Digital strategy consulting & product planning
From Wicked Problem To Great App
A great application comes from a deep understanding of your challenges first—and an agile, iterative plan for how to solve them.
At MercuryWorks, we align a strong product vision with user needs. For more than 20 years, we’ve been a strategic partner for businesses looking to solve problems with software.
A little vision goes a long way
Product Planning
As Agile digital strategy consultants, we don’t believe in thick documents that attempt to define a long horizon; we aim for vision and a tight MVP definition. Starting from a focus on the relevant value stream, we progress through discovery of existing processes or conception of new ones. This functional planning articulates a path forward out of the problem space.
Tech Architecture Planning
In parallel with intense product investigation, technical planning takes a deep dive into potential technology stacks, architectural patterns, and related infrastructure. Technology architecture planning always ties back to product strategy, but it also bridges existing technology context to fully cover data, cloud infrastructure, and security strategies.
Core Digital Transformation Strategy & Planning Elements
Every business problem is different, and so are the methods, tools, and digital strategy consulting practices to solve it. However, here are some approaches we often apply to move from problem to implementation plan:
AssessmentResearching (or defining) the problem space’s value stream, understanding key jobs to be done, and diving into business context and priorities always comes first in a comprehensive digital strategy
ArchitectureStarting with existing technology context and infrastructure preferences, we recommend technical architecture informed by tech stack, architectural patterns, and cloud strategy
DesignFrom wireframes to mockups, we define and propose interface design and user experience, which is then reviewed and refined to form a vision and plan for eventual application development
RoadmapCombining product vision, technical architecture, interface design, and business priorities, a high level but strategically-sequenced roadmap enables us to arrive at the appropriate MVP and potential follow-on phases
Strategic PlanThe final strategic plan dives deeper than the roadmap and into user stories, effort sizing, tooling and potential manpower options to arrive at a fully realizable MVP implementation plan
Digital transformation strategy examples
Wireframes help us quickly investigate interface options, flesh out approaches to user experience, and loosely define user interface design concepts prior to investment in high fidelity mockups.
Technical architecture diagrams, from block diagrams to data schema diagrams to cloud infrastructure schematics, help stakeholders visualize the planned technical strategy and provide a clear roadmap for the eventual implementation team
An MVP implementation plan and timeline diagram lays out the expectations for stakeholders and offers a single source of truth for collaborating on scope adjustments and priority refinement
What happens after the Digital Transformation Plan?
Following a thorough digital strategy and planning engagement, a clear MVP development plan that covers vision, backlog, technical architecture and initial user experience can handshake directly into development.
Whether development will be done by MercuryWorks staff or client resources, the acid test of a digital strategy consulting engagement is the ease of communicating the problems space, vision, and plan of attack to the assigned software development team.
Here are key points we address on the path from plan to development:
- Substantial changes to the problems space since plan creation
- Finding ways to delight the client beyond the development plan
- Selecting or assisting the client in staffing a fully functional Scrum team
Sound like a sane way to approach digital strategy and planning
Then you want MercuryWorks to plan your next application or key business system. Whether your need centers around web applications, mobile applications, or the process automation space, we’ve got you covered.