You have an idea. An app, a platform, a website. You’re convinced it will change something. But… change what, for whom, and to what end? As long as you haven’t defined the true value of a digital project, you run the risk of building a complex machine that will be poorly used, poorly adopted, and that won’t meet any specific need.
It’s a common reflex: you start headlong. But if you want it to be (really) useful, you need to slow down and ask the question:
What is this project going to be used for? To whom? And what does success mean?
1. It’s not (just) a question of tools
A site or an app is worthless if it has no identified role, mission or impact. Creating a ‘space’, a ‘repository‘, a ‘portal’… it’s all vague. And what is vague quickly turns into a gas factory.
Classic example:
‘We want to digitalise customer relations.’
- Yes, but why? To save time? Respond better? To qualify leads?
- And how will we know it’s working?
💡 Ask these 3 simple questions:
- Who’s going to use it? (really)
- In what context? (at what time of day?)
- What will it change for them? (gain? clarity? autonomy?)
2. Identify perceived value before delivered value
A successful digital project is not one that ‘does everything it was supposed to do’. It’s a project that has a visible effect: on people, on the organisation, on results.
‘We want to create a bespoke business CRM.’
- OK, but what value will users experience on a daily basis?
- Fewer errors? Less double entry? More clarity on priorities?
🔎 Sometimes all it takes is 2 well-thought-out screens to make all the difference.
Before thinking ’functionality’, think ’frustration to be eliminated’ or ’positive effect to be triggered’.
3. Warning: the more players involved, the clearer the value of a digital project needs to be
A digital project with 3 stakeholders (management, users, service providers) is a playground… and a vague one. If you don’t formalize the shared value, everyone moves forward with their own definition of success.
- The business team wants to save time.
- The manager wants to manage.
- The service provider wants to deliver.
Result: we do everything a little… but nothing completely.
💡 Put in black and white what the project needs to change, for everyone. And validate together a single, clear and shared formulation.
4. Reduce ambition ≠ reduce value
Wanting to make ‘a complete, upgradeable tool with everything integrated’… that’s noble. But if you can’t get it out there, it’s pointless.
✅ Start small, targeted, useful → that’s what building value through use is all about.
- One module, one course, one action. And then observe.
This is what we call ‘making an initial wow effect’. Something simple, quick, but which makes the user say: ‘Oh yeah, OK, now that’s really helping me.’
5. Defining value means framing intelligently
It’s not a waste of time. It’s a tool for framing, arbitrating and aligning. And above all, it’s a lever for saying “no” to anything that doesn’t serve the impact.
At BluDeskSoft, we use this phrase to frame the project from the outset:
‘If at the end of this project, users say […], we will have succeeded.’
To sum up: no value = no vision = no project
- No need for PowerPoint. Just clarity.
- No need for a complex roadmap. Just a shared direction.
- No need to anticipate everything. Just knowing what you want to change, for whom, and why.
And what’s the real value of your project?
👉 If you’re having trouble formulating it, we can help you see it more clearly.
At BluDeskSoft, we ask the right questions to avoid looking pretty… but empty.