Finite budget, infinite possibilities – how to invest my digital budget?

“Somehow we imagined everything quite differently…”

In the current crisis, the natural speed at which changes – some long overdue – are suddenly being tackled is unprecedented. It is clear that a critical entrepreneur will take a hard look at their company’s own portfolio of products and services. 

Even before the crisis, we observed that some of our customers were quite aware that the product managers knew something was wrong with a digital project. But researching the root causes of such things can become quite a quest because the chains of action in digital products and services are extremely complex, and it is important to examine products quite closely:

• Is our solution better, more unique or cheaper than the competition’s? Does it have to be? How can we find out?
• Can we operate our digital product or service efficiently? Do we have risky relationships with partners? Or should we outsource operations better to save time and money?
• Is our product actually profitable? When does it have to be profitable and how do we achieve that? Which revenue model is right for us?

Over the years, it has become increasingly clear that we need to look at these issues systematically. This has resulted in three consulting services that we can use to support customers in sensitive product and portfolio decisions.

Digital Product Assessment – or “My product can do more, can’t it?”

With our evaluation tool, Ray Sono strategic designers query more than 30 data points of a product or service, always with a view to the three major dimensions of market demand, technical feasibility, and profitability. The digital strategists not only look at the bare figures, but also seek qualitative input from product managers and other responsible parties so as to get the most complete picture possible. This results in a detailed assessment and summary with clear, operationalisable fields of action – always with the option of implementation support by Ray Sono. After all, strategic decisions that aren’t implemented shouldn’t be made in the first place.

Digital Portfolio Assessment or “Which digital projects should I speed up, adapt, or stop?

Many of our customers operate a full portfolio of digital products and services. For our experts, it is important to clarify focus and prioritisation together with the stakeholders. Our digital consultants put the individual evaluations of the Digital Product Assessment in relation to each other (which can also be validated externally on request), identify the value drivers, and recommend which initiatives could be better handled or fundamentally revised. Here too, it’s not just a matter of PowerPoint slides. An implementation plan and a corresponding team consisting of consultants, developers and concepters are part of the offer as well.

Digital Maturity Assessment or “Where do we actually want to go with Digital? And how do we get there?”

Unfortunately, the airy visions of the management often remain just that: visions. It is often common for such decisions to arise without deeper insights into the operational reality of employees. What are my people’s competencies? Which digital story suits us? Do we want to expand our core business – or operate in completely new fields? In a mix of qualitative research in the company (surveys, interviews) and industry-specific research, we develop digital action scenarios with our customers – because there is usually not just one right path.