If your team has been spinning out on your organization's digital transformation or the implementation of a product model, it’s easy to see the temptation of a canned plan. It’s billed as turnkey and can get your team out of the weeds quickly, right? Wrong. Here’s what it takes to create a successful transformation and implementation.

When a leadership team decides that they want to take on the hard work of a digital transformation, sometimes they think that it’s all about IT — modernizing the tech stack, creating seamless data flows, leveraging new tools, etc. We all know that’s not the whole story. It’s not a true transformation unless you’re taking on the entirety of the people, process and technology ecosystem inside of your organization.

This article explores the importance of Empowered Execution, why large organizations struggle with it, and how to build a team-based organizational structure and employee empowerment. Because without this core mindset, your teams and the organization are likely to fumble through transformation.

In this episode of Constant Variables, I break down how digital transformation is not just a technology integration, but a people and process integration, that ultimately delivers a more valuable customer and employee experience in every part of a business.

Jen joins Jim Cuene on the Business Drivers podcast to dig into what it actually takes to lead a digital product transformation — and why the hardest part has nothing to do with technology. They explore the emotional intelligence required to navigate organizational change, what's really going on inside the "frozen middle," and why the skills Jen learned studying adult learning and development turn out to be exactly what transformation work demands.

Jen joins Kathy Hollenhorst and Gino Giovannelli on In the Key of D to discuss digital risk and reward, how she helps companies integrate digital into their business strategy, and why projects end but products endure. The conversation covers everything from what holds companies back from meaningful digital integration to what it actually looks like to bring Agile principles out of IT and into the whole organization.

Jen joins Kurt Schmidt on the Schmidt List podcast to explore two skills that don't always get talked about together: networking and negotiation — and why both are essential to a product management career. Speaking from her role at the time as VP of Digital Product Management at Optum, Jen shares how she's built and sustained meaningful professional communities, and why taking ownership of your own growth is the only strategy that actually works.