This digital maturity assessment will help make your non-profit fit for the 21st century market
As we start a new year, you may be reviewing your organisation’s targets, measuring progress and setting new goals. You’ll probably look at KPIs like engagement, donations or services delivered. But this year, you may want to add a new KPI to the list: progress towards digital maturity.
Introducing the digital maturity framework
When we talk about an organisation that’s digitally mature, we mean it’s fit to thrive in the 21st century. This looks different to different people, different organisations.
Back in 2015, I worked with a group of colleagues to develop a digital maturity assessment tool that set out our view on what digital maturity looks like. The result, the digital maturity framework, identifies 15 competencies that make up digital maturity. There are five levels for each competency, from level one, low maturity to level five, high maturity.
Working alongside this is the digital maturity assessment. The idea is to capture diverse views from across your organisation and pinpoint where you are on your journey towards digital maturity. The framework has three purposes:
Set the baseline
Once you know your starting point, you’re better positioned to make a plan: prioritise the most important changes your organisation needs to make across people, technology and processes. Then, from that baseline, you can measure and report progress over time.
Start conversations
The assessment tool isn’t scientifically robust. It’s not about the value of the numbers themselves but about the conversations they start. “Why did this stakeholder give this competency a high rating when another gave a low one?” By discussing these different experiences, you can find solutions and establish priorities as a team.
Centre people and experiences
The tool reminds us that digital maturity isn’t only about updating your technology for the 21st century. It’s also about how people throughout your organisation and hierarchy update their skills. How they work together to utilise the new technology in the most effective way.
Using this tool as part of your annual assessment helps you prioritise, track and report your progress towards digital maturity.
Digital maturity for 2024 and beyond: optimisation, digital transformation and agile principles
In 2020, we revisited the digital maturity assessment tool and made updates. Now, in response to the non-profit sector’s progress towards digital maturity, it’s time to review the tool again.
I’m looking at digital maturity through four lenses.
Audience-centricity
The first, the audience-centricity lens, isn’t new. I’m now making sure it’s firmly cutting through the whole framework.
Optimisation
The first new lens, which will be our focus for years to come, is optimisation. This means optimising user journeys to achieve higher conversions, a concept most organisations are now familiar with from acquisition via Meta. But due to the wealth of data organisations are collecting, optimisation of processes, products and strategy are also earning attention. In which part of an organisation do we see pilots and the test-and-learn approach?
Organisational transformation
The second new lens is organisational transformation. If digital maturity is a destination, then organisational transformation is the process which will get us there. To transform an organisation, you need to look at:
People (culture, mindset, ways of working, skills, training)
Processes (planning, business processes)
Systems (data, technology).
I’m considering an organisation’s approach to these three spheres as I set the new maturity levels.
I’m involved in a project where we’re looking to understand the pace of change in the non-profit sector. If you have thoughts on what might be holding your organisation back from digital transformation, we’d love to hear from you.
Agile principles
The third new lens is agile principles. They highlight the change that needs to happen to make an organisation capable of thriving in the 21st century. So, whether it’s self-managed teams, test-and-learn approach, experimentation and learning from mistakes, or data driven decision making, the digital maturity assessment tool must evaluate how much of this happens in organisations. This doesn’t mean using agile project management methodology across the organisation, it means distilling the principles behind the agile approach and bringing them to life in your organisation.
Now it’s your turn
You can use the digital maturity assessment to set your baseline. Then, work with your stakeholders to understand that baseline better and create a prioritised roadmap on how to grow towards digital maturity.
And if you need my advice and support on your journey to digital maturity, get in touch.
