Indispensable Roles in Digital Teams

That means that every role contributes to the end product – but there are some roles that are key to bringing together the collective to ensure that it delivers an effective and efficient digital experience to customers that in turn benefits the company.

A digital Product Owner is the team member responsible for managing every aspect of a company’s digital experience, working to streamline internal processes for the digital team, managing the tools required to complete these processes and ensuring that users have a consistent experience when interacting with the company’s digital touchpoints.

Wendy Robb, Senior Product Designer for Strider, says that the Product Owner is the team’s rudder – and a good one can be not only the guide but also a valuable enabler. “The work of a specialist can suffer when they are not informed by a well-researched brief and kept on the same track as the rest of the team – this is even more true in the age of working remotely,” she says. “Having a PO that you can trust and rely on makes your job so much easier, it leaves you to focus on what you are good at”.

She says that Business Analysts also play a key role in any digital team. Digital Analysts review and report on a company’s online business performance and look for opportunities across digital channels, based on insights gleaned from data. “A lot of teams try to get by without Business Analysts, but it has been my experience that a good collaboration between the team BA and UX Specialist can end up in a much richer product – and a lot less technical and design debt down the line,” says Robb.

“I can’t choose between the two in terms of importance, because they tend to overlap in process or application,” says Cynthia Mohlomi, Senior UI Designer for Strider. “Both need to provide the simplest action or idea in order to succeed in the scope or goal – and all the roles in a digital team are important in providing clients with a holistic offering”.

A Digital Strategist combines information from all aspects of digital marketing channels – including SEO, paid media and content – into a coherent plan that can be effectively actioned through the marketing of a company’s products or services. “A strategy is vital – without it you have no blueprint and expectations for your company,” says Mohlomi. “If you run a business without a strategy, it is the same as gambling”. She says that a good Digital Strategist is able to identify the goal, analyse all the different outcomes and prioritise by process of elimination, based on the available resources – with strategy to proceed with.

A User Experience (UX) expert is the person on a digital team that is responsible for the process of creating products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to a company’s digital users. They help cut through the clutter by interpreting the information required by the company into an easy-to-understand journey for users. “A UK Design Council study showed that for every £100 a design-alert business spends on design, turnover increases by £225,” says Mohlomi. “UX was also shown to be the major differentiator amongst marketers in 2020 as companies begin to understand that they’re designing digital experiences for humans, not users”.

“Although there are multiple roles across a release train that can be seen as playing a critical role in the overall success of a project, I believe that the roles of the Scrum Master and Product Owner are most critical to the overall success of a team,” says Cornel Schutte
Senior Scrum Master for Strider.

A Scrum Master leads a team using Agile project management through the course of a project, facilitating communication and collaboration between leadership and the team to ensure a successful outcome. Agile Project Management is an iterative approach to projects that breaks them down into smaller cycles called ‘sprints’. Each section is reviewed and critiqued by the project team, and the insights from those sessions are used to determine the next step.

“A Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that the vision gets executed within the relevant iterations – it’s their job to steer the ship in the right direction, at the right time,” says Schutte. “The untold truth about a Scrum Master’s responsibility is that they need to be a jack-of-all-trades, coaching team members on agile practices, implementing processes for more efficient delivery and sometimes have a significant influence on budget and cost saving. He says they shouldn’t be afraid of getting their hands dirty in a technical session with developers or to have high level discussions with management executives on progress updates. “By having a person that understands both business and technical in this role, organisations will be in a better position to increase revenue and to reduce costs,” he says.

While each contributor has their own idea of who the crucial member in each team is, they all agree that it’s the team – not the individual – which is the focus. The key members they’ve identified are simply there to make the team’s work more streamlined, efficient and cost-effective and balance the needs of the client, with the best solution for the users who will interact with their digital platforms.