A clear, shared strategic vision among management is essential in driving widespread platform adoption, but it alone is not enough to ensure success. Users need to feel as though they have a stake in the eventual success or failure of the platform, and the software must be perceived as an asset to the user's daily workflow. In short, the technology needs to be enticing and user-friendly enough to exude a slight gravitational pull, attracting users without a hard push from management.
The User Experience (UX) is a popular topic, and rightly so; failing to take adequate consideration of the user's overall experience is all too easy when solving problems from a purely technical perspective. However, consideration of the UX often does not take user perceptions and their willingness to change into account. The actual user experience and how the user perceives their experience often diverge for several reasons.
Application Rationalization
Increasing competitive pressure on price and service quality has forced many IT departments into large software rationalization initiatives, creating inventories of applications and looking for ways to systematically retire, refactor, or re-platform to reduce the organization's overall software footprint. This strategy effectively cuts costs while increasing efficiency, but it can also lead to user dissatisfaction. A Relationship Manager is far more likely to see a streamlined technology workflow as an inconvenience requiring familiarization that pulls them away from their core responsibility of managing customer relationships than the game-changing improvement that better positions the company for future growth as perceived by management and IT leadership. This cognitive disconnect creates friction between business and IT management, ultimately decreasing user engagement.
The Dangers of Overpromising and Under-Delivering
It's easy to be excited by a compelling software demo, but it won't necessarily represent what your finished product will look like. For example, a key feature shown in the demonstration may rely on a data integration that is not within the project's scope. Likewise, the user interface may assume a modern, feature-rich back end instead of the current legacy system. False expectations will cause users to perceive even the most successful rollout as a failure. Falling into this trap depletes your credibility among users, adding further difficulty to cultivating adoption.
Solutions
Iron out key details early using process maps to ensure your project starts with realistic baseline goals. Project goals should not only overlap with the company's strategic goals but also those of your users.
Temper the urge to rebuild existing processes during the planning stage. Instead, explore the business process with a fresh set of eyes and look for key areas of improvement. Including end-user representatives in the discovery process is key to providing insight into pain points. In addition, process improvements can simplify the build process while simultaneously including features that directly improve the quality of the user's workflow, aiding in adoption from the beginning.
Create a tight feedback loop with users immediately after rollout and continue listening. Prepare to address feedback quickly and openly. Few things exhaust users' goodwill faster than repeatedly failing to address feedback. Acquiring mass user adoption is always an uphill battle, but remaining cognizant of these common missteps in the early stages of your project will help provide a healthy foundation that the development team can build upon through user partnership.