Digital transformation (DX) has been a high priority for CIOs, CTOs, and the organizations they lead for years. And for good reason: the benefits of a fully realized digital transformation extend across the enterprise. Infrastructure is fully modernized, teams can move faster and more efficiently, and data is seamlessly turned into insights. It is a fundamental remake of how organizations discover, deliver, and manage innovation. For traditional or legacy companies looking to navigate the new, often harsh realities of a digital-first economy, DX is an essential process.
Despite the wide-ranging benefits of digital transformation, one group of companies is notably absent from the DX debate: digital native brands (DNBs). These dynamic companies are rooted in modern infrastructure and premium customer experiences that are built to thrive in a digital-first world. Unlike traditional or legacy organizations that are focused on digital transformation, digital native brands like Ritual have the technology and workflows in place to understand their customers and quickly deliver new products that delight them.
But digital native brands often operate in extremely challenging markets, with customers that can switch to a competitor at the tap of a button. Fewer than .5% of DNBs reach $100 million in revenue, and more than 90% never break the million-dollar mark. Sustaining growth in this hyper-competitive industry is an ongoing technological and data challenge, even for the most digitally-savvy organizations. To survive, DNBs need to understand the groundwork being laid by companies currently undergoing digital transformation if they are to survive in the long-term.
One of the primary goals of digital transformation is breaking the silos that disconnect the development process from the user experience. These silos result in frustrating user experiences, lackluster applications or websites that don’t fit user needs, or slower innovation cycles. Though digital native brands are grounded in building great customer experiences, ensuring that these silos don’t emerge is essential for DNBs as they evolve their product offerings and their user experience.
A test automation platform that can be integrated with popular developer and CX tools ensures that companies can maintain their user-centric culture, even as they grow and evolve. For Ritual, integrating mabl’s test automation platform with customer data platform Segment unleashed a new level of “obsession” for quality across their website. The integration allows the QA team to track production data from their web application in real time, so when customer behavior shifts, Ritual can adapt their software testing strategy accordingly. This ensures that QA and development resources are used more efficiently and are directed towards customer needs.
Consumers gravitate towards digital native brands for premium experiences that feel seamless across devices, browsers, and applications. But as digital transformation shows, having a delightful customer experience now does very little to guarantee happy customers in the next six months, year, or five years. Building a scalable and adaptable quality engineering practice in the short-term lays the foundation for long-term evolution as consumer preferences shift.
Identifying test automation platforms that can help scale software testing across different aspects of the customer experiences gives development organizations the ability to quickly adapt to changing customer preferences. If consumers decide overnight to start browsing on Microsoft Edge via Bing, cross-browser tests that can be reused across multiple browsers and executed in parallel ensure they’ll still enjoy shopping on a brand’s website. Incorporating non-functional testing like accessibility checks and performance testing further empowers development teams to proactively manage the user experience while still maintaining a lean infrastructure. As the population ages and attention spans get shorter, digital native brands can continue to compete - and win - based on quality experiences.
One of the most surefire ways to avoid the next generation of digital transformation: building development pipelines that help the company evolve in real-time. As digital native brands navigate competitive markets, quickly changing consumer expectations, and technological shifts, being able to build new products quickly and confidently is a critical competitive advantage. Effective test coverage delivers that confidence.
When developers, product owners, and quality engineers trust that testing covers the full customer journey, everyone can deploy new innovations with confidence. Comprehensive end-to-end testing, regression testing, API testing, and non-functional testing gives development teams the freedom to leverage emerging technologies like AI and cloud without worrying about harming the user experience. That investment in quality now helps ensure that digital native brands can maintain their delightful UX for the long-term, even as new technologies are adopted by the enterprise and by consumers.
Join us at mabl Experience 2023 to hear how leading digital native brands are navigating technological and consumer shifts. You’ll learn how quality engineering is helping their teams maintain excellent customer experiences and lean, efficient development pipelines in this highly competitive industry. Save your seat!