From technology to customers: McKinsey says companies should rethink digital investment

McKinsey has identified a paradox of digital transformation: despite years of investment and billions of dollars, companies capture less than one third of the expected value. The research points to a fundamental mistake in how most organizations approach digitalization, and to how to fix it.

The classic mistake of large companies

The problem starts with the choice of starting point. The traditional approach is nearly universal among large companies: the organization acquires advanced technological capabilities, such as cloud platforms, AI systems and big data analytics, and then looks for places to apply these tools. It is like looking for a nail for the hammer you just bought.

It sounds logical, but the result is the opposite of what is intended. You get fragmented solutions that are not connected to one another. Different departments deploy their own systems without a shared strategy. Synergy is lost. Above all, the customer stays out of focus. When technology is the starting point, the needs of real people become a secondary concern. The company spends its budget on what it considers progressive, not on what its customers actually need.

Customer-back engineering: working backward

McKinsey proposes inverting the process entirely. Instead of "we have a technology, let's find a use for it," move to "here is a customer need, which technology solves it?" This is called customer-back engineering.

Start with a deep understanding of the pains your customer experiences right now, the goals they pursue, and how they solve the problem today by an alternative route (often an inefficient one). Only then work backward, to the technologies and systems that meet those needs best.

This order is essential. You do not start with technology, but with the person and their real problem. Only then do you choose the tool that solves it. It sounds obvious, but most companies do exactly the opposite.

Why this approach works better:

• The solution addresses a real problem, not an imagined need the company decided to invent for itself
• All departments, from product to engineering, speak the same language: that of the customer, their goals and pains
• Technology investment is justified by a concrete result and ROI, rather than the reverse: "we bought a cool system, now find where to use it"
• Far fewer losses from deploying unused or underused systems that looked promising but proved superfluous

The result: investment efficiency grows several-fold, because every system solves a real problem instead of being deployed "because it is modern" or "because a competitor uses it."

Why this matters in 2026

Today, in the era of artificial intelligence and cloud computing, companies have an unprecedented range of tools and capabilities. An organization's technology estate can include dozens of systems, from AI assistants to automated analytics, from big data to cloud platforms. But here is the problem: a tool without a task is just a cost. A beautiful, modern, working cost, but a cost.

McKinsey shows that a typical organization's technology estate is used at 20-30% of its potential. Why such underuse? Not because the systems are bad or poorly implemented. Simply, nobody asked the customer what they really need. The company bought the best technology and invested millions in deploying it, but did not solve the best problem. The result: the system works, but delivers no value.

What this means

For companies, this means moving from "we have a technology, how do we monetize it" to "here is a customer problem, which technology solves it." This requires a cultural shift: you need to listen to the customer longer than you pitch them technology. You need to understand their world before proposing a solution.

McKinsey's data indicates that the effect pays off, many times over. Companies that apply customer-back engineering report a 3–5x increase in ROI from digital investments. That is not a marginal improvement. It is a move into a different league of efficiency. And it applies not only to large corporations: the approach works for startups and mid-sized companies that are just starting their digital transformation.