Aimed at innovators and technologists who work in management and leadership roles across, marketing, technology, operations and customer experience, Valtech’s European Chief Technology Officer, Matt Webb, hosted an open and interactive discussion that shed light on how companies have been innovating and using technology during these unprecedented times.

1. The Way We Work Has Changed Forever

The typical work environment doesn’t exist anymore so when it comes to continuous innovation, it’s time to reconsider the what, who and how of your approach. What can you test that you couldn’t before, how can you change the way you recruit focus groups when most people are working from home, and how can you work with collaborative tools in amazing new ways? Think about prototypes in a box, eye tracking tech, VR/AR/MR and 3D modelling to give you more insights than you had before. This might seem like short-term changes, but we expect they’ll be committed to your long-term approaches.

2. We’ve Accelerated

Projects are taking weeks rather than months thanks to focused collaboration and agile mindsets. And when it comes to new insights, companies are coming to terms with the vital importance of real time data; data that’s a week old isn’t telling you much anymore. This is about real time responses to real time data and making sure you’re doing the right thing at the right time. We can’t wait around for data like we used to, “no one is going to want to go back to a world of feeling unprepared again” said Matt Webb at Valtech. 

3. There Are Strong Opportunities for Retail

Experiential retail will be more important than ever, but customers will need to feel safe too. The more ‘normalised’ retailers can make the shopping experience, the more likely consumers are to go back in-store. Ecommerce channels are exploding in numbers, and even luxury brands are finding delicate ways to broach new markets online. This is an age of companies forming unlikely partnerships with competitors and co-creating to meet the needs of the customers, creating short-term pivots with long-term positive implications. Yes this is a time of crisis, but it’s also a time of transformative opportunity for the retailers brave enough to innovate.

The last few weeks have shown us that remote collaboration done right can accelerate innovation and help transform your response to disruption of any kind. Retailers are making bolder choices, pivoting faster and caring more about doing the right thing. They are proving that in the era of unknowns, transforming by doing is the only way to survive.