Companies have learned that pioneers do not wait for the "new normal" but shape it themselves. Big changes require courageous leadership - and the prioritization of technology. It is not just about continuing to run the business, but also about breaking down conventions and creating a new vision for the future.
Business and technology strategies will be indivisibly linked. In fact, they will become indistinguishable from each other.
Companies around the world have been rapidly driving their digital transformation. These changes and a sudden proliferation of new technologies have ushered in a new era in business - one in which architecture is more important than ever, and competition in industries is based on different technology stacks. The impact of technological innovation and business decisions on corporate strategy, productivity and performance, digital commerce and assets is huge and proven by many recent examples.
Every company today is also a technology company
Companies focus on technology-based innovations in all sectors to strengthen their competitive position. Examples such as Nike, Bosch or BMW impressively demonstrate the path of transformation and how advantages can be capitalized.
Particular importance is attached to technological change and performance in combination with genuine creative will and entrepreneurial spirit. Leaders must drive innovation across all areas of the business.
Opportunities through technological change
Undeniably, technology is becoming increasingly democratized, and this offers every company the opportunity to make all employees and leaders a central part of digital transformation. However, to be successful in this, leaders need to drive innovation across all areas of the business.
It's not just about making new tools accessible to employees. Companies must also actively teach them to think like a "technologist".
Companies and employees are steering together into a new future.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), distributed ledgers and data(bases) and a multitude of other technologies and solutions are circulating and want to be managed, curated and implemented accordingly.
New set-up requires new roles
To manage change, we need to break down learned methods and adapt roles and responsibilities. Change requires new roles, and one new role is particularly important: the Technical Product Owner (Tech PO). He:she plays a key role in identifying business opportunities, requirements related to external factors such as competitors and internal factors like a company's IT landscape.
The Technical Product Owner is the person who turns visions and business decisions into technical reality. He:she is creating a new entrepreneurial history. Leadership excellence and architecture solutions combined will lead to success and will expand previous methods and models.
A Tech PO is much more than a software architect. He:she plays different roles and manages related teams to extraordinary results.
The role requires a lot. Tech POs spend much of their time coordinating ongoing activities and balancing the needs of all parties involved. Therefore, they require excellent communication skills. Sure, you must listen to what your stakeholders want, but you need to do more than process information – it is your task to discover those latent needs that your client or user has not even imagined yet.
The storyteller in the team
Great technical POs go beyond, and the mission is to think about what will transform these stories into a product feature that delights your stakeholders, clients or user.
Let's be honest: Even though only one person is supposed to be the product owner, it is almost impossible for a single person to manage everything alone. If things start slipping through the cracks, you start to see teams creating additional parallel roles.
Cocomore's approach
Therefore, we have created the technical PO role to compensate for product owners who do not see themselves as technical leaders and to bridge the way to the development unit with architecture competence. This is a consistent path from our own development, and we aspire for this co-entrepreneurial attitude to be pervasive throughout our company.
Cocomore is creating the position of Tech POs (in short: CO/TPO), and these roles make innovations for our clients become technical reality through leading-edge software architectures and consequent implementation.
