Presented August 27, 2013 as part of the #TABridge webinar series. Learn more at http://tech.transparency-initiative.org

1. MANAGING THE UNEXPECTED
Be Ready for Change in Digital Strategy
TABridge Webinar | August 27, 2013
Jed Miller, T/AI
@jedmiller | #TABridge

2. Agenda
I.
What Do We Mean by Digital Strategy?
II.
Moving from Strategy to Activities
III.
Expectable Challenges
IV.
Surprises and Changes
V.
Managing the Unexpected
VI.
Stories from the Field
VII. Discussion
VIII. Key Lessons

3. Digital Strategy
Key Elements:
• Big-picture goal (“How will the world look different?”)
• What is the specific change you seek with this strategy?
• Who is your audience?
• Match the tools to your audience.
• Check your capacity: Is your organization ready?
• Create a roadmap.
• Create a technology vision.

4. Moving from Strategy to Activities
Key Elements:
• Technology plan: your tech vision, in actionable steps
• Shared expecations: Are campaigners, techies and managers
in sync?

5. “code”

6. Moving from Strategy to Activities
Key Elements:
• Technology plan: your tech vision, in actionable steps
• Shared expecations: Are campaigners, techies and managers
in sync?
• User-driven design for tools and user experience
• Timeline based on realism and shared expectations?
• Feedback: User tests, previews for team, before launch.
• Enthusiasm: You will set the tone.

7. Expectable Challenges
As with any challenge, the best remedy is prevention.

8. Expectable Challenges
Bureaucratic obstacles

9. Expectable Challenges
Technology glitches

10. Expectable Challenges
Scope “creep”

11. Expectable Challenges
“Human” delays

12. Expectable Challenges
• Bureaucratic obstacles
• Technology glitches
• Scope creep
• Human delays

13. The Unexpected

14. The Unexpected
Where did the surprise come from?
Within the project
(e.g., technology
or team)
Within the organization
(e.g., budget or management priorities)
The outside world
(e.g., political changes
or current events)

15. The Unexpected
Understand what the change was.
•
•
•
•
Slow Progress
Reduced (or Increased) Resources
New (or Shifting, or Drifting) Mandate
Change in Outside Context

16. Managing the Unexpected
Understand what you cannot change.

17. Managing the Unexpected
Understanding the change doesn’t change anything, but
it lets you know who to talk to.
• Managers
• Vendors
• Team
• Advisors
• Yourself

18. Managing the Unexpected
Communicate before, during and after you adjust the plan.
• Be realistic: If something has changed, don’t “kid yourself”
that it hasn’t.
• Be honest: Most problems don’t begin as mistakes, and
the ones that do get fixed sooner with clarity.
• Be flexible.
• Look forward.
• Lead.

19. Managing the Unexpected
Understand your role:

20. Managing the Unexpected
Understand your role: teacher

21. Stories from the Field
Global Witness
Social media doesn’t just need consumers, it needs creators.
www.globalwitness.org | @Global Witness

22. Stories from the Field
Sarah Schacht
When expectations differ, the first step is getting on the same page.
www.smore.com/kfc0 | @SarahSchacht

23. Discussion
Please ask a question. Share an anecdote.
• When was the last time you faced the unexpected in
a tech project?
• Have you ever realized you’d chosen the wrong tool?
• What do you do when people aren’t “on the same page?”
• When was the last time you realized your assumptions
needed to change?

24. Lessons
Strategy is more than a message, a tool and a plan. It’s
a series of assumptions, relationships and conversations.
Expect change. Change is the norm.
If your assumptions, relationships and conversations are
flexible, it is much easier to manage the unexpected.

25. Lessons
Changes are resolved in the realm of conversation.
Conversation isn't the follow up to the adjustment. It's the
primary tool for shifting your strategy effectively.

26. Lessons
Failure is feedback.
So listen carefully and adjust
accordingly.

27. Thank you!
@TAInitiative
@jedmiller
#TABridge
http://tech.transparency-initiative.org

28. Image credits
p. 8 Philip Roeland/Flickr
p. 10 Airplane! (1980, Paramount)
p. 11 Alain Delorme, Totems, 2010
p. 12 willytronics/Flickr
p. 17 Virtusincertus/Flickr
p. 20 Al Jazeera English/Flickr, Mauricio Lima/NYT, World Bank, J. Miller
p. 21 See More Do More/Flickr
p. 23 Washington State DOT
p. 26 The Big Durian/Flickr
p. 9, 14 attribution unknown