FACT CHECKED
A smart digital adoption strategy is one that looks at the big picture … as well as the details.
It doesn’t just aim for software deployment or technology adoption.
Instead, smart digital adoption focuses on:
- The strategic goals of digital maturity and digital transformation
- Reducing waste and increasing efficiency
- Obtaining buy-in and support from stakeholders
- Benefiting individuals as well as the organization
Whether your business is large or small, it pays to craft a smart digital adoption process.
If you do, you will run into fewer roadblocks and achieve better results.
Let’s look at 15 tips that can improve your digital adoption initiative.
15 Tips for Smart Digital Adoption
In no particular order, here are 15 action items you can implement to improve your adoption program:
1. Use a Digital Adoption Platform
A digital adoption platform (DAP) is designed to improve training, onboarding, and learning.
Through automated contextualized learning, DAPs guide users as they use the app … not before or after.
This drastically improves knowledge retention, productivity, and user engagement.
2. Implement Formalized Change Management
Organizational change management focuses on the people side of change.
Consult with change management experts or study up on the subject.
Doing so will help you understand group psychology, why employees resist change, and why many change efforts fail – among other things.
3. Roadmap Your User Journey
Develop a roadmap of your users’ journey.
Divide it into stages, and add measurable goals at each stage.
Define your users’ expectations, their needs, and what they need to accomplish at each point.
This approach will help your adoption efforts stay specific and targeted.
4. Use Experiential Learning
Experiential learning is learning by doing.
For years, many people have claimed that they learn better by doing … and research has backed up that claim.
In the coming “skills crisis,” as Accenture calls it, experiential learning will deliver better education and higher ROI.
5. Measure Your Adoption Efforts
Digital adoption metrics and analytics make a big difference in adoption rates.
When you establish benchmarks – and follow them – you will know what’s working, what’s not, and what to try next.
6. Choose the Right Technology for Your Needs
When choosing technology to adopt, find software that fits:
- Your organization’s strategic aims
- The budget
- And your employees’ skills
Balance these needs, along with the costs of onboarding and training, to choose the right tool for the job.
7. Dive Deep with User Surveys
User surveys, such as technology questionnaires, are excellent ways to gather data.
They can tell you what users need, what they think they need, and how to design your adoption program.
8. Ensure You Have Buy-In from the Top
An adoption program will fall flat if it isn’t supported.
It’s critical to obtain buy-in at the executive level.
Do so by selling the benefits of the technology, both for the organization and that executive’s business area.
They will be more likely to support you if there is something in it for them.
9. Develop a Goal-Oriented Communication Strategy
Effective communication can mean the difference between success and failure.
If you communicate your goals, your aims, and the benefits of the program, it will be easier to gain support from stakeholders and users.
Strategic communication also applies to training and onboarding. It ensures that users understand what they are being told and taught.
10. Remember that the User Experience Impacts Results
A good user experience lies at the heart of every successful business endeavor.
And digital adoption is no exception.
Users who enjoy the experience will be more receptive to training, new ideas, and new technology.
11. Personalize
The more you can personalize your user experiences, the better.
Digital adoption platforms, for instance, personalize training by offering on-demand contextualized learning.
This helps improve the user experience, knowledge retention, and an individual’s investment.
12. Sell the Benefits of Your Adoption Program
No one wants to engage in an activity that doesn’t benefit them.
Find out how your digital adoption program benefits individuals’ self-interest, then sell them on those benefits.
Learning a new software program, for instance, often offers new job skills and career advantages.
13. Continually Optimize Your Onboarding Program
Maximize onboarding ROI through continual improvement.
Measure engagement, adoption rates, competency, and other adoption metrics.
Then find ways to improve those numbers.
14. Anticipate and Prevent Obstacles
Every digital adoption program is unique – but there are patterns underlying every business process.
This means that many obstacles can be foreseen and planned for.
Resistance to change, skills gaps, and obstacles posed by legacy technology, for instance, can be foreseen.
This means you can develop strategies to deal with them before they become a problem.
15. Help Your Organization Become Digitally Mature
Focus on the big picture – organizational strategy.
Today, this means designing forward-thinking digital adoption efforts.
Strategic initiatives help organizations stay modern, competitive, and digitally mature.
Work with organization leaders to define this strategy clearly, then support that aim with your adoption program.
Conclusion
These 15 tips are just the tip of the digital adoption iceberg.
For more thoughts, strategies, and tips on digital adoption, visit our main blog.
The more carefully you research and plan, the more successful your adoption efforts will be.
Good luck!
