The Fatal Flaw in Digital Transformation (It’s Not the Tech)
In this presentation, Paige Domels, a former apparel designer turned fashion‑tech consultant, argues that the biggest obstacle to successful digital transformation in the apparel industry is not the technology itself but the people who must adopt it. Drawing on her 20 years of product design experience and a decade working with 3D and AI tools, she outlines common reasons why implementations stumble—lack of leadership championing, unclear purpose, one‑size‑fits‑all training, misaligned tool features, and unaddressed emotional resistance. Domels maps the emotional journey of change to the Kübler‑Ross grief cycle (shock, denial, frustration, depression, acceptance, integration) and shows how this emotional curve fuels resistance. She then presents two proven change‑management frameworks—Kotter’s 8‑step model and the ADKAR model—explaining how each can be adapted to apparel workflows, emphasizing urgency, coalition building, pilot champions, celebrating quick wins, and institutionalizing new practices. Throughout, she stresses the need for role‑specific training, tailored workflows, realistic expectations about AI/3D (they are tools, not magic wands), and close partnership with technology vendors. Practical advice includes running pilots, leveraging factories for asset creation, transparent leadership communication, and fostering a culture where experimentation and failure are accepted. The talk concludes with a call to action for brands, manufacturers, and tech providers to collaborate on people‑first strategies to achieve sustainable adoption of 3D and AI in fashion.
Chapters
Feels like they're trying to shove 3D down my throat. If AI can design, analyze trends, create tech packs, what do they need me for? It's like they expect me to do two jobs now. I already have one and they want me to learn a whole new job. Show of hands, you guys, who has heard these kind of statements, maybe said them yourself? In there? Yeah? Accurate? Yeah. So, I'd like to introduce myself for those of you that don't know me. I am Paige Domels, and I have been in the apparel industry for a number of years. I spent about 20 years in the product side in design development roles. And then about the last 10 years, I've been in the fashion tech side. So I've been working in 3D and AI. And now today, I have my own consulting business where I am kind of merging those two lives together and trying to help both digital technologies connect their technology to people and also helping brands and manufacturers really be able to bring their people into this new digital revolution that we're working in right now. Okay? So what we're gonna go over today is I'm gonna take you guys through some of the ways that I've seen digital implementations or technologies fail or stumble, talk about the psychology and a little bit of the human side of the emotions that everybody goes through when they start to go through a change. And then also a few change strategies that I actually really like that I found to be very successful in helping bring people through this new way of working. So this is probably something that many of you have not actually heard said, but technology isn't always the hard part. So companies are spending millions of dollars to bring in all of these digital technologies and solutions for their teams to help improve efficiencies and improve the bottom line. And then you have, as you guys have seen downstairs, some really, really amazing technologies who are working very, very hard to bring you solutions to the problems that you guys are facing. They're very, very smart. They are meeting the users where they want to be working. But the technical part isn't always the problem. It's actually getting people to pick up those tools. So a tool is only as good as the person who's gonna pick it up. Otherwise, it's just this beautiful tool that's sitting in a shed and nobody's using it, right? So the emotional part is what we don't often think about enough of when we are thinking about how we're gonna bring a team through a transformation or a digital implementation, okay? So I've been around a few different implementations myself. I've actually talked to a lot of people who've worked with a lot of different tools and what I've seen, one of the common, some of the common things, and you guys give me nods, raise your hands if you guys have seen some of these reasons for failures as well. These are all also very much people-focused because as you guys are going to learn, I am very, I'm very much a people-first person. But some of the reasons I see maybe a digital implementation or a transformation fail, leadership. So leadership is great. They've bought the tool for you, they've paid for the training, and then 6 months later they're like, hey, how are you guys doing? Leadership is so important. Think of it as the spotlight on a runway show. You've made all this work in a beautiful collection and you're ready to take it down the runway, and all of a sudden the light goes out. and it's not even, nobody's even seeing it. People need to be motivated by knowing that they're putting all of this work into something because their leadership cares about it. Their leadership has to champion this through the whole implementation and the whole journey, okay? The other part is making sure people understand why they're being asked to learn these new tools, how it's gonna help them, how it's gonna impact the way that they work. So they go into it actually having a good buy-in to learning this new technology, okay? And then when you get to the training, one size does not fit all. Workflow is the same kind of thing. You really need to make sure that you're taking into account what the person's role is when you're training them. How do they wanna use these tools? What are the workflows that are going to solve the problems and the pain Pains that they have in their everyday jobs, okay? And then also just acknowledging and understanding the emotions that are associated with learning a new technology going into a change statement. You know, people are afraid of things. There are some of the statements we saw in the beginning. Is this going to replace my job? What if I can't learn how to use this new tool? What if it's too hard for me? Am I gonna lose my job from that? There's a lot of fear that's associated with this. So similarly for the technologies, the, all of these amazing software tools that are down there, some of the, some of the ways I've seen failures or stumbles with that is that you've got this amazing team of developing an amazing tool, but they're focused more on the features of the tool and they're not connecting it to how people want to use that tool. So maybe the field teams that work for that technology aren't translating it back to the developers. And so they're spending all this time on these amazing things and then people maybe aren't even using them because they're not relevant. Or I've been guilty of this myself in demos, but oversimplifying a tool. It's so easy. It's like a magic wand. Anyone can do it. Well, we see how much work the companies put into building these tools, and there's a reason. They're very, very powerful tools, and we want people to understand and have an expectation of what it's gonna take to learn these. You can do a lot with these things, but it's not gonna be a magic wand. Be ready and don't sell yourself as it's a magic wand, okay? Or for example, maybe they only position themself to solve for one part one portion of the lifecycle. Hey, this is really, really great for when you're designing upfront. And what happens is that you can't use this tool because you either haven't connected it to the whole workflow. And as a technology, people are saying, great, I'll just, you know, try this for a month when you need to be connecting it to the whole workflow for the whole lifecycle so that the people that are using it can understand how it's going to impact their daily lives, and it's not something you just set up on the shelf for 6 months out of the year. And then finally, the emotional part. The technologies themselves need to understand how the users are feeling when they open up their laptop and they open up that tool. Are they nervous about it? How do we help them understand that this is something that's going to help you, it's not going to take over your job, it's not going to, make you obsolete. Those are the things that a technology company is responsible for making sure that their users can understand when they help you through your implementations. So, who here is familiar with the grief cycle or the stages of grief? Anybody in here? Yep, Kubler-Ross. How many of those different stages of grief and the emotions do you think are positive? Anyone? All of them? All are positive in the stages of grief? Yes. Because they're— Actually, there is only one emotion that you go through in the stages of grief according to Kübler-Ross. And so if you're not familiar, Kübler-Ross actually did a study on the stages that somebody goes through when they are diagnosed with a terminal illness. What do people feel when they're faced with something that's gonna be life-altering for them? Excuse me. And what they've been able to do is they've been able to actually translate that into similar emotions that you feel when you are faced with change, okay? And I think it really works well when you think about technology and digital change in a very legacy industry that we all work in, in apparel, right? We go through the feeling of shock first. I don't even know what this is. My manager just came in and told me that they just bought 5 licenses for this software and I have to learn it next week. I don't know what it is. I don't know if I can do this. And then you go into the denial. Oh, it's okay because that team over there, they're the ones that actually have to learn it. I don't have to do it. To learn it, they're going to learn it. And then you start to realize that, ooh, wait a minute, we're all doing this now. And you start to get a little frustrated because maybe you spent hours tweaking the measurements on building an avatar, or you put in 50 different prompts to try to get exactly the image that you were trying to with the AI. And it's frustrating. And then you start to get into this feeling of depression. I don't know if I can do my job anymore. If this is the way my job is going, am I even the right person for this? Am I going to be able to learn this? We're hardwired to have these kind of negative biases to change. It's this curve that we go through that is going to build the resistance to an implementation. But also human nature starts to come through as well. And we start to go— and we want to succeed. And so we look at this and we say, You know what, maybe I'll start trying this. Maybe I'll start creating some different colorways in this 3D tool, or maybe I'm going to load in a 2D sketch into this AI tool and see what it really looks like. Wait a minute, now I can actually get what's out of my brain and everybody can see it. This is actually working. You're starting to get the wins right now. You're moving into the point where you're deciding, yeah, I think I'm going to do this, I think I'm going to do this. That then leads to the integration, and there you have a sex a successful integration, okay? What we haven't done well enough though is we've lived in this latter half of the change curve because that's where you feel like you're being successful. But we are not spending enough time understanding the emotions that somebody is going through first when you're gonna ask them to make these kind of changes, okay? So how do we help people go through these emotions? Well, there's some really great change strategies that I like, and I think that there's a few of them that are very, very applicable to apparel. Why these are important is because we need to be proactive when we are going into a strategy to bring in a new technology. That means that we need to understand what these emotions are going to be. We need to have a plan, again, The apparel industry likes processes, right? So let's build a process, let's build a strategy that can be a step-by-step guide that people can be confident in following to help overcome the emotions before it potentially derails a whole initiative, to help overcome the resistance, and to help people feel confident and continue the excitement and the motivation through the journey so that you can actually achieve the goals that you're trying to when you bring in a new technology. Okay? So the first one that I really like is Kotter's 8-step change model. Anybody familiar with this one? So the reason this one is great is that it is really process-oriented. You're going through the steps It's great for that early adoption and that strategic planning phase. And one of the things that if you've been on the technology side, you know it's very difficult, is getting people to just get started, right? So the first thing that Kotter's 8-step change model does is it creates urgency. And this is the same thing when you're trying to get people to learn it inside. Hey guys, when does somebody have time on their calendar to learn a new technology? Well, I'll get to it eventually. And again, if leadership isn't pushing it and isn't supporting it, we'll get to it eventually. Creating that urgency is going to then kick off the foundations that you're gonna start building with your coalition of the leadership on this team. And that needs to be a coalition because if you're hoping to truly change things end to end, that means it can't just live in one silo. You need to have people enrolled across everyone who works together and make sure that they all have a voice in it because you're all gonna be working differently and you need to depend on a different role to be able to be successful in how you're gonna use this tool and create a workflow for it. And then from that, you're building that strategic. So we're doing it step by step. You're building that strategic model in there, preparing yourself to get your army or your pilot team, your champions who are gonna be excited excited about the technology. And then from there, when you go into training, the really, really critical thing, and this is a big people part again, is you've got to celebrate those wins. When you have these short, you know, some people call it low-hanging fruit, whatever, you've gotta celebrate 'em and you've gotta celebrate 'em often because our industry is fast-paced. You're always changing and onto the next thing. And you need to remember that you're socializing these things out, you're telling people how they're improving ways of working 'cause you're gonna have the late adopters who need all of this stuff. And what it's gonna do is it's gonna help you build that momentum, it's gonna help you sustain that momentum until you then institutionalize a whole new way of working. Okay? And then the other one that I really like is ADKAR. Some of you guys may have heard of it as Prosize Change Management. The reason I like this one is this one focuses much more on people. And so we're in a people-focused industry, right? We design clothes for people's emotions, for how they feel, for how they think. So why are we not working that way when we are trying to bring a technology into our own businesses? Right? And so what Ad Carr does is it starts with awareness, and this goes back also to that why am I doing this, how am I doing this. You can't just plop a technology down to somebody and say go. You know, they need to know and be aware of it. And then the next part of that is desire. They have to want to do this, and desire is very different than the piece of building urgency. Urgency is getting started. Desire is, yeah, now I want to do this. And that's also where you're finding your champions. The desire is, of course, higher with them, right? Then you're going to go into the knowledge piece. And this is very easy. It's very step by step. You're going to know in the knowledge, this is what it is. This is what it can do for you. These are the potential workflows that you might use on this. Then you're going to train them, give them the ability to be successful and use the tool. And then you're gonna reinforce it, okay? And what this is gonna do is even by going through the first steps of ADKAR, the awareness, the desire, the knowledge, if you can do this before you potentially send somebody into training, for example, now you've eliminated this resistance and people are on board and they're excited to get going, right? Yeah. So I did wanna make a note for you guys before I go through what the key takeaways are in this. If you have any questions, put them in now and it'll keep us from having a little lull at the end. So I'm going through this kind of fast, but the key takeaways for you guys today is really that technology isn't necessarily the barrier to being successful, okay? You guys, I wanna say that again because we have walked through all of these, wonderful technologies downstairs. I mean, some of them are even intimidating me and I've been doing this for about 10 years, but it's the people. We need to make sure we're bringing the people along. This is why we are here at this PI Conference. Yes, it's to see what the new technologies are, but it's why we have these one-on-ones and these round tables. It's connecting to people, it's learning from people, it's bringing everybody together in the industry, right? And change is emotional. This is probably, from my opinion, one of the most important things that people have to think about when they're bringing in a new technology and expecting somebody to be using it and be successful. And how you're gonna be successful with that is having a structured change strategy. Using things like ADKAR and like Kotter's 8 steps So that you can actually have a process that people feel familiar with, okay? We like steps in things, whether it's making garments, whether it's calendars, we're comfortable with that. Helping people through that part and also really importantly, you guys, it's not one size fits all. You need to build a tailored approach based off the different roles because we know that a designer and how they want to use a tool and even what tools they want to use and what's going to resonate with them in their jobs is very, very different than a pattern maker might be. Okay? So make sure you're thinking about a tailored approach to how you're going to bring somebody through this. And then with that, that's when you're going to be able to have that sustainable momentum. People are going to continue to be excited. They're going to feel confident in it. It's not gonna seem so scary and so difficult, and they're gonna want to be with you on this ride to go through and have a successful implementation. Okay? So that's my spiel. Thanks, you guys, for coming in, listening to it. So as I said, I am working with both technologies, and so if you guys are part of a great technology and you just need a little bit of help on how to bring it to people, how to help that value story resonate with them, or if you're a brand or a manufacturer and you are just starting your implementation, or maybe you've been doing it and you're a little stuck and you just need a little bit of help to kind of move it forward, feel free to contact me and do some questions. Thank you. Okay, what have I seen successful adoption in new technology? Can you clarify whoever put that through a little bit more? Successful adoption meaning like what areas have I seen it be successful or what kind of technologies or how has it been successful? Okay, well, yeah, okay. I would say probably how I've seen it I've seen some of the most successful ones are teams that are very open and very transparent in what they're doing. Also, if it is a team that is working really closely with the technology themselves, most technologies have an incredible amount of knowledge about best practices, what works really well. Make sure that that is an open conversation. That's honestly where I've seen some of the most successful implementations is when you're really open with your teams or with your, with your partners. Any more questions? Oh, hi. Yeah. The differences? Yeah. I think that AI is really exciting for people. I think that they kind of think it's the magic wand and the solution to what's been hard in the past. But at the same time, to me, it depends what you're using. If we're talking generative AI, there's a time and a place for each of those things. It's not, in my opinion, going to replace 3D because AI is a visual piece. And it's— and if you like, I personally actually think the strength of AI is as a communication tool. Okay, it's creativity is great, but we've got some really amazing creative designers already out there. But if I can take a sketch and put it into AI, and now I'm sitting at a table, and instead of them looking at a sketch and guessing what that's supposed to look like, now they can actually— everyone at this table who might have had a different point of view can actually see what that's going to look like, the communication is better. You've reduced the risk on that. And it can be used throughout the lifecycle. It can bookend 3D also, because whether it's going into a tech pack and you are sending it to your factory, now your factory doesn't have to guess what you want, right? You get your 3D assets back. We all know— have you guys heard of the uncanny valley? Familiar with what that is? AI is a great tool to help leap that over, because if you think about it, there's really two— 2 outcomes of a 3D asset, right? You either push it into selling, or whatever, it's internal, external, what have you, or it can go directly into manufacturing. That's why that 3D asset is so powerful, because it has all that data in it. But when it's at the image point of view, you need people to believe it's real. So you're helping— AI can help you leap that uncanny valley. Yeah. Oh, down here, okay. Ooh, I'm gonna stay away from what are my favorite tools because I tend to be agnostic, but I think for me maybe a good way to answer that is I think it's putting the right tool in the right hand of the person at the right time for the right job. So it's not trying to ask a designer to go and create patterns if that's not maybe they did it in school. Like for me, when I was a designer, hey, I could do a pattern, but I can tell you I did a project about a week ago and it's not easy if you're not doing that every day. So it's putting the right tool in the right hands. Can I talk about pilots with brands, customers, and managing expectations, especially if the technology is at early stage? Absolutely. I think that that is where the first part part of those change management tools comes in. And it is understanding that you're not just gonna jump in here and say, here's what we're gonna do, bang, bang, bang. You've gotta bring people in, make sure that they understand what they're coming, what they're starting, make sure that they have a say in this. Yeah, this process makes sense. Make sure they understand what the tool can do so that they can actually be educated to then build a process and a workflow that resonates with them. When you bring that part of the change management into it, that's when you're gonna have more success. And celebrate those wins. Make sure that the training is resonating with them. Check in with them. Hey guys, do you learn this way or do you learn that way? Also partner closely with your technology partners because they, like I say, they've seen this happen, they've seen a lot of fails, they've seen a lot of wins, and they know how to be successful. So use them. Recommendations to support fast and rapid growth. I think when it comes to 3D, I would say leverage some of the third-party and/or the 3D companies, leverage the studios that can help you guys build assets so that it's easier to get started with, so that when you are learning, you don't have to learn A through Z. You can focus as a pattern maker or a tech designer on validating the patterns and the fit. So yeah, absolutely just leverage your factories to do a lot of the work. Have them help you get the manual work out of the way, I guess. So did I get them? Oh, advice for managing leadership expectations on speed of implementation. Knowing the team's need to adopt, that's a really important one. There's also a lot of risk in getting a sales team really excited about using 3D or AI and your team isn't set up to be able to produce all of those assets yet. I think just transparency, being really honest about the timelines it takes to train and to get up to speed, thinking about upfront, hey guys, are you gonna have your internal teams doing this Or are you guys going to bring in your factories? Because if you have a set of trained users in your factories already, yeah, you can get there faster. What are your goals that you're trying to achieve? And so you're not going to do everything at once. So, um, hmm. Let's see. Okay. How do you recommend navigating teams through a digital transformation while the tools themselves are evolving so quickly? Yeah. I think it kind of depends on, one thing is as the tools are evolving, indeed they are, but you don't always have to jump on the latest version all the time. So making sure that your team is trained and once they are trained, they're gonna be able to keep up with the versioning on it because generally you're not eliminating features when you're versioning up. They're actually adding features features to the tools that you guys have been asking for. So it's not like they're flipping into a whole new tool, they're just trying to make it easier for you and basically solve the pains you guys are having. So, um, yeah, yeah. Uh, what challenges would you point out on adoption? Um, I think just not, not honoring and recognizing and planning for how scary it's going to be for people, not getting people on board, not having them buying into it, and not taking into account the people part of it. So any lessons learned or best practices of how a company can embrace GenAI? Yeah, I think that you need to be clear that this is one more tool in your arsenal to be successful with it. Be clear about what you want your teams to do with it and make sure that they understand how they can apply it into their workflows. Give them the support with that. Also, the AI tools that are coming out with this, if they're a good tool, they're ready to partner with you. They have built it based on a workflow and they know where it's going to be able to fit in and where it's going to be able to help you. So listen to them, partner with them, and, you know, just try. Don't be afraid. If you're a manager, if you're a leader, make sure that you're setting up an environment where people can try and fail and try again. If you're a user, don't be afraid to try. Don't be afraid to fail. That's how any of these technologies move forward. And keep communicating with your technology partners because they're either gonna be able to tell you how to do it easier or they're gonna build something for you that solves a problem that you're having currently. Common chat. Okay, I think that's it. So, all right guys, thank you.
