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The Sound of Innovation: Digital Transformation Told Through a Story About Apple Music
15 October 2024
Agile Workflows
Digital Transformation
First covered by Scott M. Graffius in 2017¹, this article provides a refreshed and expanded coverage of digital transformation. It features Apple Music and reports key steps, business benefits, and how agile can help deliver results quickly.
Digital transformation is about leveraging data and connectivity to change how the business competes and adds value. Leaders who don’t seize this opportunity will see their organization's business value erode.
Digital transformation involves three key steps:
- Convert data to insight. Collect, analyze, and make sense of data.
- Impart insight to action. Leverage the insight as an action within a business process or other application.
- Convert action to outcome. Invent new or reinvent existing business processes or models, creating a stronger value proposition.
Next, the three key points will be told in a story involving Apple Music. In this section, the author takes some creative liberties, providing an imaginative narrative on aspects of Apple Music in the story.
1. Convert Data to Insight
Think about data as raw material. It’s abundant and surrounds us in every corner of the digital world. However, data itself is meaningless until we shape it into something valuable. Picture Apple Music. It’s not just a streaming platform; it’s an engine of understanding. Millions of users interact with it daily, generating considerable data—what customers listen to, when, how often, and in what context.
Simply listing the numbers is easy. But Apple’s ability to take those numbers and extract a story sets it apart. Recently, the platform noticed an emerging trend—users in certain regions were gravitating toward playlists that combined the energy of hip-hop with the soul of country music. Apple wasn’t pushing it; it’s something the data indicated. The insight? People wanted to explore new, exciting combinations. By converting data to insight, Apple unlocked the possibility of giving people something they didn’t even know they wanted.
2. Impart Insight to Action
Insights are powerful, but their value is only realized when implemented. At Apple Music, insights aren't just theoretical—they’re the fuel that drives the entire experience. Once Apple understood that its listeners were craving a blend of genres like hip-hop and country, it didn’t stop at that realization. It transformed that insight into action.
Apple Music used this discovery to create curated playlists like 'Hip-Hop Meets Country.' But it didn’t stop there. By integrating this insight into the recommendation engine, it began offering personalized mixes deeper than surface-level tastes. Now, when a listener opens the app, it’s as if Apple Music has anticipated their mood and vibe, and it offers them a playlist that feels like it was made just for them. Insight, when applied to action, transforms a passive experience into something that feels intuitive, almost magical. That’s the kind of experience that Apple is after.
3. Convert Action to Outcome
Action, however, is just the bridge. The final step in this transformation is turning that action into real outcomes. Let’s stay with the Apple Music example. By continuously analyzing user preferences and using those insights to evolve offerings, Apple creates a deeper connection with the listener. The results are tangible. Listeners spend more time on the platform, they engage more with playlists, and they discover artists they might never have encountered otherwise.
But beyond just engagement, there’s a greater outcome at play—customer loyalty. People don’t just use Apple Music; they feel like it understands them. That’s the outcome of translating insight into action, and then nurturing it until it becomes a better product. With every new feature and update, Apple reinforces that value. When done right, Apple Music is not just creating playlists; it’s building relationships, trust, and ultimately, legacy.
Digital transformation can result in significant benefits including one or more of the following:
- Enhanced customer experience and loyalty
- Innovation and improved competitive advantage
- Achieve faster return on investment (ROI)
- Better products/services
- Faster time-to-market
- Reduced waste
- Cost reduction
- Increased profit margins
- Secure and expand market share
- Enhanced operational agility
Digital transformation is about revolutionizing the way business is done, and an agile approach can help teams adapt and deliver value quickly. That supports innovation and success in a rapidly evolving world.
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About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, an expert on teamwork tradecraft, an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms, a creator, a consultant and contractor, a trainer, a researcher, an award-winning author (Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions and Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change), and an international public speaker.
Visit ScottGraffius.com to learn more about Scott.
Footnotes
¹ Graffius, Scott M. (2017, October 3). 7 Business Benefits of Digital Transformation and How Agile Can Help Deliver Results Quickly. ScottGraffius.com. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/7-Business-Benefits-of-Digital-Transformation-and-How-Agile-Can-Help-Deliver-Results-Quickly.html.
Bibliography/References
- Apple (2015, June 8). Introducing Apple Music — All The Ways You Love Music. All in One Place. Available at: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2015/06/08Introducing-Apple-Music-All-The-Ways-You-Love-Music-All-in-One-Place-/.
- Davenport, Thomas H., & Redman, Thomas C. (2020, May 21). Digital Transformation Comes Down to Talent in 4 Key Areas. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2020/05/digital-transformation-comes-down-to-talent-in-4-key-areas.
- Exceptional Agility (2023, April 10). What's the Future of Agile? Available at: https://exceptionalagility.com/blog/files/the-future.html.
- Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions (2024, January 5). Leverage the Phases of Team Development -- Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning -- to Help Your Teams be Happier and More Productive: 2024 Update. Available at: https://www.exceptional-pmo.com/blog/files/team-development-2024.html.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2024, May 3). Leverage Agile and AI to Innovate at the Speed of Light [Workshop]. Session delivered at a private/corporate event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.30790.48960.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2023, June 29). What Successful AI Teams Have in Common [Presentation]. Talk delivered at Conf42 Quantum Computing 2023 Conference. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29382.45120.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2023, May 1). Fueling the Development of Innovative and Life-Changing AI Solutions [Presentation]. Talk delivered to an audience of Technology professionals (including Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, Data Engineers, AI Researchers, Project Managers, Business Analysts, UX Designers, Software Developers, Cloud Architects, Data Privacy and Security Specialists, and others involved or interested in AI) at a private event in Mountain View, California, United States. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.27956.73601.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2019). Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2018, October 18). Agile Scrum Helps Innovators, Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs Develop and Deliver Products at Astounding Speed Which Drives Competitive Advantage [Presentation]. Talk delivered at Techstars Startup Week Conference. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.25009.12647.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2017, October 3). 7 Business Benefits of Digital Transformation and How Agile Can Help Deliver Results Quickly. ScottGraffius.com. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/7-Business-Benefits-of-Digital-Transformation-and-How-Agile-Can-Help-Deliver-Results-Quickly.html.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2016). Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.
- Kerzner, Harold (2022). Innovation Project Management: Methods, Case Studies, and Tools for Managing Innovation Projects (Second Edition). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Kraus, S., Durst, S., Ferreira J. J., Veiga, P., Kailer, N., & Weinmann, A. (2022). Digital transformation in business and management research: An overview of the current status quo. International Journal of Information Management, 63 (4): 1-18. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2021.102466.
- Lamarre, E., Chheda, S., Riba, M., Genest, V., & Nizam, A. (2023). The Value of Digital Transformation. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2023/07/the-value-of-digital-transformation.
- Morsa, Luigi (2022, July 7). Agile. Creativity. Innovation. International Institute for Learning. Available at: https://blog.iil.com/agile-creativity-innovation/.
- Nadkarni, S., & Prügl, R. (2021). Digital Transformation: A Review, Synthesis, and Opportunities for Future Research. Management Review Quarterly, 71: 233-341. DOI: 10.1007/s11301-020-00185-7.
- Vial, G. (2019). Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda, The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28 (2): 118-144. DOI: 10.1016/J.JSIS.2019.01.003.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, October 15). The Sound of Innovation: Digital Transformation Told Through a Story About Apple Music. AgileScrumGuide.com. Available at: https://agilescrumguide.com/blog/files/digital-transformation-featuring-apple-music.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.27718.28489.
Content Acknowledgements
Apple and Apple Music names are the property of Apple, Inc.
Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
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