This is Milk Ltd - The Milk Blog

Company culture - Is it killing your Digital Transformation?

14/5/2018

Al Morris

Content & Marketing Executive at This is Milk

The Impact of culture on Digital Transformation

Company culture is a term that is often heard when advertising a business to prospective employees, however the implications of culture run deeper than the perks of a job.

As we move towards a world that adapts and changes at break neck speeds to the needs of the customer, it is essential that the culture of your business matches your transformative qualities. It is no longer enough to strive for fun, friendly & Pizza Tuesdays. Digital transformation requires a level of commitment to change that allows the transformation to progress quickly and naturally.

Research from Boston Consulting Group found that 79% of companies tested that addressed culture change sustained strong performance, this compared to 0% for those that neglected culture change. (40 companies tested)

5 things guaranteed to change in the next 10 years vs 5 things guaranteed to not

3/5/2018

5 things guaranteed to change in the next 10 years VS things guaranteed to not

Al Morris

Content & Marketing Executive at This is Milk

Pick any 10 people and ask them how much they think our lives will change in the next 10 years.

If you do this, you will no doubt hear a tonne of ideas, concepts, visions & evolutions that could radically change how we perceive the world. To see proof of this, you only need to look back at the last ten years and see how radically our day to day world has changed.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/18-tech-products-that-didnt-exist-10-years-ago-2017-7/#1-the-ipad-1

Things like AirBNB, Uber, Spotify, Google Chrome, Oculus, Kickstarter, Netflix and Android have become so integral in our day to day lives that it's hard to remember how things operated before. It's a sign of fantastic design and an overwhelming desire for change.

There has never been a period in time, when so much, so quickly has had such an enormous change in human behaviour. So what is next, and if all this change seems too much, what's staying the same?

Launching the This is Milk - Digital Transformation Programme

6/4/2018

This is Milk Digital Transformation Programme

Al Morris

Content & Marketing Executive at This is Milk

(((Blog updated 15th May 2018, to update our programme structure)))

This is Milk are proud & excited to launch our 12-month career development programme, officially kicking off with the first cohort on the 18th of June 2018. This programme has been designed with industry to tackle the digital skills gap that currently exists and is crippling digital projects in Scotland.

Digital projects have outgrown the talent pool and traditional project roles don't perform the job we need today or for the future.

We believe that Scotland, which has a digital industry which is invested into with £13.8 Billion a year has been
previously unequipped to solve the acknowledged digital skills gap that is affecting us all. The This is Milk Digital Transformation Programme has been designed as a solution to this issue by teaching the skills required to successfully facilitate digital projects and excel in careers including:

Business Analysis
Service Design
User Research
Product Management
Digital Planning, & Strategy

Looking back at the This is Milk 'Jobs of the future' MilkBar event.

21/3/2018

This is Milk MilkBar event at Tontine Glasgow. 16th March 2018

Al Morris

Content & Marketing Executive at This is Milk

What we learned at the 'Jobs of the future' MilkBar event, March 2018.

If one thing was learned from our #MilkBar event last week, it’s that STEM, should really be STEAM. With the 'A' representing the arts!
We are living in the 'Age of Information', a period of time that is characterised by the shift from industrial production to one based on information and computerisation (Wikipedia). Nearly all business's are digital, or at least partly digital. So as time progresses how is this computerisation impacting Business and the roles/skills of the workers?
Bringing together some of the top minds in Scottish Digital Transformation, This is Milk held the first #MilkBar of 2018 at Tontine Glasgow on the 16th of March. An event created to educate & discuss the topic 'Jobs of the Future'.

What's the problem with Pink in corporate? This is Milk takes to Facebook Live

8/3/2018

Author

Al Morris - Content & Marketing Executive

Today (08/03/18) is International Women's Day, and to mark the occasion, our Managing Director Angela did a Facebook live video to discuss the This is Milk brand, where the colours came from, and why we won't be removing the colour Pink from our brand colours.

This is Milk Pink branding, International Women's Day 2018

What's in a colour?

Way back at the start of This is Milk our founders sat down with the task of choosing the colours that would represent our brand in a traditionally corporate landscape of blues, greys, blacks...dull... boring... yawn .. .. .. .. .. .. sorry, we nodded off for a second there! Now come on, why does corporate have to mean boring?

Well it doesn't and we relished at the opportunity to buck the trend, stand out, and more importantly create a brand that represents who we were as people as well as professionals.

Why does corporate have to mean boring?

Creating the This is Milk brand was both painstaking and liberating, allowing us to build a brand that the whole team could get behind, be a part of and be proud of. It stands for progressiveness, empowerment and a vision to bring a new age of consultancy to the Scottish market.

but... there are some people that just don't like us using the colour PINK! It's too feminine, it's too delicate, it's not a colour that the corporate world wants to associate with.

Well this is exactly what Angela has to say about that!

From Angela:

"I would love for you to have a watch, share, discuss this topic, and even come talk to me! Let's all work towards a world where we're human - whatever that means to you."

The science behind the colour

If you would like to dive deeper into the world of colour, here is a fantastic blog taking you through the psychological meaning of the colour Pink.

It's a colour of compassion, understanding and insight. It's empathetic and hopeful. It is a positive colour inspiring warm and comforting feelings and a sense that everything will be okay.

Sounds exactly like This is Milk!

International Women's Day

"Now, more than ever, there's a strong call-to-action to press forward and progress gender parity. There's a strong call to #PressforProgress motivating and uniting friends, colleagues and whole communities to think, act and be gender inclusive."

International Women's Day is a call to arms for accelerating gender parity. The campaign this year is asking you to take action and Press for progress in the world of business. By committing to a gender parity mindset we can accelerate change and empower equality across the world.

This is Milk are proud to lead the way in gender parity, with a business that treats everyone as equals, as humans and will continue to strive for change in the workplace.

For more on This is Milk and the above topic we recommend you check out these two blogs:

Raising a baby and a business
How to kick-start your dream business
How to build a string brand strategy

Thanks for reading and be sure to comment or even share.

Our Branding Services

This is Milk @ Girl Geek Scotland

20/2/2018

Al Morris
This is Milk's Content & Marketing Executive sharing news on 'This is Milk'.

Music: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

Angela Speaks to the Girl Geek Scotland community about 'This is Milk' & the digital skills gap.

Last week our Managing Director Angela spoke at a Girl Geek Scotland event in Edinburgh. For those of you who have not came across them yet, Girl Geek Scotland is a network and community for people working and studying in creativity, computing, enterprise and related sectors in Scotland. It provides a fantastic platform for the team at 'This is Milk' to not only learn from our peers but to also inspire them when and where we can.

Like all GGS events, this one had a fantastic turnout and it was great to be involved . We want to say a huge thank you to the team at GGS for inviting us, as well giving massive props to all the other speakers/panelists who where there on the night, including:

Vicky Brock - Entrepreneur and chair of the event
Mark Logan - Transformational C-level internet economy executive (former COO, Skyscanner)
Rachel Lane - Digital Strategist & Service Designer
Leah Lockhart - Digital Engagement, The Democratic Society

Events like these are made by the fantastic professionals that give their time to add value to the community.

So go check them out and say hey!

If Girl Geek Scotland sound of interest to you, you can check out their website. Also for a look at some of the previous GGS events, be sure to check out their Eventbrite page here and we hope to see you at one in the near future.

MilkBar Event - 'Jobs for the future'

Don't forget we will be holding our quarterly MilkBar event on Friday the 16th of March at Tontine Glasgow. I'm sure Angela will take centre stage once more, this time tackling the issues of 'Jobs for the Future', along with some other great speakers that we have lined up.

Click here for more info on this upcoming event. It is one not to be missed.

We always have time to chat, so please tweet, DM or message us on any of the social channels below.

2020 skills: A look back at the Jobs of the future report 2017

30/1/2018

Al Morris

This is Milk's Content Executive sharing more insights about the digital skills gap.

Image taken from The World Economic Forum

As we come to the end of January 2018, we feel the need to take a step back to Jan 2017 and have another look at the ‘Future of Jobs report’ by the World Economic Forum.

This detailed report looked into the future of industry to identify the new categories of jobs that are emerging, as well as the skill-sets that are becoming more essential to these roles.

"The Future of Jobs Report aims to unpack and provide specific information on the relative magnitude of these trends by industry and geography, and on the expected time horizon for their impact to be felt on job functions, employment levels and skills" - The World Economic Forum

The 'Future of Jobs' report 2017 Takeaways

Ageing countries won’t just need lifelong learning - they will need wholesale reskilling of existing workforces throughout their lifecycle
Businesses have many opportunities to collaborate more to ensure that individuals have the time, motivation and means to seek retraining opportunities.
On average, by 2020, more than a third of the desired core skill sets of most occupations will be comprised of skills that are not yet considered crucial to the job today!
By 2020 Social skills such as persuasion, emotional intelligence and teaching others will be in higher demand across industries than narrow technical skills, such as programming or equipment operation and control
In essence, technical skills will need to be supplemented with strong social and collaboration skills
Business Analyst and Sales Representatives are the two frontrunning emerging roles that businesses expect to become critically important to their industry by 2020

This is Milk Roundtable event (Jan 2017)

One year on from this report, This is Milk are coming off of the back of a successful Roundtable event, in which industry leaders discussed how we can tackle the issue of the digital skills gap in Scotland. The findings of which will allow us to design a training solution to tackle the issue.

However, before we release these findings:
After 1 year, how is the ‘Future of Jobs report’ standing up to it’s predictions?

Roles
The World Economic Forum predicted that the two front-running roles that would emerge as we approached 2020 would be that of Business Analysis & Sales. We always knew that Business Analysis would be a key role, with the ever expanding use of data and analytics driving how we run our businesses. This has continued to be the case throughout 2017 and will only increase with every day/month/year that passes.

For a business to ignore it’s own data and fail to learn from/understand the information, places them at a significant disadvantage to their competition who embrace modern analytical practices.

As also predicted by the WEF, sales experience is a key skill required. Although sales skills may on the surface seem separate from digital project functions, it is the soft skills associated with selling that businesses are continuing to see the real value in. This is Milk will have more on this topic to release from our Roundtable discussion which we be reveal the outcome of very shortly.

Future of Jobs report - World Economic Forum

Skills:
As you can see above, the skills of 2015 compared to 2020 vary in such forms as emotional intelligence, cognitive flexibility, and an increase in creativity.

As the WEF predicted:

"technical skills will need to be supplemented with strong social and collaboration skills"

We believed that businesses are crying out for people who at heart are just just good people, and their technical skills should really be secondary? We asked industry if businesses are recognising an individual's mentality, personality and drive before the specific technical skill they are being employed for during our Roundtable event also.

It is clear that in the course of this past year, that industry is aware of the need to change, however action to do so is falling behind.

Future of Jobs report - World Economic Forum

Conclusion
So far this 1 year old report is standing up really well to the scrutiny of time. This is Milk are seeing signs of industry progression everywhere, with a distinct lack of skills to perform the roles that are needed just now and in the future. Trends for soft skills are on the rise, with industry recognising the need have such professionals as part of their organisations.

Over the coming days we look forward to releasing our Roundtable findings to you.

Will the Scottish Business market tell us they are having the same problems we believe they are having?
Will the predictions of WEF hold true in Scotland?

We look forward to finding out, stay tuned.

More about the Digital Launchpad

Digital Launchpad – Tackling the digital projects skills gap - Part 3

19/1/2018

Al Morris
This is Milk's Content Executive capturing a series of blogs about This is Milk tackling issues in running digital projects.

Digital Launchpad - Training Programme

In this final installation of Digital Launchpad - Tackling the digital skills gap, we have a look at this new job role of a Customer Analyst. If you have no idea what we are talking about then please do read blog posts 1 & 2. Or hey, just go rogue and see what happens. You can always go back after.

Digital Launchpad - Tackling the digital skills gap - Part 1
Digital Launchpad - Tackling the digital skills gap - Part 2

All caught up, excellent, now in the words of Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka, "Off we go"

Digital Launchpad – Tackling the digital projects skills gap - Part 3

Imagine yourself at a busy business event/networking/conference/meeting/shop to buy your groceries when you meet somebody who asks you what you do.

Natural you say: "Hi I'm (Fill the Blank) and I'm a Customer Analyst!"

Which will no doubt be met with the response of: "aw excellent, sorry what is that exactly?"

Just what do you say? Well you could go with: "A Customer Analyst is that rare specimen of gold, that runs digital projects with an unparalleled level of skill and understanding" or you could go with something along the lines of how we described it in blog part 2.

"A CustomerAnalyst has the full understanding and skills needed to cradle a digital project from it's initial conception all the way through to project delivery. It encompasses the vital skills of a business analyst, user researcher, strategist, service designer and project/product manager"

It's a job role to be proud of, one of accomplishment and understanding, not to mention a job that serves as much today as it does tomorrow. Ever evolving, ever learning and ever developing to maintain and improve the running of digital projects.

Tools of the trade

The tools that every CA will have at their disposal, will be built on a foundation of experience and confidence. This is not an entry level position for somebody with no experience in the corporate landscape at all. What we are doing, is adding specific key skills to an existing exemplary candidate that will create a hybrid role that currently does not exist, but is sorely needed.

Skills and topics awaiting these candidates will include the following:

Research methods
Strategic analysis
Research methods
Proposition building and entrpreneuirship skills
Objectives and project goal settings
Scope and terms of reference
Customer centricity
Design thinking
Project methodology and life cycle - Agile, Google sprints, waterfalls and variations
Analysis tools - Process maps, requirements, user journeys, user stories
Facilitation and soft skills
Project management tools
Data
Technologies of today (and tomorrow)

Who is an ideal candidate?

The role of a Customer Analyst plays a pivotal part in either the success or failure of digital projects. They have full control and understanding of each and every segment of the project with an overarching focus on the understanding of clients needs/expectations and how to deliver an exceptional service to them. This is no entry level role, it will come with it's pressures and equally with it's rewards.

To fully understand and be able to activate their newly learned skills, there must first be a basic level of understanding of a corporate digital landscape. We are looking to boost the skills of our candidates, creating exceptional talent that exceeds that of those already working in the industry.

Digital Launchpad is perfect for those looking to:

Upskill in their professional careers
Make a change of career to digital projects
Return to work after an extended period of absence
Return to work after maternity/paternity leave

Or even tell us why you'd be the perfect candidate. Not every journey a simple one, you may just have the perfect storm of skills curated of your career that with our training makes you perfect for the role.

Next Steps

Digital Launchpad is in a period of fact finding in order to create a course of study that exactly fits with the needs of the industry. As mentioned earlier, we have a round table at the end of the month with industry leaders, the findings of which will help design the content of the course as well as allowing us to inform the broader industry of our next steps.
You can help us by taking a few minutes to complete one of our surveys if applicable:

If you are ready to launch your career in Digital Projects or if you need the service of a Customer Analyst then click on the button below:

Find out more about Digital Launchpad

Digital Launchpad – Tackling the digital projects skills gap - Part 2

18/1/2018

Al Morris
This is Milk's Content Executive capturing a series of blogs about This is Milk tackling issues in running digital projects.

Following on from Tackling the digital projects skills gap - part 1 blog, this 2nd edition looks to show you what This is Milk are doing to resolve this issue. If you haven't read the first blog yet, do so now and we will see you in a minute.

Digital Launchpad - Tackling the digital projects skills gap - Part 2

Doing what we do best

So we now know that there is a massive skills gap in Scotland, for professionals that are equipped with the skills needed to understand and research customer needs, taking those right the way through the project, from end to end.

This is Milk have been exploring ways to create a talent pipeline around these digital project skills.
Our solution is to create a job that does not currently exist. At the moment we're calling this A Customer Analyst - however the name is still up for grabs.

A Customer Analyst has the full understanding and skills needed to cradle a digital project from it's initial conception all the way through to project delivery. It takes the vital skills of business analysis, user research, strategy, service design and project/product management and amalgamates into a role that will change the way digital projects are delivered forever.

"Customer Analyst"

How to become a Customer Analyst?

(Stay tuned for blog 3 in the series to find out exactly what this analyst role will look like).

In an active move to solve the problem facing digital projects in Scotland, This is Milk are launching the Digital Launchpad programme.

This is a new to market 4 week intensive training course run in partnership with industry professionals and corporate partners. In 4 weeks we will teach candidates everything they need to know to become a Customer Analyst, before placing them in residency with one of our corporate partners. This will put their skills to the test in a real life professional environment.

This is Milk and mentors will provide ongoing mentorship throughout the training and placement for all students, allowing them to flourish in their new roles, giving businesses total piece of mind that they are getting a professional that can handle the challenge.

What are we doing right now?

In order to launch this programme we are currently gathering insight from industry, candidates and employers to help us finalise course content and schedules. This includes an invite only round table to be held on the 26th of January 2018.

We look forward to publishing the results of this round table and implementing our findings into the Digital Launchpad programme.

How can you get involved?

This is Milk is currently looking for candidates to take part in Digital Launchpad, as well corporate partners to work alongside us delivering the programme with a pool of industry mentors.

Candidates: We are aiming for 5-8 candidates to launch our pilot in mid April 2018.
If you believe you have what it takes and love the idea of working in digital projects, we would love to talk to you. So whether you're a graduate, a career returner or looking for a career shift - please get in touch to find out more.

Corporate Partners: We need businesses that can offer our students 6-12 week placements on real projects. Currently we are aiming for 2 to 4 partners. You must be ready to work with This is Milk to solve a national issue and receive all of the benefits of doing so.
If this sounds like you, then please get in touch.

We're still capturing insight as well - please take a few minutes and complete one of our surveys:

To learn more visit 'Digital Launchpad' , this page will be updated as our programme progresses. Also if you want to stay up to date with everything that is going on you can follow us below.

Find out more about the Digital Launchpad

Digital Launchpad – Tackling the digital projects skills gap - Part 1

12/1/2018

Al Morris

This is Milk's Content Executive capturing a series of blogs about This is Milk tackling issues in running digital projects.

There is a distinct lack of skilled project professionals that have the skills and ability to handle digital projects. It's a staggering statement to make but unfortunately a very true one.

All is not lost however, there are some digital masterminds and yes they are very good, but the small numbers result in high costs and big demand.  This is great for the person, not so good for the businesses in vital need of their services.

Now we know what you are thinking, Scotland is an ever-growing digital force, with thousands of graduates leaving university every year. We have a booming tech, financial, start-up and public sector market. So how can there be a lack of skills and what are we doing about solving this issue? Well there’s 2 problems here…. The industry is growing, but the right talent just isn’t there in the digital project space.

Why is there a skills gap?

Let’s be really clear – we’re not here tackle technical developer skills, testing skills or UX. (Mostly because there are businesses already doing this, and it's not our forte). We’re playing in the space of the existing business analyst. But as you’ll see if you read on – we’re ditching that name - and creating a new job - a future proofed job.

There is a long list of reasons why this gap has emerged. These reasons can be split up into several larger categories including education, guidance, understanding and future.

This is Milk have delved deep into these topics in regards to digital project skills and this is what we have found.

Education:

There is a lack of graduate paths into these roles. In fact do they even exist?
Learning is done with the sink or swim method. There is generally no structure behind it and is ineffective at teaching the necessary skills.
Online learning is great, you can reach the masses, boost numbers, surely that’s a solution, right? Wrong. Online learning does not allow for real project learning, which is essential.
The training that is out there is old before it’s even published.

Guidance:

There is no clear path/career route for these roles – the insight we gathered confirmed what we knew- people just fall into these roles.
A lack of mentorship and guidance leaves professionals static, struggling to progress their skills in line with industry needs.
Still a lot of confusion about basic ways to run projects.

(Read our earlier blog post about confusion over agile for 1 such example).

Understanding:

There are still many businesses that don't know what they need, who to recruit and how to train and develop the right skills.
A disconnect exists between design/UX and traditional project roles.
There is confusion around job titles including Business Analyst, Project Manager and Product Manager. Exactly who does what and what does the title mean.

Most people learn their skills in large/slow traditional projects which are often in the public sector or financial services.
Existing training does not evolve fast enough, there is no ongoing progression of thought.
Those that are in the field aren't necessarily equipped for the digital projects of today, let alone tomorrow – and they are passing on the techniques of the past.
Digital projects will overtake non digital projects. We will be left with a massive up-skilling issue in our existing resources. (They probably already have – in fact you may argue all projects are now digital).
A lack of skills in the market results in an inability to move at pace.

"What this problem needs is something that currently does not exist!"

How is it possible to tackle so many issues?

These issues are not new, they have been slowly creeping up resulting in an increasing need for action. The market is showing signs of wear and tear which will only grow.

To solve this issue requires something new, something purpose designed, something that deals with every issue mentioned above, setting a precedent for all digital projects.

What this problem needs is something that currently does not exist! We need to embrace change by creating something new!

Do you now want to know what that is? well you can in Part 2

Read Blog Part 2

Doing what we do best.

Well we've framed the problem - and we are literally all hands on deck working out the solution for this problem. It's 2 fold, and we'll be publishing more about what we're planning. Literally in just the next few days, we'll be publishing a blog about the new project role we're creating.

We're still capturing insight as well - please take a few minutes and complete one of our surveys:

(Pssst... We have already put some information on the website - so for curiosity's sake - check it out!)

Added bonus: Heres a link to a previous blog written by Angela on Why change needs to change.

Read enough about Digital Launchpad and want to go straight to our dedicated website page. The button below has been made especially for you.

prepare for launch

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