On Software Adoption…

By Deane Barker 1 min read
AI Summary

This post explores effective strategies for software adoption, emphasizing the importance of user engagement and tailored training. The author highlights the role of organizational culture and continuous support in ensuring successful integration of new technologies within teams.

Original Location
This content was originally posted to LinkedIn. Link to Original Content

For a couple years, I’ve been tossing around a theory/model for why organizations don’t use post-publish optimization tools – things like personalization, experimentation, etc.

Some do, of course. But let’s be honest – most don’t, even though they buy them all the time. Vendors are constantly selling MarTech capabilities that tend to sit on a shelf.

So, here’s the model – it’s cumulative; it builds from the bottom up. You have to “complete” each level to get to the next level, until you “drop out.”

This is kind of a funnel, starting at Awareness. Orgs “drop out” at some point. They might have the Awareness and the Skill, but not the Capacity. Or they might have everything leading up to Belief, but they drop out there.

(…or maybe that’s wrong? I presented it to an org this week who said they have Awareness and Belief – #1 and #4 – but nothing else. So maybe Belief should be second in the list? Or maybe the “funnel” metaphor just doesn’t fit here?)

I think the subtext is that user adoption is a (the?) real problem in MarTech. Of all things we need to work out in this industry, I feel like adoption is the linchpin that people don’t talk about enough.

Sure, you bought all the best tools, but how are you going to get your staff to use them? What’s actually stopping you? I don’t doubt it’s something, but we need to do a much better job of figuring out what that is.