“IT slows everything down.”
“The business doesn’t understand tech.”
“We have to collaborate, but we speak different languages.”
If you’ve ever said (or heard) any of these, you’re not alone. These are signs of an organizational model that struggles to keep pace with the complexity of digital innovation.
In the era of Digital Transformation, simply making IT and business coexist isn’t enough: what’s needed is true integration.
The companies that innovate continuously are the ones that break down silos and create new spaces for collaboration.
That’s the context in which the concept of fusion teams was born.
What Is a Fusion Team in the Era of Digital Transformation?
What Is a Fusion Team in the Era of Digital Transformation?
Fusion teams are multidisciplinary squads that bring together diverse skill sets: IT, business, data, UX, operations, and customer experience. They are not temporary task forces or ad hoc project groups. Instead, they are stable teams with direct ownership of results, working together to create measurable value.
According to Gartner, this model enables:
Shorter time from strategy to execution
More distributed and continuous innovation
Shared ownership across different roles
Elimination of hand-offs across silos, a frequent source of inefficiency
In short, fusion teams bring together technology and business to make decisions, act, and change together. It’s a cultural leap even before an operational one.
The New Role of IT: From Executor to Co-Leader
To guide digital transformation, fusion teams represent a paradigm shift. IT is no longer just managing systems or executing projects — it becomes a co-leader of cross-functional initiatives, often working alongside business product owners. That means:
Building mixed teams not only based on technical expertise, but also on communication skills, vision, and ownership
Aligning with business objectives, not just technical milestones
A Concrete Example: Improving the Post-Sales Customer Experience
Imagine a company wanting to improve the post-sales customer experience. A fusion team is formed with:
An IT lead responsible for architecture and release
A product owner from operations
A UX designer and a customer care analyst
A DevOps and a QA engineer
A data analyst providing insights based on NPS
The result? After just 4 sprints:
Incremental release of new features
35% reduction in open support tickets
A library of use cases replicated in other departments
The value generated is clear, concrete, and measurable.
Why Do Some Fusion Teams Fail?
Despite the benefits, not all fusion teams succeed. Often, the issue isn’t the model — it’s the execution. Here are some common pitfalls:
- Unclear or overlapping roles
- “Fusion teams” only on paper, not in process
- Team members still tied to legacy systems or ways of working
- Lack of real sponsorship or decision-making autonomy
But how do you make fusion teams truly work? To enable effective fusion teams, a few fundamental conditions are needed:
Appoint a business sponsor with decision-making power and vision
Define shared goals, oriented around business results, not just deliverables
Protect the team from distractions and misaligned tasks
Measure value, not just technical efficiency
Celebrate outcomes, even intermediate ones, to strengthen collaboration culture
Nomina un business sponsor con potere decisionale e visione- Definisci obiettivi condivisi, orientati ai risultati di business, non solo ai deliverable
- Proteggi il team da distrazioni e attività fuori focus
- Misura il valore, non solo l’efficienza tecnica
- Celebra i risultati, anche intermedi, per rafforzare la cultura di collaborazione
Fusion teams are not just a trend. They are the organizational answer to a digital transformation that can no longer be tackled with siloed departments.
As an IT leader, you can be the architect of this new mode of collaboration. You can create spaces where tech and business not only talk — they decide together. Because digital transformation isn’t a solo marathon.
It’s a true team effort.