Evolving the workforce to thrive in the digital world

EVOLVING
THE WORKFORCE
TO THRIVE IN THE
DIGITAL WORLD
EVOLVING
THE WORKFORCE
TO THRIVE IN THE
DIGITAL WORLDINSPIRE CONFERENCE
BELL - MONTREAL
NOVEMBER 2020
JEAN-MARC DE JONGHE
VP DIGITAL PRODUCT & STRATEGY
LA PRESSE
Version
8
1

@madmac 2
• Medias — 1995
• La Presse — 2003
• VP Digital Product & Strategy — 2010
• Led La Presse’s digital transformation, creation of
La Presse+, digital workflow and our New Mobile App
speakerdeck.com/jdejongh
Jean-Marc De Jonghe
VP Digital Product & Strategy
ca.linkedin.com/in/dejonghe

@madmac 3
Hello my name is Jean-Marc
and I was a control freak

@madmac 4
I was the master of « my » domain
and knew all of our business process

@madmac 5
I was champion of « here is how you should do it »
Please! Not like this!

@madmac 6
Master Jedi of knowing all the solutions
of our past problems
Been there,
done that!

@madmac 7
You know, the know-it-all wiki-boss
I’m the boss therefore I decide!

@madmac
Not very useful if you want to innovate 
and solve new problems at scale
8@madmac

@madmac 10
I’m the boss therefore I decide = I’m the bottleneck
Big volume of
decisions to make
Delivered value
Bottleneck

@madmac 11
I had no choice but to learn to disrupt myself!

@madmac 12
SHARING MY
EXPERIENCE
Us
The market
Disruptions

@madmac
6 lessons learned to inspire your journey
13
Pace of change is
accelerating
1
It’s a very
long journey
2
Visit the
beginner’s valley
4
Activating
all the brains around you
5
A shared common
understanding
6
Will before skills
3
Change People & Skills Leadership & Teams

@madmac 15
1997-2007: We are invincible !
Costly infrastructure
hard to reproduce
Talents & expertise
Owners of the
distribution channel
A great brand
+ Location
+ Customer’s Trust

@madmac 16
Nobody can beat us at our own game!
Surely nothing to worry
about those clowns!

@madmac 18
The
great
«
unbundle »
disruption

@madmac 19
Disruption = the great unbundle
Classified Ads
Career/Jobs
Obituaries
TV Guide Movies listing
Inserts/coupons
Real EstateLegal & public notice
Display Ads

@madmac 21
🚀
We’re really not invincible after all !
🏄
😬 Me
Our
invincible
business

@madmac 24
2017-2018
Mobile first workflow
100% In the cloud
1 2
3
1
2
3
« Adaptive » workflow
RSS

@madmac 25
2019
newmobile application
@madmac

@madmac
Monthly Active Users (MAU)
UniqueDevices(K)
200
350
500
650
800
m
ay-19
june-19
jul-19
aug.-19
sept-19
oct-19
nov-19
dec-19
jan-20
feb-20
m
arch-20
april-20
m
ay-20
june-20
july-20
aug-20
sept-20
Mobile App
Launch of our new
Mobile App
769 595
Switched to 100%
production from home
26

@madmac 27
4,6 ★★★★★
70k review
No 6 - news and magazines
350k/day
750k/month
4,5 ★★★★★
40k review
No 1 - news and magazines
275k/day
480k/month
Today

@madmac 28
Daily Audience 👀
2000
2010
2020
0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000
275,000350,000450,000
350,000230,000
275,000
Newsprint*
Web*
Mobile App
La Presse+
*Newsprint base on weekly average — 2000
*Web ComScore
After 133 years, La Presse
publishes final print edition !
December 30th, 2017
La Presse stops printing
weekday editions
December 31th, 2015
Launch of our first
Mobile App in 2010,
La Presse+ in 2013

@madmac 29
FROM DISRUPTION
TO DISRUPTION
Us
(Still running)
The market
Disruptions

@madmac 30
1Pace of change is
accelerating

@madmac 31
1963 19821978
2006 2007 20152010
1996
2000
1984*

@madmac 33
Pace of change is accelerating

@madmac 34
Change is now truly a constant process, not an event!

@madmac 35
The career of your parents
@madmac

@madmac
36
Your careers
More changes
Disruption
@madmac

@madmac 37
« Disruptive innovation is a
breakthrough innovation, as
opposed to incremental innovation,
which merely optimizes the existing»
Source: Jean-Marie Dru, 15 approches disruptives de l’innovation" (Ed. Pearson)
Disruption ?

@madmac 39
smartphones
Disruption = Rupture
Real mobile web
& app store
GSM & CDMA
2G Edge, 3G, 4G,
LTE, 5G
GPS, geolocation Cloud computing
& big data

@madmac 41

@madmac 42

@madmac 43
@madmac

@madmac 44
@madmac

@madmac 45
Chen San-yuan, 70, known as "Pokémon Grandpa," talks on his cellphone as he plays the mobile game "Pokémon Go" by Nintendo on multiple
devices mounted to his bicycle's handlebars, near his home in New Taipei City, Taiwan, on November 12, 2018. #

Tyrone Siu / Reuters

@madmac 46
A Palestinian woman takes a picture of a member of the Israeli security forces as he also takes her picture in a street in Jerusalem on December 16,
2017, as demonstrations continued to ﬂare in the Middle East and elsewhere over the U.S. president's declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. #

Ahmad Gharabli / AFP / Getty

@madmac 47The live-streamer Qiao Xi, 21, uses her smartphone at her agency studio Redu Media in Beijing on November 7, 2018

Nicolas Asfouri / AFP / Getty

@madmac 48
TIME
CHANGES
We are here

@madmac 49
« it is not the most
intellectual of the
species that survives —
it is not the strongest
that survives — but the
one that is able best to
adapt and adjust to the
changing environment
in which it finds itself »
- C H A R L E S D A R W I N
@madmac

@madmac 50
2It’s a very
long journey

@madmac 51
Complete organizational change
« WhatVUCAreallymeansforyou »,NathanBennettandG.JamesLemoineHarvardBusinessReview
https://hbr.org/2014/01/what-vuca-really-means-for-you
😀 🤢😬
Stability
Certainty
Simplicity
Clarity
Comfort
Building something we know — everyday
La Presse, 750 boul St-Laurent, Montreal, 1955-2003
Volatility
Uncertainty
Complexity
Ambiguity
Discomfort
Innovate / inventing the future — again and again
La Presse, 750 boul St-Laurent, Montreal, Now

@madmac 52
• Top Down Approach:
tasks are delegated
• Eliminate risks and
optimize every process
• Always the same result
• Our success is our well
"Proven formula"
Traditional
• A digital product
from traditional processes
• A digital team managed
by traditional leadership
• Let’s innovate once
• Thinking that answers to new
problems will come from what we
have already learned and done
• Solution driven
• "Let’s install a CRM"
• "Let’s install an ERP »
• Top management
bring more Confusion
Doing Digital
A cultural change Being Digital
• Constant innovation
• Culture of experimentation
• The important thing is to try
& learn quickly
• Data + insights driven
• Data without insights is meaningless,
and insights without action are pointless
• Bottom up approach
• Context and vision are shared
• Company wide Collaboration
• Employee input
• Customer-centric
• Vision driven
• “To continue being one of the leading firms
of the internet entertainment era.”
• Top management bring more Clarity
• Come into a situation that is ambiguous
and bring more clarity
• Everyone understand scope
of their individual role
Quite Easy
Really Hard

@madmac 53
A shift in the mindset
There is a perfect
and repeatable recipe There is no recipe
Building the known Innovate / inventing the future
Complicated world Complex world
Montreal snowstorm 03/14/2017
45 cm, 300 people stuck for 10+ hours

@madmac 54
Innovative leader: from creator to curator
Top-Down
Leadership
Alignment,
clarity and
context leadership
I decide
I put into action

@madmac 55
Every member of the organisation
Waiting
for a task
In
action
toward
the vision
💪
🧠
💪💪 🧠 🧠
💪
🧠Complicated world Complex world

@madmac 56
🧠
💪💪
💪💪💪💪
💪💪💪💪💪💪
💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪
🧠
🧠🧠
🧠🧠🧠🧠
🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠
The new paradigm
To thrive in the digital world
Building something we know Innovate / inventing the future

@madmac 57
💪
🧠🧠
🧠🧠🧠🧠
🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠
To thrive in the digital world
Building something we know Innovate / inventing the future
The new paradigm
Complex world
🧠
💪💪
💪💪💪💪
💪💪💪💪💪💪
💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪
Complicated world

@madmac 58
Which team has the best odds of winning?
Solving new problems
💪
🧠🧠
🧠🧠🧠🧠
🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠
🧠
💪💪
💪💪💪💪
💪💪💪💪💪💪
💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪

@madmac 59
• Constant innovation
• Culture of experimentation
• The important thing is to try
& learn quickly
• Data + insights driven
• Data without insights is meaningless,
and insights without action are pointless
• Bottom up approach
• Context and vision are shared
• Company wide Collaboration
• Employee input
• Customer centric
• Vision Driven
• Top management bring more Clarity
Level 1
Traditional
Level 2
Doing Digital
Level 5
Being digital
A very long journey
One product
One service
The culture
Many products
Many services
Comfortable + skillful in the known,
and in the complicated world
Comfortable + skillful in the ambiguity,
and in the complex world
One project
Data &
Experiences
driven

@madmac 60
« It's supposed to be
hard, If it were easy:
Everybody would do it! »
— T O M H A N K S
I N A L E A G U E O F T H E I R O W N
@madmac

@madmac 61
3Will
before skills

@madmac 62
Five years from now, over one-
third of skills (35%) that are
considered important in today’s
workforce will have changed
Source: World Economic Forum, Jan 2016
Disruption

@madmac
« 71% of the recruiters labelled adaptability (i.e. the ability to accommodate
change) the most valuable skills for candidates’ careers in the coming year »
64
Adaptability
71%
- Rebecca Wilson, Wed Jan 17th 2018
Recruitment International@madmac

@madmac 65
Communication
Collaborate
Problem Solving
Organization
Customer Service
Leadership
Management
0% 15% 30% 45% 60%
18%
20%
16%
24%
31%
22%
30%
33%
34%
45%
49%
54%
55%
56%
Most valued
Hardest to find
Most Valued Soft Skills Are Hard To Find

@madmac 66
« We are in the midst of a Skills Revolution.
Technology is transforming organizations,
skills needs are changing rapidly and we know
companies cannot find the talent they need.
People with in-demand skills
who can continually learn and adapt
will call the shots. »
Source: Skills Revolution 2.0 - ManpowerGroup

@madmac 67
It’s an attitude !
An amazing opportunity if you have the will !
@madmac

@madmac
Unicorns
No thank you !
When recruiting or building your team
S K I L L S
WILL
Soft Skills
Hard Skills
68

@madmac
With time
Relevant
With time
Obsolete
When recruiting or building your team
S K I L L S
WILL
Soft Skills
Hard Skills
69

@madmac
- P E T E R D R U C K E R
« The only skill that
will be important in
the 21st century is
the skill of learning
new skills. Everything
else will become
obsolete over time.. »
70@madmac

@madmac 71
4
Visit the
beginner’s
valley often

@madmac 72
Pace of change is accelerating

@madmac 73
P r e s e n t
C u r v e
D y i n g
Tr a j e c t o r y P a t h s  
t o t h e N e x t C u r v e
Ti m e
Growth
M i l k i n g  
t h e c o w
( M a n y f i r m s )
T h r i v i n g
VISIT THE
BEGINNER'S
VALLEY
DON’T CHANGE,
STAY THE EXPERT
AND BECOME OBSOLETE

@madmac 74
If you want to stay relevant, enjoy the beginner’s valley
LONG-TERM SUCCESS DEPENDS ON YOUR ABILITY TO LEARN NEW SKILLS

@madmac 75
Learning is escalating an S-curve
Mastery
Time
COMPETENCE
Beginner
Conﬁdence
Comfort
Master

@madmac 76
0 Conﬁdence
SET OF
COMPETENCES A
To disrupt yourself… go ahead, jump !
Comfort zone
SET OF
COMPETENCES B
0 ConﬁdenceScary zone

@madmac 77
The beginner’s valley
0 Conﬁdence
SET OF
COMPETENCES A
SET OF
COMPETENCES B
Comfort zone
Always look like a
step backward !

@madmac 78
The beginner’s valley
0 Conﬁdence
SET OF
COMPETENCES A
SET OF
COMPETENCES B
Comfort zone
As a leader make
this zone safe for
your team !

@madmac 79
I still fall — but I know I’ll survive!
@madmac

@madmac 80
Is it my role to know everything?
Not at all!
My personal « paradigm shift » ?

@madmac 81
from Learn-it-all JoetoKnow-it-all Joe

@madmac 82
It’s about
my knowledge
It’s about being great
at learning
Learn-it-all JoetoKnow-it-all Joe
Making the beginner’s
valley a safe zone
for everyone
I’m an expert
not a beginner
Identify, protect and
put into action
their (best) ideas
My ideas
are so much better

@madmac 83
They are the pros
They are closer to the problems
They have great ideas
They are in the best position
to find the solutions
I am in the best position
to be the curator
Change of posture facing my teams
@madmac

@madmac 84
My new role: identify, protect and
put into action their (best) ideas
Change of posture facing my teams
@madmac

@madmac 85
Innovative leader: from creator to curator
Top-Down
Leadership
Alignment,
clarity and
context leadership
I decide
I put into action

@madmac
- M A H AT M A G A N D H I
« You must be the
change you wish to
see in the world. »
86@madmac

@madmac 87
5Activating
all the brains
around you

@madmac 88
Every member of the organisation
Waiting
for a task
In
action
toward
the vision
💪
🧠
💪🦾 🧠 🧠
💪
🧠Complicated world Complex world

@madmac 89
The new leadership
💪
🧠
💪🦾 🧠 🧠
💪
🧠
Tasks Context,
clarity
& goals

@madmac 90
Facing changes or ambiguity
🧠
💪
It’s not my job!
Could this help us
achieve the vision?

@madmac
Action and collaboration
toward the same goal
91
Context and goals (not tasks): why is it so important ?
@madmac

@madmac 92
Everybody need to remember their role first
Business and
Subject Matter Experts
Engineering and
Design experts

@madmac 93
Business and
Subject Matter Experts
Engineering and
Design experts
SolutionProblem
Everybody need to remember their role first

@madmac 94
Method A : you as the expert of the solutionWrong way: SMEs as the experts of the solution
SolutionProblem
Engineering and
Design experts
« Please create this
solution for me… »

@madmac 96
Solution
Solution
Solution
Solution
Solution
Solution
Problem
Engineering and
Design experts
Engineering and
Design experts
Right way: Biz & SMEs experts of the problem to solve

@madmac 97
Magic: When D&E experts understand the problem to solve

@madmac 98
Magic: When D&E experts understand the problem to solve

@madmac 100
Before urging to ﬁnd a solution, 
focus on understanding (to its core)
What is the problem 
you’re trying to solve?
Business experts and Subject matter experts

@madmac
- U N K N O W N
« A great solution to a wrong
problem will always fail! »
101https://www.nngroup.com/articles/the-myth-of-the-genius-designer/

@madmac
Here is the problem 
we are trying too solve…
102
Can you create 
this solution for us…

@madmac 103
Problem Solution
Never fall in love with
their own solution
❤
Fall in love with the
problem they’re trying
to solve for their clients
The good business experts

@madmac 104
Here is my new role now:
Provide insight and understanding
to enable sound decisions
Activating the brains around me

@madmac 105
Biggest difference ?
Innovative 
product/service built with
control, no context, 
and a top down approach
True innovative 
product/service built with 
context, data + insights, 
and a bottom-up approach

@madmac 106
I put into action
I decide the what! I know the how!
The innovative leader
I bring clarity

@madmac 107
💪
🧠🧠
🧠🧠🧠🧠
🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠
Building a « solving new problems » machine

@madmac 108
— T I M C O O K , I N H I S P R E PA R E D O P E N I N G
R E M A R K S F O R Q 4 2 0 2 0 R E S U LT S C A L L
« When we ﬁrst began to grapple with COVID-19, I said there
are worse things for a company whose business is innovation
than having to periodically do just about everything in an
entirely new way. This year we worked in a way that pushed us
to re-imagine every part of our innovation process, down to how
we share these announcements with the world, and how we get
new products into our customer’s hands.
Working from kitchen tables and bedrooms, in distanced ofﬁce
settings and reworked labs and manufacturing facilities, 
the team rebuilt every part of the plane while it was midair. 
And the results speak for themselves….
Innovation isn’t just about what you make—it’s about how
you approach problems. And these teams, and every team
across Apple, have not faced a single question this year that
they haven’t found an answer to with passion and resolve.
Their actions didn’t just meet the moment, they will make us 
a better company moving forward »

@madmac 109
6A shared common
understanding
Devenir une entreprise innovante

@madmac 110
To build the "Right Stuff" you must first develop a shared and
common understanding of this "Right Stuff"
1. Building something is really expensive
2. Building the wrong things
costs even more !
« Fake it till you make it »

@madmac
1$
Request for changes
during the Ideation
phase
10$
Request for changes
during the
Development
phase
100$
Request for changes
during the
In Service
phase 111
The 1 - 10 - 100 rule

@madmac 112
To build the "Right Stuff"
you must first develop a
shared and common
understanding of this
"Right Stuff"
What are we trying to build ?
Small teams = less complexIty = more clarity
The "Right Stuff"

@madmac 113
Empathy
Active listening
Real
discussions
Shared common understanding
🧠 🧠
At kick-off,
Take time to share the same
definition vocabulary
Build « Proof of concept »
& Prototypes
Show and learn !
Imagine the tutorial
of the product or service
you’re trying to build
Dont be afraid to dive-in and learn
the tech behind the product and service
you are trying to build
You need
to meet!
Agreement on which
problems need to be
solved and in which order
Goals, important milestones
Customer’s needs
and chalenges
Global or total
customer experience — CX
Features: MVP
desirability, delightful, etc
How will we operate
this thing ? Who?
Focus on the What, not the How
Resist talking about solutions
Vision
Why are we doing this?
Clarity

@madmac 114
A great roadmap (or plan)
Leave room for uncertainty + tackle the easy first
Experiment,
validate & learn
Discover the
route together
Vision
Shared common
understanding first

@madmac 115
Prototype
ShowLearn
Desirability
Viability Feasibility
Start here
Learning through experiments
Successful innovation
happens here!

@madmac 116
Idea Prototype Prototype Prototype Product 🙂
With luck

@madmac 117
Idea Prototype
Prototype
Prototype
Product
Idea
Idea
Idea
Prototype
Fake Less fake, more real Real stuff
The real deal: Learning through experiments
🤩

@madmac 118
What can we do now
to test this new idea ?
The new culture
— Fake it till you make it —

@madmac 119
« A shared understanding, 
drives the micro-decisions 
that everyone makes every day
whether writing code, creating
positioning, deploying a build, 
designing an experience, and so on.»
- S T E V E N S I N O F S K Y

@madmac
6 lessons learned to inspire your journey
121
Pace of change is
accelerating
1
It’s a very
long journey
2
Visit the
beginner’s valley
4
Activating
all the brains around you
5
A shared common
understanding
6
Will before skills
3
Change People & Skills Leadership & Teams

@madmac 122
@Contacts &
References

@madmac 123
Connect with me
Jean-Marc De Jonghe
@madmac
ca.linkedin.com/in/dejonghe
speakerdeck.com/jdejongh

@madmac 124
Please give-me some feedbacks
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PLQVRK7

@madmac 125
References
• Crossing the Chasm (1991, revised 1999
and 2014), Geoffrey A. Moore
• TedTalk, Dan Pink sur la surprenante
science de la motivation, Dan Pink
https://www.ted.com/talks/
dan_pink_on_motivation?
language=fr#t-1010302
• Why we plan – Part I – Failure to Rescue,
Buridan’s Blog
http://buridansblog12.rssing.com/
chan-20258046/all_p1.html
• Complicated vs Complex and why it’s
matters - Roland Wolfig
https://beya.io/2016/03/complicated-vs-
complex-and-why-it-matters/
• Complexity and Strategy https://
hackernoon.com/complexity-and-
strategy-325cd7f59a92#.5h6wyrxvk
• Prototyping: Fake It till you make it
(WWDC 2014, Apple Developper, Apple
Inc.), Get a glimpse of Apple's prototyping
process and the range of tools and
techniques they use, some of which might
surprise you. https://
developer.apple.com/videos/play/design/
12/
• The Future of Jobs : Employment, Skills
and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth
Industrial Revolution (World Economic
Forum, Jan 2016)

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