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Hoooly shit this is amazing and at the same time not at all surprising. 1/
First, "digital transformations" kill me. What are you transforming *to*? 2/
Building a website is not a digital transformation. If that's what you think this is about then you've already lost. A digital transformation implies there is an end. Once you get there, you're done. That's not how this works. 3/
What it's actually about is adopting a product mindset and losing the project mindset. It's tearing down the barriers between product management ("the business") and product development ("engineering"). IT becomes a critical enabler, not a cost center. 4/
In order to compete, @Hertz needs to move past being a car rental company and become a technology product company. The same goes for most companies. 5/
Through this lens, what Hertz did here was literally outsource what should be their core competencies—building products that delight customers. 6/
The execs didn't see it that way though, as most often don't. They viewed a new digital presence as an IT project, so they hired "experts" to do it for them. 7/
And the results they got from @Accenture were about what I would expect. Millions of dollars down the drain, endless delays, poor implementation, and problems that could "go away" with just an additional $10 million. 8/
This is *exactly* why @real_kinetic doesn't do code for hire. Not because we're incapable of building technology products—we have a crack team of engineers. But because even if Accenture *did* deliver on what they promised, it's short-sighted. What about the next project? 9/
You need to *develop* these capabilities in-house, again, in order to stay competitive. This is why we focus on mentorship and helping teams become self-sufficient. 10/
Companies often want to hire us to build a thing for them, but there's something to be said about ownership and being involved in the process. You can't outsource product ownership. 11/
Companies are way too quick to look for silver bullets for their problems, but the problem isn't "we need a new website." It's "our organization isn't equipped to consistently develop products." 12/
The issue is even if they recognize this, the next step is usually to hire people to *train* them. The problem with this is people learn by *doing*. Theory and training are useful, but there's no substitute for doing the real thing. 13/
Execs: please stop pouring gobs of money into ridiculous contracts with big consultancies like Accenture and PwC. Please stop outsourcing what should be your core competencies. I've seen the results and it's disastrous. Hertz is a great case study. 14/14
