Digital Twins: Your Organization's Hidden Metrics Detector

Ever wonder what you're not seeing in your organization? We all have blind spots, but what if we told you there's a way to shine a light on them using digital twins - and no, you don't need to create a perfect replica of your entire organization to get started.

A digital twin is like a flight simulator for your organization. Simulators enable pilots to practice complex maneuvers and emergency procedures in a risk-free virtual environment. Similarly, Digital twins can enable you to test organisational changes before implementing them in the real world. 

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What is a Digital Twin?

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A digital twin is a high-resolution digital replica of a real-life location, object, or process. The technology originated in systems-building and engineering. Since the 1960s, NASA has been building on-ground systems to predict the behaviors of systems in space. But its applications have not stopped there; digital twins can now simulate the behavior of an entire firm and how it reacts to various shocks and events. Markets are aware of the potential value, with the industry projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of more than 60% from a $6.9 billion industry in 2022 to a forecasted $73.5 billion by 2027. Why is this taking off now? For the first time there is sufficient data, and computational engines that can process it, accessible to the masses.

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Technical Building Blocks: A Starting Point

Technical complexity is not required to get started with digital twins and incremental construction alone can produce accurate models.

At its core, a digital twin project begins with three fundamental layers of technology; The foundation is your data collection infrastructure. Start with the data you already have - calendar data revealing meeting frequencies, or the workflow data from your project management tools. If your needs grow, you can expand to include additional data sources by integrating with your business systems, in real time.

The second and third layers - modeling and visualization - work together to bring out recognisable patterns from the data. The modeling component acts as your organization's "simulation engine," processing the relationships and procedures that determine how your organisation works. This feeds into visualization tools that make the insights accessible through dashboards and reports. Many organizations begin with basic modeling of a single department or process, using existing business intelligence tools they already have. By starting small you can minimise investment costs and with iterative design you can gradually build a model that reflects your real-world operations.

So what are the benefits of even small-scale digital twins? When implemented correctly, the cost of experiments will fall dramatically, hundreds of small tweaks for your organisation could be tested within a day. Ideally, the digital twin becomes more valuable over time. As your expertise grows, you'll be able to examine recurring processes and past events from a wider range of perspectives.

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The Insights within seemingly invisible metrics

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1. The "Communication Network" Reveal

Remember that "siloed departments" problem everyone talks about? A digital twin can show you exactly where the information bottlenecks are. Maybe your design team and customer service rarely interact, even though they're working on the same product experience.

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2. The "Creative Time" Metric

By modeling approval chains and decision flows in a digital twin, you may uncover that routine decisions take unexpected paths through your organization. What is formally a simple two-step approval process may in practice include six unofficial review touchpoints.  Creating hidden delays. These emerging patterns reveal how informal practices naturally layer upon formal processes, offering insights into the social networks within your organisation that task-flows depend on.

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3. The "Knowledge Flow" Pattern

Simulating meeting patterns and  the informal networks, may reveal the critical knowledge junctions that concentrate in unexpected places. Your junior developer may actually be the go-to person for solving a particular set of issues, but this isn't reflected in your formal structure.

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Starting Small 

You don't need to create a complete digital twin of your entire organization to start seeing the benefits. Start with:

1. One department or process
2. Readily available data (calendars, email patterns, job descriptions)
3. A specific question you want to answer

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Hidden Patterns in Plain Sight

Let's consider a hypothetical case study: A client creates a basic digital twin of their project management process, expecting to find inefficiencies in task allocation. Instead, they discovered that their most successful projects all had one thing in common: regular informal coffee chats between technical and non-technical team members. This wasn't showing up in any traditional metrics, but is something they can do more of in the future, by creating the right incentives! 

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Getting Started 

1. Start with Questions, Not Technology: What organizational blind spots keep you up at night? What would a successful Digital Twin map out? 
2. Map What You Have: Use existing data sources - you probably have more than you think, almost any output, interaction or process of your firm could be helpful input in building the digital twin model. 
3. Functionality first: Ensure that your digital twin model is able to simulate intended processes. What would a minimum viable digital twin look like? Once built, test out its predictive capacity through short-term tests and calibrate the model accordingly. 
4. Look for Patterns: The most valuable insights often come from connecting seemingly unrelated data points.
5. Act Small, Learn Big: Test your findings with small experiments both in your firm and in the model before making major changes.

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The Bottom Line

At its most basic form, a digital twin is an advanced process map. By including details often left out of traditional process maps - like employee role descriptions and the structure of daily tasks - you can uncover an entirely new category of insights, as demonstrated in our hypothetical case study.

For those interested in learning more, consider exploring resources like the Digital Twin Consortium's publications or case studies from your industry. Paradigm Junction can help you identify these, or work with you to build the first maps of how your organisation works. 

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