Empathy is the ability to understand and adapt to others’ feelings. Architecture is a design and building process. When combined, empathetic architecture in digital transformation is the ability to understand how the organisation can be re-worked and re-purposed to align with what is architected for the future state. 

“For too long, as technologists, we’ve designed a future state which is based on the newest or most interesting technologies without considering what we have today,” said Boyle. He believes that considering the existing state of a system is the number one issue of digital transformation that needs to be tackled. 

Boyle then turned the question to the crowd at the summit, asking them to raise their hands if they’ve had a struggle with their digital transformation experience at some point. About three quarters of the hands in the room shot up.

This, Boyle pointed out, was consistent with findings from research done by McKinsey & Company, which found that only one third of organisations that have launched a digital transformation campaign have realised their expected revenue benefits. What, Boyle ponders, is why — or rather, why not?

“There is palpable tension at the heart of organisations, the core organisations’ activities haven’t necessarily changed, but the operating environment around it has to overcome the inertia and cost of legacy systems, whilst becoming nimble and adapting the latest and greatest technologies,” he said. 

He also points out that organisations could be operating on the backdrop of mergers, acquisitions, and countless reorganisations that shift their strategy and products, leading to a jumbled architectural landscape. 

On top of this, when talking about digital transformation, Boyle noticed that organisations often let “tech talk” dominate the conversation. “We’re not being empathetic to the capabilities that we have today and understanding what we really need,” he says. 

Sustainable Structures

Part of the push for this is recognising that although the system we design for digital transformation is not a bridge or a building, the software still persists through time. Much like refurbishing old physical structures like bridges and buildings, the same care needs to be considered in legacy software or organisational systems. 

“Most organisations are not a blank canvas and we’re grappling between the past, the current and the future state, as part of our digital transformations. We’re absolutely excellent at designing the future as a silo. We really do need to consider the present and the past.”

He stressed the need for sustainability in digital transformation. “It’s a big word, and it often evokes visions of carbon emissions or raw materials,” he says. “In this context, sustainability is in changing organisations and developing sustainable architectures that can transition through time.”

Building on this point, Boyle likened it to an opera house that was repurposed from an old warehouse. Much like the warehouse, some code or standards organisations utilise may be superseded and is not fulfilling the needs of products it was not originally designed for. Essentially, the commercial environment of the organisation has moved on. 

Where the transformation of the opera house collides with software, is that these structures exist to be repurposed and extended. Boyle emphasises that when something is designed with empathy and consideration, one looks directly at what function the building serves and how it makes the person feel. 

Even when considering scaling traffic or repurposing a system for a new use case, always start with the intended purpose of the space, and recognise efficient systemic change will come from identifying the use case of the building for the user. 

Recommended reading

• UK Construction Firms Face Cyberattack Following Dark Web Data Leak
• OPINION: Can Technology Transformation Enable A Customer Led Business?
• Leader Insights | Can Industry 4.0 Help Scotland Build Back Better?

Making the Moves

The shift however, to updating these systems, is not quick, but spread out. “In software we require interim architectures through time to get us to the eventual target,” he said. 

To move forward, Boyle says, one must ask what the incompatibilities are with the current and target architecture, and how can the incompatibilities be resolved.

“So in resolving these incompatibilities, we would formulate a plan for moving forward in a way that’s going to deliver the maximum impact with the least amount of friction,” he says.

He says that not doing this could lead to “anti-patterns,” where “we implement technology changes that don’t reflect organisation and this is when we get into a more difficult environment to operate on.”

“We need to focus on organisational design for success.”

According to him, when moving forward and making decisions, he recommends identifying the tools, tech, and patterns that work now, then move forward with technological advancements and digital transformation after. 

“Fundamentally, empathetic architecture will transition the organisation through time and ultimately make the whole greater than the sum of its parts,” he said, before closing his speech. 

“To move forward, we all just need a bit of empathy.”