People Changing Enterprises: Recent Episodes

Contentstack

This is a show for status quo busters inside enterprises who are ready to make change happen. We ask people who have transformed big businesses how they’ve done it through three lenses: technology, mindset, and strategy. You get the roadmap to creating change inside your own enterprise.

Narisa Wild (Informa) shares how the company introduced an innovative "digital skills index" to raise digital literacy across the organization. She also shares the keys to effective digital transformation that are crucial for any digital leader embarking on any change initiative. Tune in to gain practical strategies and a fresh perspective on how to empower people at all levels of the business to create a stronger digital foundation for a future-ready enterprise.

This week we dive into the complex topic of content migration with Narisa Wild, who has spearheaded the digital transformation at Informa, a global B2B events and information services company. We cover the drivers behind content migration, and how to make data-driven decisions about migration and transformation processes -- and how AI is going to offer new opportunities, not just for migration, but for taxonomy, content, and the events space overall.

Timestamps:
1:06 What does Informa do?
1:43 Narisa's role in digital transformation
2:23 3 drivers for content migration
4:08 The #1 content migration question
5:04 Where content creation fits in
7:22 Why a composable stack makes migration decisions easier
10:21 How dashboards help
11:43 The future of content at Informa
13:53 How AI can aid content migration
16:57 How AI can impact event CX strategy
18:27 Looking deeper at the future of enterprise content

This week we explore the topic of developer experience with REI's Kat Valdre and Jason Greeley. They take us behind the scenes of platform engineering at REI and how the two of them think about creating the best possible experience for developers working on these platforms.

Kat Valdre is the Engineering Manager of the REI Platform Organization, and Jason Greeley, Solutions Architect, manages content and experience at REI. Collectively, Kat and Jason bring a wealth of knowledge in creating user-friendly infrastructure for developers, supporting their productivity, and fostering innovation in their work.

Learn:

How REI's platform engineering teams provide tools and services to enhance developer experience and ultimately benefit the end customer
How making a developer's workday easier and reducing repetitive tasks can lead to better productivity and satisfaction
The importance of providing established solutions with robust SDKs and APIs, and offering reliable support for technical questions
Encouraging exploration and flexibility within the development team and the benefits of involving developers in decision-making processes

Timestamps:
01:20 The role of platform engineering teams at REI
03:05 What is developer experience?
04:42 The role of creativity
05:54 How to support several developer teams and help them be successful
08:11 What Jason and Kat look for in technology to support a good developer experience
10:37 Advice for developers seeking a better experience

Kat Valdre and Jason Greely from the REI Platform engineering team share their composable transformation story. They discuss the challenges they faced while decomposing their monolithic architecture and their approach to building trust across the organization as they embark on a years-long transformation. Their transparent and refreshing perspective on tech transformation will resonate with anyone who feels their progress is slower than they (or their organization) would like to move. Kat and Jason provide valuable insights and advice for any business making a major technological shift.

Timestamps:
1:41 What were things like at REI before they decided to go composable
04:06 What pushed REI to start their composable transformation?
06:25 The importance of introducing changes in manageable parts
07:54 What composable will enable for the business
11:17 Advice for companies embarking on composable transformation
12:55 Dealing with differing opinions and disagreements
13:57 The importance of documentation
16:41 Hurdles and challenges REI has faced along the way
18:50 Managing expectations and maintaining morale when transformation takes a long time

Keith Mazanec (Director Software Engineering, Brad's Deals) returns to share the company's in-depth transformation story, highlighting the content lifecycle automations that made the biggest different for content teams as the company moved from legacy to composable. This session was recorded live at ContentCon 2023.

We hear time and time again that digital transformation has less to do with technology and more about helping people to change the way they think. But how do you actually do that? Our guest today has a proven formula. Jurre van Ruth is leading a major digital transformation for the Dutch postal service. Today, he shares the secrets to his success - and the acronym is "FEAST".

00:57 FEAST: How to make sure everyone is excited about change from beginning to end
01:35 Fun - creating engaging and enjoyable meetings
02:18 Empathy - what if the other is right?
3:48 Aligned - how to ensure everyone is on the same page
5:28 Storytelling - the best thing you can hear in a meeting is something that's on the next slide
6:02 Team - bringing others along on the journey to increase your chances of success
7:31 How to address resistance to change
9:02 #1 piece of advice for anyone looking to make a big change

What is a composable digital experience platform? What are the key capabilities that it must represent? Where do you start in building one? How do you know if you are successful - what metrics should you look at when, and how do you communiate to business and IT stakeholders along the way? Dutch postal service PostNL's Jurre van Ruth (Strategic Program Manager, Composable DXP) has the answers. In this episode, he tells the story of the company's digital transformation from monolithic technology to a Composable DXP and how that has made PostNL one of the country's most innovative digital businesses.

Timestamps:
0:54 What is PostNL?
1:38 Jurre's role and responsibility
2:20 Defining a Composable DXP
4:12 What was the digital capabilty landscape like inside PostNL before going composable?
6:03 Where to start? How the company decided where to begin the transformation.
7:22 What they did instead of a roadshow to get buy-in for the Composable DXP concept
8:38 "Zooming out" strategy to prepare a business for a big change
10:49 Metrics Jurre's team uses to measure success of the Composable DXP
13:41 How the team uses these metrics to create momentum
14:19 A simple but huge benefit of Composable DXP: creating a common language

Learn how to have better feedback conversations that won't result in ruffled feathers - but instead, better creative, better processes, and better relationships with your designers. This episode features executive creative consultant Kenn MacRae, product designer Sietse Koopmans, and Paul Watson, Head of Brand and Design at Golfbreaks.

02:02 Sietse's best worst feedback story
03:20 Kenn's global perspective
04:17 Paul's unique position inside his enterprise
04:45 Lesson 1 (Set the parameters)
06:36 Lesson 2 (Ask)
07:46 Lesson 3 (Be honest)
09:47 Lesson 4 (Explain why)
12:14 Lesson 5 (Don't solutionize)
14:31 Takeaways - 3 things to try

Learn the surprisingly simple values and tactics that you can employ as a mid-level employee to create meaningful change. For senior leaders, the team also drops some suggestions for how to create an environment where change-makers can thrive. This is a short and sweet round-robin on the best ticks and tricks three mid-level change-makers inside Icelandair have learned about what makes making change easier.

Timestamps:
1:33 How conflict relates to expectations
2:23 The key value Oskar aims for in creating long-lasting change
3:15 How Edvardas frames every project to minimize conflict
4:38 Common mistakes Hallur has seen in people trying to create change
6:42 Be prepared to throw out your plan
7:40 How senior leadership can foster an environment where creating change is the norm
9:43 Quickfire: One piece of advice for someone who wants to make their mark on their business

That's right, the Icelandair content team doesn't just write content. They are guardians of their headless content management stack, working upstream with developers to make the system - and its output (digital products) - better for employees and customers alike. And they feel strongly that this should be the case in more companies out there. Learn from their example in today's episode, and you might be tempted to call your content team into your sprint planning too.

Timestamps:
02:08 What the pandemic was like for Icelandair, and how their technology strategy changed as a result
03:31 Why composable / headless technology was an advantage during the past few years
06:24 The unique way the content team at Icelandair works with the content technology
07:42 Creating independence for distributed global content teams
09:32 How is Icelandair's strategy helping them to compete with other, larger airlines?
12:33 Icelandair's API-based content translation process
15:18 How composable and headless technology maximizes freedom for creative and developer teams

Icelandair's content (all of it - from flight destinations to marketing campaigns) was scattered across business teams and third-party agencies. Then this power trio took the reins and brought the process in-house, under control, and to a level of efficiency that allowed them to stay operational through all the chaos during Covid shutdowns and beyond. In the process they became the brand's "content center of excellence". In this episode, Icelandair's Óskar Völundarson, Edvardas Paskevicius, and Hallur Þór Halldórsson dive deep into their content process - so if your organization's content is a bit chaotic, this is a great listen. Or, if you are part of any team that could use some quality control, organization, process and structure, check out this episode to learn how to take the reins and become the managing authority of excellence yourself.

Timestamps:
01:18 What is the job of content at Icelandair?
02:02 The content team as intermediaries
02:39 "Before": What was the content landscape before Óskar and Edvardas joined the company?
04:23 "During": What transformed in the business, the culture, and the team, to allow change to take place?
06:06 "After": What does the content Center of Excellence look like today?
07:22 Troubleshooting: What Óskar and Edvardas do when something goes wrong in the content process
09:42 How can someone create their own Center of Excellence inside their organization?
10:19 Example of a well-oiled content excellence process
11:43 How the team ensures clear lines of communication
12:30 How to create, or earn, the authority to become arbiters of excellence

In this episode, Danielle shares her toolkit: How to make a game plan, get buy-in for that plan, and implement it effectively. She also shares the personal values that have made her successful, pitfalls to avoid when trying to change an enterprise, and advice for executives aiming for hyper-growth.

Timestamps:
1:10 Danielle's story - How she went from accountant to investor, CTO, and founder/CEO
3:40 Danielle answers "How do you do so many things at the same time?"
4:32 Two traits Danielle values in her ability to make an impact
5:52 What does it take to change an enterprise?
7:24 Advice for gathering intel that will bolster your change-making plan
8:24 Advice for anyone looking to make their mark on their enterprise
10:04 Danielle's "roadshow" strategy for getting buy-in for change
12:05 Advice for executives to enable your organization to move faster

In this episode, Danielle gives a masterclass on tech selection: how to set a technology strategy for something that's never been done before, how to "diagnose" failure points in a customer experience, and how a flexible architecture approach allowed The St. James to thrive during the pandemic - and become an industry leader in the meantime.

Timestamps:
1:14 What is The St James - and why its tech needed an overhaul
3:13 How Danielle diagnoses what needs to be "fixed" in the customer experience
5:15 How to make a plan for what to change
6:25 Danielle's 2 tips to select the right technology
8:45 The unfortunate "best in class" software at The St. James - what they did to change it and thrive during the pandemic
12:03 Survival in the health & wellness industry from a tech perspective
13:29 What businesses that are successful in their transformation do that others don't
14:41 Why you should challenge your assumptions about the IT department

In this episode, Danielle shares what she's learned as a first-time CEO about how to set people up for success, when to step in to fix something - and when to stay out of it, and her top strategy for building a culture of collaboration. Doing all this while building an industry-changing product is no mean feat, even without wearing three high-profile hats; but Danielle has a few tricks up her sleeve that you will want to steal - whether you are the CEO or you're just starting your career. These are strategies everyone can use to become a more effective team member and lead from within.

Timestamps:
1:04 How Sommsation is disrupting the wine-tasting industry
1:43 Danielle's journey to CEO
3:08 How Danielle approached stepping into the CEO role
4:00 The "3/3/3" trick to quickly upskill people and teams
5:40 How to decide when to intervene, or challenge your team to do better
7:30 The golden rule for how much to expect from your people
8:12 When to NOT intervene
10:47 Strategy to build culture - while accelerating strategy, planning, and alignment

Find out how Bob Howland, a seasoned transformation expert, helps enterprise teams to change: his strategies cover dealing with discomfort, side-stepping the "me vs you" mentality, plus a project he calls "the most embarrassing of his career" that helped rally the entire company around the need for change.

Timestamps:
0:11 Intro & Bob's story
2:27 Bob's big decision in the first days on the job that got the entire company to rally behind transformation
4:55 Did Bob need bravery to make change happen?
6:09 Bob defines "radical resiliency"
7:35 How Bob takes the "personal" out of the equation
9:35 What's the best way to get over resistance?
11:13 How Bob hacks knowledge sharing to get compelling data for creating successful change
13:48 What motivates Bob most

"Too often we build things and then we just let them sit. In all the important aspects of our life, we don't operate that way. So why would we think that a big technology project would be any different?"

In this episode, Bob Howland lays down your keys to success as a Chief Digital Officer. For his most recent success, Dawn Foods, Bob sketched out his ideal eCommerce architecture - which was a "composable commerce" stack before that term even existed - and built it in just 22 weeks (which was ahead of time & on budget). This is a massive enterprise transformation - Dawn Foods is a 4,000 people company, and prior to Bob, they had zero eCommerce infrastructure or expertise. Less than 6 months to a fully self-service eCommerce experience from scratch? Yup. And it doesn't stop there. Listen to find out Bob's top 5 lessons for CDOs.

Timestamps:

0:11 Intro & Dawn Foods story
2:08 Lesson 1: How to buy technology
5:13 Why Bob allocated more dev hours to post-launch than pre-launch
5:55 Taking internal opinions with a grain of salt
7:23 Handling the quality, cost, time, triangle
8:20 How Dawn Foods collects customer data (Voice of Customer)
9:30 Lesson 2: How to allocate your time
11:15 "But we're doing just fine" - pushing for change when you're already market leader
12:25 Lesson 3: How Bob gains credibility in the first 30 days in any company (30 doughnuts in 60 days)
14:56 Lesson 4: The importance of "disproof"
16:44 How to avoid offending people when you point out what needs to change - and get them to help you instead
20:53 Lesson 5: How (and why) to play the long game when it comes to transformation

Bob Howland ushered in a massive transformation as CDO at Dawn Foods. And it all started with him asking the board for a lot more money than they expected, and telling the CFO "we're never going to agree". Find out how he went from that, to this - a(another) highly successful, on-time, on-budget transformation under his belt. There is so much to learn from this short conversation - from how to create advocates, to how to handle bad news, to how to have the courage for tough conversations.

Please accept our excuses for the somewhat rough audio quality which suffered due to unforeseen circumstances - we promise future episodes of People Changing Enterprises will be much better!

Timestamps:

00:11 Intro - Bob's Story
02:03 Bob's first challenging conversation with his CFO
05:27 How Bob created a powerful advocate in the finance team to earn the trust of the CFO and the board
7:08 How Bob earned credibility in the company by working with the finance team
9:10 Why Bob advises being the bringer of bad news and how he does it
10:50 The importance of paying attention to data to spot potential difficult situations early
12:38 What to do when "the board doesn't get it" - how Bob works with board members to de-risk board approval meetings
15:18 Why having patience is the biggest virtue in dealing with potential blockers

Welcome to People Changing Enterprises. Meet your host, Jasmin Guthmann, as she shares why we started this show, who it's for (hint: it's you), and a preview of the goodness to come.