Content roundup: Our top 10 stories from 2021
We’ve kept our finger on the pulse of the biggest trends throughout the year to understand what is most important for our customers and how they can prepare for what’s coming around the corner. With 2021 coming to a close, we are taking a look back on our blog posts, reports and articles from the past year worth reading, rereading, and sharing with others.
1. Should I Use the Business Model Canvas or the Lean Canvas? from the Emergn blog
Tools like the Business Model Canvas became increasingly popular within large enterprises in 2021. An adaptation of the canvas, the Lean Canvas, is also a highly useful method for assessing the business case for new products and services. Check out this blog, our top viewed post of the year, if you’re unsure of which to use.
2. Automation Adoption is up, but Challenges Persist from VentureBeat
Our 2021 report found that while ROI was high for automation in the enterprise, it wasn’t being leveraged to create new products. A majority of the barriers preventing organizations from seeing positive impacts from automation are related to people, while better guidance around best practices for implementation has the potential to ensure greater ROI from automation.
3. 7 Steps to Building an Agile Organization from the Emergn blog
Agile often requires changes far beyond the development process or teams, and without preparation, the efforts falter and stumble. Inspired by the work of several leading thinkers as well as by our own experience, here are our own 7 key steps to Agile transformation.
4. Early and Often: the Secrets to Product Success from Mind the Product
There are over 30,000 new products introduced every year, and 95% fail. It’s not enough to just make a product for the sake of it—organizations need to build the right products by delivering value early and leveraging customer feedback. With a discovery mindset, product teams are poised to release successful products to market.
5. VFQ Foundations: The 3 Practices Essential for a Discovery Mindset from the Emergn blog
Enterprises today need to embrace what we call a ‘discovery mindset’ – a way of thinking about the context around customers and markets that emphasizes continuous learning – and, in turn, produces more intuitive solutions. We’ve laid out our 3 essential practices that are the foundation of a discovery mindset to help you discover the best way to bring more unique, customer-centric ideas to life.
6. You Upgrade Your Technology, So Why Not Upskill Your IT Staff? from Forbes
This year, enterprises faced major challenges in employee attrition, retention, and the growing skills gap. To address this, many organizations are overlooking the valuable assets they already possess: their existing employees. Emergn CEO, Alex Adamopoulos advises that rather than searching for new people, enterprises must create a path of learning for employees to keep up with the pace of change.
7. From Projects to Products: 5 Ways Leaders Can Think Differently About Delivering Value from the Emergn blog
Teams need to move from a project- to a product-focus mindset to improve the speed of product delivery and enable innovation. Here are 5 shifts that organizations need to work on in order to embrace this new method.
8. CIO, CTO, CDO—Who Does What In Digital Transformation? from StrategicCIO360
As more companies embark on digital transformation, the roles of CIOs and CTOs are increasingly blending. In this Q&A, Emergn’s Chief Technology Officer Fredrik Hagstroem shares practical advice for how CIOs and CTOs can work together to build a digital business model. He highlights the importance of leaders working toward the same overarching goals so they can collaborate to institute the right elements for success.
9. Building a Community from the Emergn Careers blog
Communities are important to companies and employees as a means of solving difficult problems, sharing knowledge across the organization, and nurturing talent. Nevertheless, creating a successful community is not easy. It takes more than a name, some meeting invitations, and a dedicated messaging channel for a community to come to life.
10. Why Learning by Doing is Key to Accelerating Change from the Emergn blog
VFQ education is based on the idea of learning by doing. It’s a simple idea, but an extremely complex process that’s different for everyone. To really understand how new ways of working can be implemented, you need to practice. This blog explains why this is not something you can truly learn just in the classroom or by reading books.
We hope you gain insight from these pieces that you can take into next year. We look forward to providing more resources to help you stay at the forefront of emerging trends.
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