Pull these five levers to grow user adoption of your Data & Analytics applications
I hate missed opportunities. I bet you do too.
One of the biggest (and most costly) missed opportunities I see again and again is the launch of a new Data & Analytics (D&A) application (app), followed by .….. nothing. Users often don’t know how the app can help them, how to use it, or, sometimes, even that it exists. And, leaders aren’t involved enough to encourage their teams to use it. Weeks pass, then months, and the new app either goes unused or not used to its full potential.
Maybe the app shows financial trends that would require hours of analysis in Excel. Perhaps the app presents visuals that would help Supply Chain teams reduce costs. Or, maybe the app delivers customer behavior predictions that would enable Marketing to make more proactive decisions. There’s no doubt D&A apps can do wonders for business. They can enable big wins like cost savings, improve customer interactions and increase market share, plus easier ways of working. But, users have to adopt the app, meaning they must embed the app into their practices by using it regularly and in the way it was designed. Adoption is what enables an organization to truly reap the benefits of D&A applications.
You may think the adoption of new D&A apps comes from communications and training. That’s only partly true. You need the right kinds of communications and training and to pull additional levers to prompt adoption. I’ve shared five of my favorites below. To drive adoption and truly impact your organization, pull these five adoption levers consistently and start pulling as soon as you initiate app design and development.
1) Value Proposition
The degree to which the app aligns to and delivers on business needs
Value proposition is by far the most critical lever. You can communicate effectively and deliver best-in-class training, but that won’t matter if the app doesn’t solve a business problem or address a need. Pull the value proposition lever at the start and regularly validate it through the app development life cycle, launch, and even beyond when enhancing the app.
To pull this lever:
Check value alignment at the start and along the way: Share the vision for the app and its intended business value, including what the app will enable the organization to do or achieve, such as make data-driven decisions or get closer to the consumer. Do this with the employees who will eventually use the app so you’re sure to get the right feedback upfront. Listen and use their feedback. If they tell you they’d have no use for the app; don’t press on, rather, continue the dialogue to understand their challenges and needs that you could solve. It might simply be an adjustment of your app strategy or planned features.
Check-in regularly with users during app design, development, testing, and post-roll out to validate that the app continues to align to what they need to achieve their business goals. Focus on deepening the alignment between your app capabilities and the business needs through this feedback loop; and incorporate their feedback into future updates to keep the value alignment strong.
State the value (again and again): Capture what your users say about the value the app brings to them and share this with your user base and stakeholders. Start early on with your users involved in design and development, ask questions such as, “What can this app help you do now that you couldn’t do before?” or “What insights do you get from this app and what have you been able to do as a result?” Share these stories and testimonials — in communications, during training, on the app homepage, and when you’re in front of users and stakeholders.
2) Engagement
The exchanges with and involvement of users
Engagement starts early in app design and continues well after your app is in the hands of users. Engagement is about creating a partnership with your users, which means it’s much more than meeting with just a few users or passively collecting feedback. Pulling the engagement lever looks like:
Visible sponsorship among business leaders: Before you start building, meet with the leaders whose businesses the app will support to check alignment with their vision and goals. From there, invite them to play a sponsorship role, meaning they commit team members to partner with you on the design and development, visibly show their support of the app by sending communications to encourage use or inviting you to their team meetings to present, and regularly meet with you to share feedback.
Regular forums with representative users: Early on identify your users and invite individuals who are representative of this group to meet with you on a regular basis. Use these forums to share progress, and gather their feedback on the design or enhancements. Offer exclusive opportunities to them like sneak peeks of app capabilities to further their investment in the app and partnership with you. Ask them about user training needs and communication preferences. Treat this group as an extension of your team and leverage them to advocate for and champion the app to their peers and teams.
Proactive feedback collection: Use different channels to ask users for feedback. Post a brief survey on the Yammer or Workplace site your users visit every day or on the app homepage. Conduct focus groups or 15-minute 1-on-1 interviews with users to gather qualitative feedback. Always thank users for their feedback and report back on what you’re doing with it.
3) Communications
The sending of information or news to users
Communications are important to build awareness, share updates and trigger action. In today’s reality, you’re competing with many other communications your users receive. That’s why you need to stand out. Read on to learn how to up your communications game so you reach your users.
Make a plan: Sit down and plan out what communications you’ll send and when. Prior to launch, consult your development timeline and use a “funnel” approach: start by communicating the intent to launch the app and the value proposition and then provide more detail and specifics as you get closer to training and launch. Post-launch, consult your release schedule to know when you’ll need to share news, information and updates with your user community. Create a calendar so you’re communicating regularly and with intention with your users, as well as other stakeholders, such as leaders.
Keep it short and relevant: Think about emails and news you get; and how quickly you decide if you’ll read it or delete. The same goes for your users. Always think “what’s in it for me?” Communicate what users can now or will be able to do, and how this will help them going forward. Tailor messages to relevant users instead of blasting information intended for a specific group to everyone. Establish a newsletter or central information portal to share more general snippets of information users can skim and click into for more details. Communicate using language that’s understandable to your users: use their terms and reference goals and initiatives important to them.
Use familiar communication channels: Where do your users go for work news and information? Find this out and use these same channels. For example, present at all-hands meetings your users attend, post on the Yammer site your users visit daily or score a spot in their team newsletter.
Vary content: It can’t all be about the app. Make it about your users too! Share user testimonials and quotes. Recognize top users and those who engage at a higher level. Summarize user feedback and explain how you’re using it.
4) Training
Describes the education and resources provided to users
The real impact of a D&A app is when users use it in the way it was designed. Training is your lever for this. Make sure your training is comprised of these elements:
Varied formats: In addition to more traditional training formats, offer options like Quick Reference Guides, FAQs, 1-pagers of top tips and short videos so users with different learning styles have the support they need to understand how to use the app. Video-record interviews with top users on how they’re using the app and their tips. Poll your user groups for which formats they prefer.
Available on-demand: Enable your users to access training and resources when they need them. This doesn’t mean you stop or don’t offer live training sessions, but rather design live training so they’re also relevant to watch as a recorded version later. Place training, alongside resources like FAQs and Quick Reference Guides in a single, accessible location and make it widely known among users. You can even link to training and resources from the app homepage.
Bite-sized: Put yourself in your users’ shoes. What’s your reaction when you get invited to a three-hour training? Right. Break up lengthy content over multiple sessions or create self-guided learning that users can complete on their schedule. Identify the most important learnings or top user tips and create short (no more than a few minutes) tutorial videos about them.
5) Branding
Describes the messaging, style and tone applied with users
More than just a recognizable logo or desktop icon, branding is one of the five levers because it provides users with the why, what and how of the app — specifically the “what’s it in for me?”. You need responses to these questions that are understandable, compelling and consistent; and you need this from the get-go. Here’s how to pull the branding lever:
Create the vision: Create a clear vision statement that articulates what can be achieved in the future because of the D&A app. Draw from the business case and initial conversations with both leaders and user representatives on the app concept.
Define key messages: Find themes in your conversations with users about their current pain points and what they want to achieve. Marry this to what the app will enable them to do (or not do) in the future and craft key messages around these themes. Use these themes and key messages in your communications, presentations and when you’re in front of users and stakeholders.
Be consistent: Use consistent colors, tone and style. You want your users and stakeholders to associate your communications and materials with the app immediately.
Keep it positive and honest: People want to be associated with projects and teams that are positive and inclusive. Keep reminding users where the app is headed and how it will help them. Don’t hide setbacks or issues. Rather, share the truth and explain why and how you will address it.
Now that you know the five levers, check how you’re doing. Write down what you’re currently doing for each lever;
- Compare what you’re doing now to what’s described above.
- How do your efforts stack up?
- Do you have a strong vision but haven’t communicated to your users in over a month?
- Do you offer live training but no other resources?
- When was the last time you hosted a user forum or surveyed your users?
- How do your current communications read? Are they understandable to the business or filled with system architectures and techy speak?
Think about what you’re doing across these five levers and where you are relative to your app adoption goals. If you’re falling short of your goals, make a game-plan of what you can start doing immediately in a couple of the levers. If you’re reaching your adoption goals, level up what you’re doing based on user feedback. Start with a few efforts that you can implement right away rather than try to implement multiple efforts in each lever. Once you implement your first few efforts, expand from there and keep growing.
Kristina Nardi is an Organizational Effectiveness Consultant with Slalom. Her purpose is to enable people and organizations to reach their potential.
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