Digital transformation: The secret to getting it right for your products.

The rise of digital transformation has reshaped the machinery manufacturing landscape. Once defined by mechanical precision, today’s market demands software integration, connectivity, and data-driven performance. Buyers now expect “smart” machines with predictive maintenance, real-time analytics, and seamless factory integration.

The best-performing companies start by asking the right strategic questions.

The challenge for manufacturers isn’t whether to adopt digital transformation—but how to do it profitably and sustainably. Embedding software, managing cybersecurity, and delivering lifecycle updates require major investments and organizational change. A wrong decision—whether overinvesting in features customers don’t value or underinvesting in the ones they do—can erode competitiveness.

Top performers don’t begin with technology—they begin with strategy. They ask questions that expose the root of their uncertainty:

• What digital features do customers truly value—and how much are they willing to pay?

• What capabilities will differentiate us in the next three years?

• How do we align our product roadmap with customer needs and competitive realities?

Answering these questions provides direction and clarity, ensuring digital transformation efforts create measurable returns.

The best companies capture answers with strategic market research.

Strategic market research connects executives directly with market realities—through interviews with customers, competitors, and thought leaders, as well as highly targeted quantitative surveys. This approach identifies which innovations resonate with decision-makers and which investments deliver the greatest strategic impact.

Strategic clarity reduces risk and increases success.

By grounding transformation plans in external evidence rather than internal assumptions, executives can prioritize investments with confidence. Research clarifies what buyers value across the lifecycle of machinery ownership—from purchase to service and ongoing updates—helping leaders design stronger business models, such as subscription-based analytics or premium support services. The result: less guesswork, greater competitiveness, and higher ROI on every innovation.

EXAMPLE:

Strategic Question: “We know nothing about machinery software; how do we manage the risk, so we don’t lose money or customers?”

This is a great example of a strategic question many manufacturers might need to answer before moving forward with digital transformation. Like many strategic questions, it’s subjective—and difficult to quantify (why traditional market research struggles with it).

Here’s the approach the best performing companies use:

1. Produce a deep profile of the best practices used by companies that have already navigated this transition.

2. Identify and document these best practices using in-depth interviews with these companies (e.g., high performing competitors, and leaders from adjacent industries).

3. Ask them how they succeeded, what mistakes did they made, what worked, and what didn’t.

There are a number of firms that can help you schedule and conduct these interviews. However, if you want the best results, we recommend engaging a strategic market research firm. They will handle everything, plus the interviews will be conducted by an experienced business strategist to ensure you get the best results.

Confidence doesn’t come from speculation or opinion. It comes from understanding how others have already done it successfully.