“First, do no harm” is a famous saying in the field of healthcare. It conveys the principle that new actions must be carefully considered to ensure they don’t cause more harm than good. This principle holds true in the digital transformation world. Users are your patients. Brands intend to intervene and optimize their digital experiences to endear them to your brand, build better engagement, and expand your business with them for a long-term relationship. However, the wrong approaches and interventions can create adverse impacts from otherwise well-intentioned interventions.

The reality is that brands need to prioritize proper risk management when they deploy digital experience optimization strategies, as failure to do so can have catastrophic consequences. However, leaving your digital experience to chance is a recipe for business disaster. To account for this dilemma, you must take care as you engage in digital transformation efforts in conjunction with mitigation strategies to ensure you “first do no harm” while achieving your goals.

Curiosity vs. Responsibility

a man looks at his computer with concern
Enacting a digital transformation is no small task, but there are important considerations that come before deployment. Brainstorming new ideas and strategies is an exciting time, but not all ideas are as pure as they sound. Many methods or suggestions can lead to the desired result but can also bring overlooked issues that will wreak havoc down the line.

For example, it may sound appealing to use location data to affect personalized digital advertisements in real time to attract shoppers based on location and time. However, that curiosity and innovative excitement must come paired with responsibility—both to your customers and the long-term health of your brand. No one wants to be known as the brand that accidentally doxed its customers or lost community goodwill when data collection methods hit the headlines. Even commonly adopted methods can reach extremes where they become detrimental. Businesses want to reduce abandoned shopping carts, but sending daily email reminders to customers may yield some sales while chasing away a larger percentage of potential customers.

Curiosity and innovative excitement must come paired with responsibility—both to your customers and the long-term health of your brand.

Just because a new idea would benefit your company doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do or overall beneficial. Mass data collection offers insights to better target customers, but how much data is collected and when will drastically change the responsibility aspect of the idea. Even if your brand doesn’t misuse data or access, creating the opportunity means other less scrupulous people create risks that harm your customers and the market at large. Your brand might not use a tool in a nefarious way, but the potential for future harm will always remain. Through testing, you can determine how your brand can still reach goals without crossing into unsavory territory.

Testing is a Vital Part of Digital Transformation Risk Management

two colleagues test designs on a device
It’s all too easy to view testing as a simple, one-time check to see if new features work as intended, but testing must play a prominent role as the digital era continues to evolve. The process of testing variables and changes isn’t nearly as simple or fast as some leaders imagine; testing is a difficult process and takes time for specialists to work through. Only trained and skilled experts can put changes through the appropriate paces to ensure no problem remains overlooked before live deployment.

Testing is most useful and accurate when the testing environment is just as complex and variable as the live version.

It’s also not enough to test in a controlled environment, as the deployed use case won’t remain controlled. Testing is most useful and accurate when the testing environment is just as complex and variable as the live version. Skilled and knowledgeable technicians are who make digital transformations happen in the first place, and leaders would do well to listen to what testers discover as part of risk management and responsibility.

Testing is a technical art that cannot function with cut corners. Trying to shorten the process or save on costs ultimately results in wasted efforts, contaminated untrustworthy results, bugs shipping in live deployment, and an overall worse user experience that will take more proper testing to fix. Not allowing testing to play out fully will only hurt your customer satisfaction in the long run, which undermines the reason for testing.

Think and Plan for the Long-Term Customer

a woman takes notes in a journal
Brands are too often caught up in short-term thinking or maximizing profits while reducing costs. Changes made now will significantly impact the future, which makes the decision-making and deployment process even more critical. However, the future of brands is about more than the bottom line and more conversions, as today’s customers want a two-way relationship. Customers want to feel that they can trust the brands in their lives, and the customer perspective is invaluable when deciding what steps to take next. Think about what a customer would say if they saw behind the curtain. How would you feel about your current plans and actions if you were an average, anonymous consumer? Every change that pushes customers away is one cut of a thousand that can sink a brand over time. You’ll achieve better results in the long run by thinking like a customer and planning long-term rather than focusing on quick results.

Customers want to feel that they can trust the brands in their lives, and the customer perspective is invaluable when deciding what steps to take next.

Digital transformations pose nuanced, complex, and unique challenges for every business. Finding the right methods and strategies is daunting, especially when choosing the wrong path can result in lost customers and a damaged brand. Putting your best digital foot forward matters, and we’re the experts here to ensure your digital experience transformation shines brightly. Our team will create the perfect testing framework and long-term plan for the next evolution of your brand and customer experience. Our personalized planning prowess and tremendous technical expertise make the perfect combination to mitigate risk without oversimplification or excessive entanglement. Contact us today to learn precisely how BlastX can craft a custom solution for your business.