OREANDA-NEWS. March 15, 2016. “Enterprises the world over are looking to ride the new wave of digital transformation to stay relevant in the future,” writes Sriram Rajagopal. “It is rather hard to define ‘digital’ because it combines a lot of things — it is at once data science, big data, mobility, the Internet of Things (IoT), social, and much more. Organizations therefore need a workforce that understands digital in an all-encompassing manner.” Excerpts:

“As the digital economy presents a new suite of roles in areas ranging from digital marketing to social media campaigning and experiential design, it would be pertinent to look at some of the crucial tasks a digital economy professional would be called upon to accomplish.

Creating user experience: Today, companies have significant insight into their customers thanks to ‘Code Halos’ — digital footprints left by people, organizations and devices. By gathering this data and turning it into actionable insights, organizations can enrich the customer experience. As organizations implement more sophisticated ways to understand their customers, expectations will rise for product and service offerings tailored to individual customer needs. Therefore, the ability to think about and create customer delight and seamless user experiences will be a valuable skill in the digital economy.

Applying design thinking: Design thinking is a creative and systematic approach to problem-solving by placing the end-user at the heart of a process experience. In the digital economy, where the ability to generate, maintain, and ultimately compete on trust and experience will separate winners from the rest, design thinking must become institutionalized within every business engagement. Digital economy professionals should be able to apply design thinking to business problems in all contexts, all the while championing the end-user.

Understanding the interplay of technology and business: While new-age technology skills on their own would be crucial in the digital economy, their full potential can be realized only when they are combined with strategy and business. In other words, everyone from business development experts to domain specialists would have to deepen their understanding of new technologies and their impact on people, processes and performance.

Deciphering patterns: One of the most striking aspects of the digital economy is the interconnectedness of everything. The ability to discern patterns, connect ideas and facts from diverse realms, apply them to new domains, and synthesize them into coherent frameworks would be critical.

With technology evolving rapidly, new-age professionals will have to keep pace with shorter product and technology life cycles and deliver ultimate user experiences.”