What does it take to thrive during a pandemic, and emerge stronger as a result? IT leaders from a major supermarket chain opened the evening by sharing their story, and explained how teamwork, creativity, and a reliance on data proved invaluable.

 

When lockdown was first announced, traffic to their website exploded. In-demand products were flying off the shelves, and customer expectations were changing on a daily basis. In response, their Digital Delivery Team devised and deployed new ideas, often within hours. This included introducing a product-capping solution, and ‘Waiting Room’ functionality to keep the website up and running. The window for order amendments and future booking slots was also reduced to cope with demand and social distancing restrictions.

 

Keeping all of these plates spinning was a huge challenge. First, it required incredibly strong leadership throughout the organisation. The Digital Delivery Team also faced internal demand to provide particular solutions in particular ways. They pushed back, instead relying on principles more aligned with agile ways of working. That meant keeping things simple, using data to track customer behaviour, and making incremental changes based on what they were learning. Everything revolved around having a minimum viable product, and then testing, adapting, and iterating.