Whatever the driver is: modernisation, cost pressure, acquisitions, or a new CEO with a new vision, you’ll eventually land in the same room, with the same questions hanging in the air:
How much is this going to cost? Are we ready for such a change?
You’ve got a vague goal, maybe a tech partner or two lined up, and a sea of opinions from every corner of the organisation; and yet, the project stalls. Resistance builds. Confidence fades. Sound familiar?
We’ve seen what doesn’t work, and what works! Let’s focus on that! Let’s walk through what actually works! Not just in theory, but in practice. This post is the blueprint we’ve used successfully in real-world projects all across Europe, regardless of industry, and it starts by making one thing very clear: Tech doesn’t get you buy-in. A structured approach does.
Whatever the driver, your story starts with four pillars!
We’ve seen dozens of initiatives succeed (and far too many fail) to learn that it almost always comes down to how early you lock in these four foundations:
- Business strategy: Speak in business language, not platform jargon. Tie the initiative to strategic goals.
- Stakeholder involvement: If they’re not in the room early, they’ll block you later.
- Roadmap: Even if it changes, you need something people can follow.
- ROI: Not just the big-picture dream. The first step. The next three months. Prove it early.
If you’re missing any of these, the whole thing starts to wobble. If you have them, you’re building with traction from day one.
How to do it? Read on!
Where are you? Be honest about your current state.
Here’s how we help teams find their footing. It’s simple, but brutally effective.
- Vision: Is there one? Is it shared across business and tech? Or are you chasing a vague “we need to modernise” mission? Prepare clear objectives and paint a picture, a story people are drawn to, in line with the company strategy.
- Business users: are they onboard? Or still clinging to Excel and self-built dashboards? Have they been consulted at all? Be honest about it, as it’ll be part of your plan to address it!
- Strategy: Do you know which use cases you’re betting on first? Do you know why? Do you have a list of use cases already? We’ll see how to obtain them in a minute.
- Management: Do they support the idea, or just signed off on the slide deck? We’ll address this as well.
- Experience: Has your team done this before? Or is this the first time anyone’s touched a similar initiative? We’ll prepare for this!
- Purpose: What are you actually trying to achieve in the first 6 months? A clear list is paramount!
This is how we cut through the fog. We call it business buy-in maturity mapping, and it turns hazy transformation buzzwords into something actionable. Know where you are, and ensure you have covered these 6 axis completely in the next step before starting further discussions. Now that you have the basics of where you stand, let’s move forward and elevate our position!
Workshop it! That’s where momentum starts!
Once you’ve mapped where you are, the next step is simple: Get everyone in the same room.
Literally. Or virtually. Doesn’t matter. Just run a focused, no-fluff workshop that walks through six things:
- Context: What’s driving this, and why now?
- Skills: What do you actually have in-house? Where are the gaps?
- Business cases: What use cases are people already excited about? Which ones matter? Which structure can we foresee for these use cases? Who will own them?
- Framework: How do we structure ownership, delivery, and communication?
- Tech: What’s usable today? What’s coming? What’s realistic to change?
- Roadmap: What do the next 30, 90, 180 days look like? What’s the ROI coming after this first phase?
We’ve done this with every industry, from biotech firms trying to fix fragmented R&D data, with logistics players untangling reporting chaos, and with retailers aiming to bring governance and self-service into balance.
It works. Every time. Because it’s not about tools, it’s about clarity and people. People need to feel they are heard and that they are part of something bigger than themselves!
Is it a single workshop? Definitely not! In most cases, somewhere between 10 to 20 workshops are run across a couple of days, covering all the axis above. The result? All the information you need to support an initiative backed by the Business and aligned to strategic goals!
Now that we know what to do, let’s look at what not to do!
Pitfalls to avoid
You can have the perfect plan, but here’s how people still get it wrong:
- They don’t ask for help. Pride kills momentum. Outside perspective buys time. If you’re not familiar with facilitating workshops to get business buy-in: ask for help, facilitation is inexpensive.
- They skip business involvement. You can’t “sell it” to them later. They need to co-own it now. We can’t preach this enough!
- They pick the wrong use case. If it’s too big or too vague, you won’t deliver anything soon. If it’s too simple, you won’t prove that it’ll work at scale or that it’s valuable. It’s a balancing act, but the first use case is arguably the most important one! Pick one of medium size, medium complexity, and high impact. Here’s a secret: pick the people, not just the use case. Excited people willing to collaborate will bring you more positive business advocates. Choosing the right use case with the wrong team (that is already showing resistance) IS a common mistake.
- They ignore change. Change management isn’t just about training, it’s about trust, habits, and ownership. If you don’t guide people through the shift, they’ll quietly resist it, revert to old tools, and stall adoption. No roadmap survives its first contact with reality without change management.
So what’s next? First contributions matter!
That’s why we don’t just leave you with theory. We’ve built a starter kit with the actual tools you’ll need to align, structure, and deliver your first success:
- Before starting checklist: What you should have before going to that stakeholders meeting!
- Data product opportunity canvas: The cornerstone of every data products’ oriented workshop.
- Data business case card: Turning data initiatives into use cases in business language.
- Roadmap template: To visually showcase where you’ll be going and instil confidence with clarity.
- Data products myth buster card: If you’ll move into data product thinking, trust us, you’ll need it.
- ROI calculation sheet: To show what the initiative concretely saves or earns.
The point is simple: get that first contribution right. Build it well, get it noticed, and make sure it’s aligned with both business ambition and technical feasibility. And most of all: it’s welcomed by everyone!
That’s how you win trust. That’s how you get funding. That’s how you go from “nice idea” to “when can we roll this out globally?” By having the people backing you!
Download the full starter kit. Or don’t! Just know that every day without alignment, you’re bleeding time, trust, and momentum 😉