Digital Quotient
The digital quotient is considered as “Metrics of response generated by an entity in response towards the stimulus received from a digital medium.” No two people are same and so are their behaviors and therefore the digital quotient is also a unique behavioral parameter for everyone.
How does the Digital Quotient Makes a Difference
It is said that in coming decade the digital technologies evolution would be at a scale equivalent to evolution happened in the last century….and so would be the ecosystem around you. To an individual it is a good reflection of how he/she shall be placed in the new digital ecosystem which is shaping up at an unprecedented velocity of evolution. As an individual, you shall thrive or survive this deluge better, if you are aware of your behavioral traits which signify your innate response to the stimulus generated on the digital ecosystem. Your unique behavior is assessed and analyzed based upon 45 different traits which are summarized in 07 unique behavioral traits. This is termed as DQME type indicators (based upon the title of the best seller book “DQME” authored by Rahul Shandilya and is based upon his doctoral research work in Human Computers Interactions)
How do Organizations take benefit from Digital Quotient and these Type Indicators
The organizations who are in the journey of digital transformation or digital disruption may focus on the abilities of their existing employees to be able to contribute to the organizations goals constructively and at a velocity and scale as may be desirous from them. However, is an employee competent enough or is he/she well placed to contribute significantly is the key question, an organization need to ask. The same may also apply to a new talent under the hiring process.
The upskilling program which organizations may undertake to prepare and development talent for next phase of organization evolution; shall need a foundational assessment of the digital quotient of the employee base. The most important investment by a future organization will be around making their employee base qualified and competent to embrace digital change.
DQME Type Personality Type Indicators
These 07 unique and deduced behavior traits are as Updated, Confident, Curious, Connected, Efficient, Experimentative and Epicurean. The acronym stated as UCCCEEE® or U3C3E® for the sake of ease of memory and recall.
The behavior trait of an individual and enterprise / organization may vary depending upon logic of being alone or collectiveness. However, the trait is not seen to change much. The enterprise may see this trait as part of their organization culture, where the collective response of the people could be either positive or negative. Thus, the digital quotient of an individual and an organization / enterprise could have sufficient similarities. However, within an organization, the respective individuals may have a contrasting behavior trait as not two individuals are same.
As stated before, the digital quotient for an individual is reflection of how he/she responds to any stimulus which is received on a digital medium and is measured as function of scores achieved by an individual over these traits. The range scale is used to measure the individual’s psychometric responses consisting of situation-based questions, which reflect how an individual would have reacted and is accordingly be adjudged against specific traits.
The score metrics is proposed as DQME score and dominant factors type indicators The DQME type personality indicator stands for how would an individual score across all these seven traits and correspondingly how would the behavior be once a stimulus is sent to him/her over a digital medium.
The DQME Type Personality Indicator is proposed to be represented as a construct of binary digits – 1111111 where someone would score high on all seven traits and as 0000000 where someone would score low for all seven traits. The mix of scores would be a function of variable Xn where n= 1 to 7 traits
F(x) = X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6, X7
Thus, someone with an indicator score as 0101010 can be considered as an individual who has scored high on three traits ref Confident, Curious and Epicurean whereas he/she has scored low on the four traits ref Updated, Connected, Efficient and Experimentative.
It is important to note that the individual trait score (henceforth called as TRAIT BEHAVIOR) provides an understanding of how an individual would behave wrt to that specific trait, which can be observed in reference to the description given above. However, a personality behavior level response can be studied considering all seven traits and how they would work in tandem given that the traits have a continuous run of behavior so your band may at times be cusp of two behavior range sets.
The DQME RESPONSE score is measured as weighted average across all seven traits on a scale of 100. It could be anywhere between 0 and 100. However, the responsiveness cannot be longitudinal in nature as it is a function of seven traits. Thus, the degree of the responsiveness is to be understood considering score levels of each of these traits. These traits also have a correlation among themselves and thus mathematically a response can be analyzed considering various combinations.
Chart No: Spider Chart Displaying DQME Type Score – Trait Wise Analysis
Example for Correlations in assessing the response
An individual whose score is 0101010 is clearly poised for positive response on 03 traits as Confident, Curious and Epicurean. He/she is also poised for negative response on 04 traits as Updated, Connected, Efficient and Exprimentative.
On the basis of the definitions provided above for these traits, the said individual has inclination towards the finer aspects and is likely to be a big consumer of the OTT content concerning the sensualities in life, value luxuries, pleasures and has emotional facade. Being confident he engages on digital platforms quite remarkably well and his curiosity gives him/her that extra flip to stay hooked to the platform, in search of that elusive element which would have made a difference. This makes him /her a potential heavy user of the digital platform.
The low scores on Updated states that he/she doesn’t have an eye for details and is very likely to surf through and not go deep to know more about the content. So if you don’t present the summary very well, chances are that you would miss his/her attention. The lack experimentation shows that he/she is unlikely to stay engaged for long. The low score on connected eludes towards the disinclination individual has towards collaborating on the choices he/she would make what content he/she would like. He/she is likely to make choices on its own terms. The low score on efficiency reflects that he/she is not very predetermined and is likely to make more gut-based calls rather than scientifically pruning the choices.
Thus, the individual in discussion is likely to be reclusive but immersive and consumptive on any digital platform. He/she shall be responsive if the digital platforms provide a great UI/UX and carry structured relevant information upfront, else he /she may exit early. He shall seek quantity above quality if ease to use is taken care of.
However, if we study the individual scores better at a TRUST BEHAVIOR score level with range sets, you may like to dilute or increase the intensity of these behavior as above. Thus, the final assessment of an individual’s response on the digital stimulus is a mix of various functional variables.
To study and understand better, you may visit and take appropriate tests and see your analysis on www.dqmetrics.com