Digital ambition and roadmap

Context

The client, a large integrated business, was navigating a rapid period of change and growth—accelerated by the economic response to COVID-19 and the internal integration of its core business segments. While the organisation had strong foundations, this change exposed several constraints to growth, particularly around siloed processes, manual workarounds, and limited digital maturity. Digitisation was identified as a critical enabler for unlocking future business potential and driving long-term competitiveness.

Opportunity

To support it’s evolution, the client sought to define a clear digital ambition and strategic roadmap for the business. The brief focused on amplifying the customer and employee voice, while helping the client identify digital opportunities across internal operations, customer engagement, and supplier/supply chain effectiveness. The engagement needed to align leadership, surface pain points and opportunities, and provide a strong foundation for investment and prioritisation.

Outcome

The engagement delivered a clearly articulated digital ambition and a strategic roadmap underpinned by authentic insights from both customers and employees. By synthesising experiences across internal functions and external touchpoints, the team aligned business leaders around a shared digital vision. The roadmap now serves as a guiding document to inform decisions around investment, capability building, and sequencing, helping the client move forward with greater clarity, confidence, and cohesion in its digitisation journey.

Approach

We applied a design thinking lens to strategy development, blending qualitative research with co-design to shape a digital direction grounded in real-world needs.

Our process unfolded in three key phases:

1. Discovery and Research
   Conducted interviews, surveys, and contextual inquiry with over 50 employees, customers, and suppliers to understand current-state experiences, challenges, and unmet needs. The findings were thematically analysed and synthesised into clear design considerations—highlighting key opportunity areas and informing both the digital ambition and strategic roadmap.

2. Co-Design and Ambition Setting
   Facilitated two collaborative workshops with senior leadership to define the organisation’s digital ambition, identify strategic priorities, and build a shared understanding of what success should look like in a digital context. As part of this process, we introduced best-in-class case studies from relevant businesses to inspire thinking, spark discussion, and ground ambition in practical, forward-looking examples.

3. Roadmap Development
   Synthesised findings into a practical and strategic digital roadmap—identifying key initiatives, sequencing opportunities, and recommending next steps across people, process, and technology dimensions.

As the analyst and junior designer…

• Worked as part of a multidisciplinary team of four, collaborating closely with a manager, director, partner, and client stakeholders to ensure consistent alignment and delivery quality.

• Designed all key research and facilitation assets, including customer and employee surveys, interview discussion guides, workshop artefacts, and the final strategic deliverable pack.

• Facilitated interviews and co-design sessions with staff, customers, and client leaders—gathering, synthesising, and translating qualitative data into meaningful design insights.

• Supported project management and delivery operations, including scheduling, risk and quality management, status reporting, and billing support—ensuring smooth coordination and stakeholder communication.