I recently completed the second module of my master’s programme, Technical and Digital Leadership. I went in expecting to learn frameworks. I came out having to think harder about myself.

Digital transformation isn’t a project — it’s a cycle

One of the most useful reframes from the module was that digital transformation has no finish line. It’s an iterative process: you define a vision, focus on the problems that matter most, test ideas, scale what works, and build the talent to sustain it — then you go around again as the landscape shifts.

The five-stage roadmap we covered gave me a much more structured way to think about something I’d previously seen as vague organisational noise. 5 stages of digital transformation - Source Digital Transformation Playbook - David Rogers

What struck me most at step four — managing growth at scale — is how much of that is an engineering problem. Governance, architecture decisions, technical debt management. That’s not a business function, that’s us.

The part I wasn’t expecting: communication styles

The module introduced VARK — a model describing how people prefer to take in information: Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, or Kinaesthetic. I’m firmly in the Reading/Writing camp. Give me a well-written document and I’ll understand it thoroughly. But not everyone works that way. Some people need to see a diagram. Some need to talk it through. Some need to try it hands-on. Obvious in hindsight, but, what wasn’t obvious is how much I’d been defaulting to my own style — writing detailed documents and assuming that was sufficient communication. It isn’t, for some of the people I work with. I am going to try to be more deliberate about this in the future. When I’m proposing something technical, I want to pair the written detail with a visual summary, not as an afterthought, but as a first-class part of how I communicate.

The bigger reflection

I used to think the path beyond senior developer was mostly about going deeper technically. This module made me question that. Technical depth matters, but the ability to align people around a vision, communicate across different styles, and help others grow; that might be the harder and more important half of the job. I’m still figuring that out. But I’m glad the module made me uncomfortable enough to start.