communities. This communication space allows knowledge sharing, experience sharing and team news. This allows bonding inside the team as well as collective learning.

We are talking here about at a real digital meeting space for the users of each community. By fostering interactions among team members and promoting help within the team we enhance solidarity, which strengthens the team overall. This is a key ingredient of success for any digital transformation program.

The Digital Success Platform centralizes all relevant program information making employee’s life easier and therefore favoring engagement. Users have an easy and quick access to the data they need to fulfill their tasks and succeed in their transformation.

The secrets of a fun and stimulating experience

A very important ingredient of engagement is total clarity and transparency about individual and team objectives. This also includes measuring incremental steps towards success, just like an Apple Watch counts the user’s steps. Doing so provides positive feedback and confirms the value of each achievement. This practice is usually called “Give & Get”.

Here is some advice to create a fun and stimulating experience that will promote user engagement:

Define clear and transparent goals

Employees need to understand what is expected from them and how their actions contribute to the team and company objectives. Establish clear, measurable, and realistic goals for each individual and team within your transformation project. Make sure that these objectives are communicated to all community members in a transparent and understandable way.

Measure success, track progress

It is important that employees and team leaders track their progress regularly. Put in place key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of each action and initiative. Share these results with employees in order to encourage them to continue to improve.

Leverage gamification to increase the motivation

Gamification, i.e. the usage of gaming in a work environment, is an excellence way to stimulate employee engagement. I recommend the usage of game mechanisms such as points, badges, rankings, challenges, and rewards to encourage participation. A healthy, friendly competition among employees motivates them to be more invested in their work and excel.

Recognize and value employee efforts

I also believe that to maintain employee motivation and engagement, it is key to recognize and value their efforts. Put in place reward and recognition systems to celebrate success, progress, and exceptional contributions. We have many real-life examples where compliments, encouragements or symbolic rewards have had a significant impact on motivation and employee engagement.

By emphasizing these key elements, you too can create a dynamic and motivating work environment that enables the success of your digital transformation projects.

Offer a tailored user experience for durable engagement

By offering a user experience that is personalized for the needs of each employee, we are convinced that we are promoting durable team engagement. As we all know, personalization is a powerful weapon used by consumer platforms which recommend us which products to buy, and which movies or TV shows to watch. A Digital Success Platform also should stimulate engagement with intelligent recommendations based on AI deep learning algorithms. This allows finely targeted suggestions to be sent. These suggestions are personalized to the preferences of each user on key critical themes.

Working through multiple contact channels: omni-channel at the service of user experience

To maintain and enhance engagement I believe it is key to leverage a variety of channels of contact with the user base. This omni-channel strategy should make use of in-app widgets, emails, messages on Slack or MS-Teams, among several ways to communicate with the users. This guarantees a fluid digital journey and maintains a constant link between each user and their success community. Here is some advice for an efficient omni-channel communication around your transformation programs:

Identify preferred communication channels

Knowing the preferred communication channels of each user is really important in order to offer an optimal user experience. You can use surveys to determine which are the preferred means of communication within your team. This will allow you to focus on the most impactful channels for your messages.

Adapt the content to the channel

Communication channels each have their specificities and it is important to adapt the content accordingly. For example, smartphone notifications must be concise and informative, whereas e-mails can be more detailed. Make sure to adapt your message to the channel so that you can guarantee a pleasant customer experience.

Ensure coherence among channels

To offer a fluid and seamless customer experience it is key that you ensure coherence among the various channels used. Messages and graphics have to be synched up so that the communication is unified. This will make it easier for users to understand the goals of the program and the actions they should take to support the program.

Analyze and optimize

Analyzing data and performance indicators is an important input to optimize your omni-channel strategy. Follow key indicators such as email open rate, clicks on notifications and usage of in-app widgets to measure the efficiency of your approach and tune it for better performance.

Engagement fuels adoption and operational excellence

Engaged users are much more inclined to adopt new processes, behaviors, and tools. They are therefore more likely to improve their individual operational performance. This makes engagement a key factor of success for digital transformation projects and therefore an important ingredient of the overall performance of the company. Here are some key elements to better understand the role played by engagement:

Engagement and adoption of new technologies

The adoption of new technologies or work methods is often one of the key challenges of digital transformation programs. Engaged employees are known to be more open to change and ready to learn new solutions. Companies who can foster engagement will expedite the adoption of new technologies, reduce resistance to change and ensure a smooth transition.

Engagement and upskilling

Engaged employees are generally more motivated to develop new skills and acquire new knowledge. They have a higher propensity to participate in training, workshops and coaching sessions that will enhance their skills. These employees are the ones who will raise the bar for the company and support its growth.

Engagement and individual performance

Engaged employees are more productive and perform better in their day-to-day work. They are more focused on the objectives, take initiatives and are fully invested in their work. Companies who can increase engagement will improve individual performance and this will translate into higher team performance.

To summarize, user experience is clearly central to the engagement of employees. This makes it a key factor in the success of transformation projects. InsideBoard has developed the first Digital Success Platform in order to provide an optimized user experience that is both stimulating and personalized. Our platform enables an omni-channel strategy that helps companies succeed in their transformation projects and improve their overall performance.

Don’t wait! Join us in this adventure and experience first-hand how user experience can be a game changer for the engagement and success of your digital  transformation programs.