How do you align your digital strategy with your ecosystem partners?

Digital ecosystem governance is unfortunately still in its infancy stage in the advertising industry as a whole. As we continue to move toward a more connected world, I'd encourage others in the space to think through their own Codes of Conduct and Guiding Principles. Establishing baseline operating principles can help your internal and external team align on a common goal, perspective, or operating procedure. Additionally, conversations around brand safety and content moderation is always recommended, especially for projects involving social platforms.

The ecosystem is a shared resource by all participants. When entering an ecosystem, you enter with trust. As my expertise relates to web3 ecosystems, an issue is that permissionless systems enables bad actors. Coupled with global parties, multiple jurisdictions, various ranges of moral, ethical and societal obligations. It is down to not only system architecture and smart contracts, but governance itself as well to make sure that rewards/punishments are dealt with swiftly. Not doing so can cause your ecosystem to be viewed in a negative light, and seriously stunt expansion plans. So by setting various checks, organisational content and regular meetings, including quarterly updates, you can mitigate the risk significantly.

It is important to demonstrate accountability to more than your partners in your digital ecosystem. Individuals, not just those in your immediate digital ecosystem, can be impacted by your digital strategy. Consider how decisions made around your digital ecosystem's ethics and legal standards can have a positive impact on society in the short and long term. Consider how the ecosystem can evolve to create value for stakeholders, as well as the causes that matter to them. This may even help to build brand equity, or even inspire engaging brand content to attract more customers and collaborators to the ecosystem.

Designing a digital ecosystem governance framework involves establishing policies, procedures, and guidelines to manage and control an organisation's digital assets and resources. Elements that are imperative for people to consider when designing these processes involve key stakeholders across the organisation, defining key roles and responsibilities, and process review and iteration. Finally, measurement is critical! Regularly monitor and review the digital ecosystem governance framework to ensure it is effective and efficient. This could involve conducting audits, reviewing metrics and analytics, and soliciting stakeholder feedback.

Would I say it's a simple process - no, but should you try to keep it simple - Yes! Think like an ecosystem leader; understand the different stakeholders within your digital landscape, whether customers, employees, suppliers and partners AND be clear about the roles they play in the governance of your digital ecosystem.

Map out each stakeholder’s needs and interests with respect to digital strategy and identify potential conflicts. Starts with conversations, and being open to feedback are both essential components early in the process. Hold regular meetings and talks with the stakeholders - empower them - listen to their ideas and feedback, and create a strategy that meets all of their needs. Success is more achievable when everyone is on the same page with the strategy, objectives, and expectations enabling a move forward as an integrated team. It also keeps digital operations aligned with the goals of partners, customers, suppliers, competitors, regulators and innovators. Win Win!

I would also add to this; identify shared goals. Start by identifying shared goals and priorities with your ecosystem partners. This can include goals related to customer acquisition, revenue growth, or product development. By understanding what you and your partners are trying to achieve, you can identify areas where you can work together to achieve mutual success.

Developing, implementing, and monitoring a comprehensive set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) is essential when collaborating with ecosystem partners. This ensures that the measurement framework is aligned with the shared goals and objectives of all stakeholders involved. By incorporating relevant and meaningful KPIs and OKRs into the dashboard, organizations can foster a culture of collaboration, transparency, and accountability within the ecosystem. This balanced dashboard provides a holistic view of the ecosystem's performance and promotes a shared understanding of success among ecosystem partners.

I would start by echoing what @Jason Saltzman contributed. Start by identifying shared goals and aligning on potential collaborative GTM. In my experience, taking a focused and deep approach to ecosystem building and management reaps exponentially more benefits (for all) than a wide and shallow approach. Entrench and optimize with a select few, then leverage learnings for rinse & repeat with future partner additions to your ecosystem.

The first step is to identify your own place in any ecosystem. Then you can create a digital plan aligned with your goals and designed to attract like minded and complementary businesses, organisations and entrepreneurs from any ecosystems, to spark interactions and mutual endeavours. I find that a simple point form is a nice tool to begin creative conversations.

When it comes to measurement, a simple way of looking at it is tracking activity against different stages of the funnel. For example, knowing which channels are most effective at delivering brand awareness vs marketing effectiveness (how well do we move them through the customer journey) vs sales conversion - and then setting KPIs and benchmarks against that makes it easier to understand business impact.