Team alignment: The #1 challenge undermining your digital efforts

What is the biggest roadblock of a successful digital transformation? 

It’s not technical complexity. 
It’s not creative vision. 
It’s not budget constraints. 

More often than not, the greatest barrier to a successful platform implementation or DXP upgrade is team alignment. 

When teams don’t see the same future, they can’t build toward it. No matter how powerful the platform or how ambitious the goals. 

You are not the only one in your organization with priorities. Different teams have different needs, budgets, and goals. So it is only natural that this happens as a result. 

Especially if teams are working on completely different systems with data siloes and content sprawl, it’s no wonder that team alignment derails DXP migrations or other digital work.  

The silent killer of digital transformation: misalignment 

Every team within your organization has its own set of priorities. Sales is chasing pipeline. Marketing is focused on conversion. IT is trying to manage technical debt. And customer service just wants to reduce ticket volume. 

That fragmentation is only compounded when teams are working across disconnected platforms, siloed data systems, and sprawling content libraries. In that kind of environment, it’s not surprising when your DXP migration or transformation initiative gets derailed before it really begins. 

According to ProFusion Strategies, businesses can lose up to $1.5 million per year due to broken team alignment—through reduced productivity, wasted resources, and missed opportunities. 

On the flip side, organizations that are highly aligned grow revenue 58% faster, are 72% more profitable, and retain customers twice as well as their less-aligned peers (LSA Global). 

How to align teams and refocus your strategy 

At Horizontal Digital, we wouldn’t recommend blowing up everything and starting from scratch. Instead, our teams help you: 

Take inventory of your current reality: What platforms do you already use? What’s working? What quick wins are possible? 

Gain outside-in perspective: What are your customers actually asking for? What are your competitors already doing that you’re not? 

Co-create a shared vision: Through stakeholder interviews, process reviews, and platform recommendations, we design a connected experience vision to help your teams imagine what is possible. Your transformation will no longer feel like an abstract, far-off idea but something more tangible. 

Moving forward together 

If you're in the middle of a digital transformation and feeling stuck, you're not alone. 

We often recommend a Horizontal Connected Experience Workshop to get all the right stakeholders in the room, surface hidden challenges, and build shared momentum. It’s a collaborative way to unlock value fast. The outcome of the workshop is to identify action steps for a roadmap and an investment case for teams to rally around. We often will also take this a step further and create an experience vision through prototypes to showcase the end state vision for your experience.

Already mid-migration? Still in planning mode? Wherever you are, we’re here to help make alignment your secret weapon. Let's connect and talk over solutions.