Key Success Factors in Digital World

I vividly remember my first day of working at a digital company

As a recent university graduate, I was excited to start my first job, more than anything I was thrilled to step into the world of digital and, the world of the future. Amid all the exhilaration the question that was swirling in my mind was: how can I achieve success in a digital world, both for the company and for myself?

Fast forward to now, I have worked alongside multiple individuals with 20+ years of digital experience, I have managed or been involved in 40+ projects, have collaborated with clients in 3 countries and I am finally ready to answer the questions I had in the first days of my career, so here it goes;

Teamwork really does make the dreamwork:

Gone are the days when a single fullstack developer, with a business person (combination of roles of PM, business analyst, designer and tester) were creating the solution from beginning to end. Specialisation of developers, rise of the role of UI/UX designers in development process and separation of PM, business analyst, product ownership and tester roles means that the average team size of digital engagement has significantly increased. The persons and the companies who can not embrace teamwork, are doomed for failure. Ability to communicate with others and in general being a people person are no longer nice to have traits for an individual in the tech world, they are must have features.

Change in the project is inevitable, prepare for it: 

Digital engagements create a product that is unique, for the market that is unpredictable at best. The combination leads to the changes in the development process (no matter how well laid out the project plan is in the beginning, it will almost certainly change until the end), which can be very discouraging for the team, especially when several weeks of work need to be re-done. It is easy to get frustrated when something like this happens. Hence one of the keys to success is to anticipate the changes, be prepared for them, handle them in efficient fashion and carry on without frustration - this is something that needs to be done on team level as well as on the individual level.

Never stop learning:

We have already touched upon the frequent changes during the digital project. The magnitude and speed of those changes is vast if we zoom out to the whole industry, e.g. just 15 years ago there were no mobile developers in this world. Simply because there was no Apple Store and Play Store, or iOS/Android smartphones for that matter, something that we take for granted today was nonexistent in such a near past. This means that an individual or the company in the digital industry needs to be constantly learning, adapting and improving if he/she/it wants to have a slightest chance at success.

For the new entrants into the digital world, achieving success in tech unfortunately is not easy, however if you apply yourself, keep the KSFs always in the back of your mind (prepare for changes, always be learning and efficiently work with the team) before you know it you will be a successful in professional life. Best of luck on your digital journey!!!