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The digital adoption specialist position is becoming more and more relevant each year – but what do digital adoption specialists do?
In this article, we’ll cover the basics of this job, including:
- What the digital adoption specialist does
- How to become a digital adoption specialist
- Types of digital adoption specialists
- What the future looks like for this career path
See below for more.
Digital Adoption Specialist 101: A Quick Job Profile
To better understand this job position, let’s answer some of the most frequently asked questions about digital adoption and digital adoption specialists.
What is digital adoption?
The best place to start is by clearly defining digital adoption.
Digital adoption is the state where software users are using digital tools to their fullest extent and for their intended purpose.
Adoption rates and outcomes directly impact user productivity, the user experience, and user engagement, among other things.
For software developers, adoption rates affect key customer metrics such as customer retention and value. For these companies, therefore, digital adoption specialists offer value that directly impacts the company’s bottom line.
Digital adoption is equally important for any other business, however.
After all, digital adoption rates directly affect:
- Employee productivity and performance
- The digital workplace experience
- The ROI of software investments
- The outcomes of digital transformation efforts
In short, digital adoption specialists offer a great deal of value to modern enterprises. And, as we will see below, these job positions will become increasingly important in the years ahead.
What do digital adoption specialists do?
Digital adoption specialists naturally focus their efforts on digital adoption, either for in-house employees or customers.
Specialists will focus on improving stages in the adoption process, such as:
- Software onboarding
- User training
- Technical support
- Customer service
These phases are all part of the journey that users take when they adopt a new product or service, so digital adoption specialists will work on some aspect of this program.
Like any other job category, there are different job positions within this field, such as:
- Digital adoption technicians who design, implement, and manage digital adoption solutions
- Digital adoption managers who focus on managing projects and coordinating with stakeholders
- Digital adoption leaders who oversee digital adoption projects at the organizational and strategic level
Each of these areas has its own focus and each is suited to a different type of employee.
Those who enjoy crafting user experiences and training content, for instance, would be well-suited to becoming a digital adoption specialist.
Business leaders who want to dedicate time to digital adoption programs, however, will likely want to learn more about digital adoption at the strategic level.
How do you become a digital adoption specialist?
This is a relatively new field, but it is growing quickly and there are already educational opportunities becoming available.
WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Institute, for instance, offers certification and training for the three categories mentioned above – digital adoption technicians, digital adoption managers, and digital adoption leaders.
Since these jobs rely so heavily on digital adoption platforms (DAPs), a formal education from a DAP leader, such as WalkMe, is certainly one of the best ways to become qualified for this position.
Other useful skills to obtain include:
- Project management skills
- Teaching ability
- Communication, leadership, and managerial skills
- Digital savviness
Of course, the skills needed for a particular job will vary based on that job’s role in an adoption project. It is therefore useful to focus on the skills most applicable to one’s interests and job function.
A digital adoption manager, for instance, would do well to focus on skills such as project management and leadership.
A technician, on the other hand, should learn how to create good training programs with DAPs.
What does the future hold for digital adoption specialists?
The digital adoption market is projected to grow rapidly in the years ahead.
Several years from now, it is expected to be more than three times the size it is today.
Career prospects for this job category, in other words, are bright.
There are several reasons why this job position is a good choice for a forward-thinking, digitally savvy professional:
- The job is dynamic and exciting – it constantly involves the implementation of new digital tools and platforms
- Those who like teaching and helping others learn will find it rewarding
- Disruptive innovation is driving digitization and digital transformation, which depends directly on the adoption of new technology
- DAPs are training platforms that can be used either remotely or onsite, which means that digital adoption specialists can offer significant value, even in the remote workplace
- Digital adoption specialists are compensated well and they will only become more in-demand
As digitization and digital transformation continue to drive the global economy forward, roles such as this one will become more and more relevant.
