During a strategic inflection point, there are key pieces of the research and discovery phase that should not be overlooked.

• Refine the ideas you have, propose theories, and settle on the next course of action. This shouldn’t play out as a “design by committee” situation where everyone in an organization has a say—take a page from Stora Enso’s playbook, which reinvented itself by establishing a dedicated, interdepartmental transformation team to tackle their most pressing challenges.
• Experiment on the high-priority items that surface. Use available data to determine what are true, deal-breaking pain points for your customers versus nice-to-haves.
• Use empathy to truly understand where your customers are coming from. Empathetic organizations take the time to speak with customers, listen to them, and respond in a way that genuinely addresses concerns. They are proactive about issues rather than waiting for angry calls or emails.

  Show your customers that you genuinely care, all the way from when they call in with a complaint, to how you shape your product to fit their needs.

• Define the changes that will be made based on your testing and findings. Determine the scope and impact of what you’ll be doing, how it rolls out, and what you expect the results to be.
• Ideate throughout the entire process. Make small yet important adjustments to your impending rollout, and track the revolutionary ideas that could be used in future projects.