Sam Page
← All thinking

My doodle after recently chatting with a CEO about how they can align…

Customer experience2 min readSam Page

My doodle after recently chatting with a CEO about how they can align digital/technology to enable where the organisation is going. Part of our monthly catch-up to help each other keep things on track.

They've set a vision for the organisation, and a strategic plan for the future.

They are also very clear on the fact that they need to use technology and AI, and digital more broadly, to deliver a more personalised and smarter experience for their customers.

But where to go from here?

Their gut instinct was telling them that deploying a large technology solution, wasn't necessarily going to be the right answer.

It's a really common challenge, and I often hear and see companies trying approaches that aren't working:

  • Deploying platforms that promise to deliver change, but then fail to do so when they are in place.

  • Wrangling with data, but never actually getting anything useful from it.

  • Giving everyone in the organisation AI, but then finding that everyone is pulling in different directions, or overlapping initiatives with different outcomes.

  • Focussing on what the business wants, but then finding it doesn't deliver results.

None of these really work, because they are going about things the wrong way round.

The trick is to start with the customer.

    1. What value are your customers looking for from you?

It could be solving a service problem, or introducing something new.
It could be a nice moment of delight.

Work it out internally (which is very hard as you are looking inside-out), go out and speak to your customers, or bring in external expertise to help provide an outside-in lens. Something we love to do at 7DOTS.

-- 2. Sense check this against the organisation vision/strategy/plan.

No point working on something that doesn't align with where you are going. But also use it to check where you are going? If you are finding what your customers want, is different to where you are going, it might be time to question the direction!!!

--- 3. Look at the workflows in the organisation where you can add the value.

---- 4. Within those, find the use cases and proofs of concepts to test and improve.

----- 5. Then... and only then, work out the technology and data you need, alongside the people and processes that will enable things to happen.

Using that lens not only gets the right outcome, but in my experience, also leads to a team aligned and excited about the changes you are making.

You will end up with a digital experience that serves your customers and delivers value for your business.

First published on LinkedIn.

More on customer experience

One email, every Friday.

What happened this week, what I'm thinking about, and one takeaway for yours.

GEThttps://sam-page.com/thinking/my-doodle-after-recently-chatting-with-a-ceo-about-how-they-can-align.mdtext/markdown; charset=utf-8

---
title: "My doodle after recently chatting with a CEO about how they can align…"
url: https://sam-page.com/thinking/my-doodle-after-recently-chatting-with-a-ceo-about-how-they-can-align
date: 2026-09-28
author: Sam Page
type: Post or article
categories: [Customer experience, Emerging tech and AI]
reading_time: 2 min
summary: "My doodle after recently chatting with a CEO about how they can align digital/technology to enable where the organisation is going. Part of our monthly catch-up to help each other keep…"
first_published: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7510379597796884482
---

# My doodle after recently chatting with a CEO about how they can align…

My doodle after recently chatting with a CEO about how they can align digital/technology to enable where the organisation is going. Part of our monthly catch-up to help each other keep things on track.

![](https://sam-page.com/img/thinking/my-doodle-after-recently-chatting-with-a-ceo-about-how-they-can-align-li1.webp)

They've set a vision for the organisation, and a strategic plan for the future.

They are also very clear on the fact that they need to use technology and AI, and digital more broadly, to deliver a more personalised and smarter experience for their customers.

But where to go from here?

Their gut instinct was telling them that deploying a large technology solution, wasn't necessarily going to be the right answer.

It's a really common challenge, and I often hear and see companies trying approaches that aren't working:

- Deploying platforms that promise to deliver change, but then fail to do so when they are in place.

- Wrangling with data, but never actually getting anything useful from it.

- Giving everyone in the organisation AI, but then finding that everyone is pulling in different directions, or overlapping initiatives with different outcomes.

- Focussing on what the business wants, but then finding it doesn't deliver results.

None of these really work, because they are going about things the wrong way round.

The trick is to start with the customer.

- 1. What value are your customers looking for from you?

It could be solving a service problem, or introducing something new.  
It could be a nice moment of delight.

Work it out internally (which is very hard as you are looking inside-out), go out and speak to your customers, or bring in external expertise to help provide an outside-in lens. Something we love to do at 7DOTS.

-- 2. Sense check this against the organisation vision/strategy/plan.

No point working on something that doesn't align with where you are going. But also use it to check where you are going? If you are finding what your customers want, is different to where you are going, it might be time to question the direction!!!

--- 3. Look at the workflows in the organisation where you can add the value.

---- 4. Within those, find the use cases and proofs of concepts to test and improve.

----- 5. Then... and only then, work out the technology and data you need, alongside the people and processes that will enable things to happen.

Using that lens not only gets the right outcome, but in my experience, also leads to a team aligned and excited about the changes you are making.

You will end up with a digital experience that serves your customers and delivers value for your business.