Navigating digital transformation with effective change-management strategies

In the digital era, one of the few constants in business is change. It affects everything —  markets, technologies, brands, even people — and organizations that don’t accept that fact, quickly find themselves falling behind the curve. 

To keep pace with change in a 21st-century business landscape, most organizations understand that they need to execute digital transformations — in other words, plan and implement changes to their existing, outdated tech stacks in order to modernize, and achieve specific business objectives. 

In fact, research suggests that technology is now the top driver of business disruption, thanks to advances in specific fields like generative AI (GenAI), and the majority of C-suite leaders believe that the pace of technology-driven change is going to increase. However, although digital transformations foster tech innovation, it’s also important to remember that they are complex, often long-term endeavors, that impose a range of challenges and require careful consideration of technology products.

With that in mind, digital-transformation strategies must be built on a foundation of human-led change management in order to ensure success. While there's no one-size-fits-all solution for digital transformation change management, there are tools and processes that can support the people who are both guiding and impacted by the process. 

In this post, we’re going to take a closer look at digital transformation change management, including how to implement a change-management strategy that fits your business needs.

What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation refers to a process of technological change which fundamentally alters the way that an organization operates. While there’s no codified definition, it typically involves replacing or modifying existing tools and business processes by adopting digital solutions that provide new capabilities, efficiencies, and opportunities. 

In marketing, for example, digital transformation often involves brands moving away from an outdated, legacy content management system (CMS) in favor of a modern content solution, like Contentful, that adds flexibility, efficiency, and automation to content workflows — and, ultimately, provides better business value.

What is digital transformation change management?

While the objectives and end goals of digital-transformation initiatives may be clear, bridging the gap between an outdated legacy system (that may be reaching the end of its life), and an innovative modern platform, is easier said than done — and requires planning. 

It’s important to remember that digital transformation isn’t just about acquiring and implementing some new technology tool (like a CMS) — the change may involve multiple departments, and impact not only technical teams, but marketing and sales teams, editors, writers, and other operational stakeholders. 

That complexity challenge is where change management comes in. 

Digital transformation change management is the structure that an organization uses to guide and facilitate its adoption of the new technologies and processes required for its transformation. It’s a strategic framework that aligns the technical implementation of new tools and systems, with the individuals that will, ultimately, benefit from them. 

Accordingly, digital transformation change management involves a focus on communication between teams and departments, and on acquiring feedback to address emerging challenges. It typically includes the development of a digital transformation roadmap, top-down leadership initiatives, training programs and skill development, and investment in tech infrastructure.

Digital transformation change management should prioritize culture change within an organization. The scope of a transformation project typically requires companies to adopt a wider mindset shift, embracing new tools and processes, and pursuing continuous improvement in order to optimize the change over the long term.   

Building, and leading, a change-management team

You’ll need to carefully recruit a change-management team to support and oversee your transformation project. In their change-management roles, you’ll need team members that understand your roadmap, your existing business operations and how they fall short of your long-term goals, and how to acquire resources and talent to bridge that gap. 

Those factors mean that you’ll need to assemble your team from technical and nontechnical backgrounds — developers, engineers, marketers, salespeople, content creators — and build an array of perspectives from every part of the organization. 

With that diversity in mind, you should set out a clear vision for your digital transformation, starting with the C-suite and filtering from the top down. There are plenty of ways to assign responsibilities to your change-management team, but here are a few that involve C-level roles as foundational elements.

• The chief technology officer (CTO) and chief information officer (CIO) share technological knowledge and competencies.

• The chief executive officer (CEO), chief marketing officer (CMO), chief growth officer (CGO), chief data officer (CDO), and CIO share the responsibility of identifying the direction of enterprise digital transformation.

• The chief commercial officer (CCO), CDO, and CMO share the responsibility for the customer-facing final product.

C-suite involvement is not just a way to encourage buy-in and cultural momentum for your transformation, but to ensure that as many people as possible, from as early as possible, understand what is happening. There are several benefits to that approach: the more about the transformation that team members know upfront, the more they’ll understand their own stake in the process, and how they’ll benefit from the changes that are being implemented.

Top-down momentum is also a way to reduce personal resistance to change because it’s more likely that team members will understand the role they need to play to make the transformation successful.   

Sourcing talent for digital transformation

With buy-in from the C-suite, how do you find the talent that will drive your digital-transformation program? 

Building a change-management team internally

Existing employees typically know your business inside and out, including its people, digital tools, and project management workflows. They’ll likely be able to quickly understand how changes will impact the business, and balance the necessary inputs, programs, and agendas needed to execute the transformation. 

However, the disparity between old and new tech stacks may require teams to be moved, rearranged, and reskilled, which can be a lengthy and resource-intensive process. 

Hiring external digital experts

Start-ups and small businesses, and organizations with a lower level of digital maturity or cultural readiness, may be better served by recruiting a change-management team externally. 

It’s important to look for external candidates with hands-on experience of managing digital transformations, and of developing roadmaps and integrating new technologies.  Remember: no two digital transformations are the same, so it’s important that your externally assembled team understands the unique needs and challenges of your process. 

Building a hybrid team

A hybrid approach that combines the insider knowledge of C-level leaders with the fresh perspective of external digital experts may be the most effective way to assemble a change-management team. 

Digital transformation isn’t just about implementing new technology tools — it’s about reimagining how your entire organization operates. Leaders with deep institutional knowledge are uniquely equipped to align digital efforts with core business goals, culture, and operational realities, while external perspectives can help you identify opportunities and eliminate institutional blindspots. 

Common change-management and digital-transformation challenges

The scope of change management includes the need to push digital-transformation initiatives forward, and the need to prevent certain factors holding the process back. With that in mind, key change-management challenges include:

Resistance to change

Organizations that have used the same legacy tools for years, may have developed an “if it ain’t broke” resistance to change in the digital age — which obscures both the limitations of existing business processes, and the potential benefits of innovations. To address resistance to change, change-management strategies should emphasize the value of the proposed initiatives, and focus on effecting the necessary shift in company culture that will enable the new systems to deliver their intended impact. 

Leadership misalignment

If C-suite personnel aren’t aligned on the objectives of the digital transformation, downstream teams might be confused about their responsibilities, and how to implement new technology effectively. With that in mind, your change-management strategy should focus on clarity and communication, setting out a clear roadmap, deadlines, and team responsibilities. That clarity will help to strengthen the unified vision for the transformation, and obtain sponsorship.   

Data silos

Successful digital transformations are predicated on data-driven decisions. However, when that data is embedded with non-centralized systems, siloed across different teams, or even held within team-members’ heads, it becomes more difficult to obtain and deploy critical insight, and implement targeted changes. Change-management strategies must aim to unlock the power of data by breaking down silos with centralized tech infrastructure.  

Transition schedule

New tools added to the tech stack before teams are trained to use them properly are not only cost inefficient, but jeopardize subsequent stages of the transformation. Implement changes incrementally to ensure you’re delivering value for the company; obtain C-suite investment and sponsorship, and make sure teams are comfortable using new technologies and processes before moving to the next stage of the transformation schedule. 

Key steps to structure your digital-transformation projects

Make change management the center of your strategy

Successful digital transformations typically require an organization-wide paradigm shift. For example, moving away from the siloed approach of a legacy content management tech stack, to a more collaborative and flexible, headless CMS. Ensure every employee understands the value of the changes that are happening, and are supported and guided by unified, top-down leadership. 

Plan for long-term sustainability and demonstrate commitment to change

Once the vision for the transformation has been communicated to employees, your organization will need to demonstrate its commitment to this change. That means supporting your teams by allocating sufficient resources, arranging training sessions for new tools and processes, and listening to feedback as you implement your changes. Set out a digital transformation roadmap that includes the roles and responsibilities of team members. 

Leverage digital technologies

Communication, transparency, and clarity should be priorities during the digital transformation. With that in mind, dashboards and messaging platforms (such as Slack) are great ways to promote collaboration and facilitate support as you effect changes to your tech stack. It’s also worth thinking about the potential advantages of composability as you build your new infrastructure. In a composable environment, for example, each component that you add to the stack can feed back its own data, and help you optimize the transformation process incrementally.

Further resources

Want to know more about digital transformation, and how to develop a comprehensive change-management strategy to handle your transition away from an outdated legacy system? Check out these key Contentful digital-transformation resources:

• Build a digital-transformation strategy

• Enterprise digital transformation

• A digital-transformation roadmap

Manage change with Contentful 

From small businesses and start-ups to well-known enterprise organizations, Contentful has helped companies around the world execute their change-management strategies, and achieve digital-transformation success. Leaving the limitations of legacy content management behind, Contentful provides a completely composable software architecture so that brands can build exactly the tech stacks they need. 

Combined with cutting-edge native AI capabilities, including digital testing, experimentation, and personalization tools, and enabling easy access for both technical and nontechnical users, Contentful opens the doors to the creation of any content experience, across any digital channel — which means that your transformation project need only be limited by your ambition.  

And, as your business and marketing needs evolve, Contentful ensures you can continue to build. Our platform facilitates change management as an ongoing process in which you’re able to iterate on your tech stack constantly, changing and growing your brand, adding new features and functionalities to your tech stack, and ensuring your content experiences remain engaging for audiences now, and in the future.

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