The 10 Principles of Product Adoption

The psychology behind how people deal with change will help you drive adoption of product and features.

Building something incredible is hard, but it's harder to actually get people to use it. I've seen many wonderful products that could have been successful if users were able to get over the initial learning curve.

Humans are programmed to stick to their comfort zone, and anything new requires an increased cognitive load. We have the same energy pool for trying new things, as we do for going to the gym, eating healthily, or feeling happy.

So it's no mean feat to get people to adopt a product into their lifestyle. Sometimes you get lucky and someone is perfectly ready and primed for your solution, it fits and we have takeoff. Most other times, you have to chip away at it.

Product Adoption is a Change Management Challenge

New product and new features introduce change for a user and so to succeed, we have to navigate how people deal with and overcome changes. Knowing more about change management theory will actually help us better enable software adoption.

Change management is a significant topic for large organizations that are attempting to transform themselves to better adapt to their current environment. And therefore it's been a significant field of study for strategy and organizational consultants. 

Let's review how large organizations are taught to manage changes and consider how this can help drive better product adoption. Below are 10 Principles of Leading Change Management developed by the management consultants at PwC Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company).

Here's how to apply these to software products to drive better product adoption and engagement.

The 10 Key Principles of Product and Feature Adoption

1. Lead with culture

??Key insight: skilled change managers always make the most of their company's existing culture. Instead of trying to change the culture itself, they tap into the way people already think, behave, work, and feel to provide a boost to the change initiative.

?? How it applies to product adoption: evaluate the culture of your product and users - do they expect and appreciate changes to your product? Are they early-adopters? What mediums do they prefer to communicate through?

Instead of trying to force your messages in a cadence that you consider best, leverage the systems they are already familiar and comfortable with. 

2. Start at the top

?? Key insight: All successful change management initiatives start with a committed and well-aligned group of executives strongly supported by the CEO. Work must be done in advance to ensure that everyone agrees about the case for the change and the particulars for implementing it.

?? How it applies to product adoption: There are two interpretations here:

1. Ensure that when you're releasing a product or feature update, you are fully aligned across your executive, product, marketing and customer success teams so that you agree it's a change worth making.
2. If you are a B2B solution and have significant changes then ensure your executive sponsors are aware and invested in helping the new product be adopted across your customer team.

3. Involve every layer

?? Key insight: Strategic planners often fail to take into account the extent to which midlevel and frontline people can make or break a change initiative. The path of rolling out change is immeasurably smoother if these people are tapped early for input on issues that will affect their jobs.

Frontline people tend to be rich repositories of knowledge about where potential glitches may occur, what technical and logistical issues need to be addressed, and how customers may react to changes. Although it may take longer in the beginning, ensuring broad involvement saves untold headaches later on.

?? How it applies to product adoption: Run a beta! Provide an opportunity for your regular and power users to preview changes and provide feedback. Solicit input, make updates (and demonstrate you listened) before a broader rollout. 

4. Make the rational and emotional case together.

?? Key insight: Leaders will often make the case for major change on the sole basis of strategic business objectives, but they rarely reach people emotionally in a way that ensures genuine commitment to the cause.

Human beings respond to calls to action that engage their hearts as well as their minds, making them feel as if they're part of something consequential.

?? How it applies to product adoption: Ensure your messaging is not just about the features or the "HOW". You have to prioritize the value and the "WHY". Utilize language that helps users visualize how these changes will make them the person they want to be. 

A reminder about what you're selling. Source: UserOnboard

5. Act your way into new thinking.

?? Key insight: Far more critical to the success of any change initiative is ensuring that people's daily behaviors reflect the imperative of change. Start by defining a critical few behaviors that will be essential to the success of the initiative. Then conduct everyday business with those behaviors front and center.

?? How it applies to product adoption: Introduce new concepts with simple user interactions. If you're launching new functionality then try to bring it into the current workflow.

For example, when Buffer (a social media management tool) introduced scheduling posts in advance, they simple switched the CTA button from "Post" to "Add to Queue".

Screenshot from Buffer's smart CTA change. For more examples of great UX that drives product and feature adoption, check out Chameleon's Inspiration Gallery

6. Engage, engage, engage. 

?? Key insight: Leaders often make the mistake of imagining that if they convey a strong message of change at the start of an initiative, people will understand what to do. Nothing could be further from the truth. Powerful and sustained change requires constant communication, not only throughout the rollout but after the major elements of the plan are in place. The more kinds of communication employed, the more effective they are.

?? How it applies to product adoption: Product adoption messaging and product launch announcements should (1) be a continuous process, not just a one-time thing, and (2) use multiple channels. 

This is a hard one - maintaining the framework for ongoing announcements and education of users is not simple. You're probably already using emails and blog posts, but try to add these additional channels: social posts, in-product announcements (do this with Chameleon ??), webinars, email signatures and ads. 

7. Lead outside the lines.

?? Key insight: Change has the best chance of cascading through an organization when everyone with authority and influence is involved. In addition to those who hold formal positions of power - the company's recognized leaders - this group includes people whose power is more informal and is related to their expertise.

Companies that succeed at implementing major change identify these people early and find ways to involve them as participants and guides. 

?? How it applies to product adoption: Use influencers! These can be super-users, other product advocates or well-known product leaders. Incorporate testimonials from these people in your messaging or feature them on your landing page. This will help improve your credibility and drive product adoption. 

This landing page from productboard has a happy customer as the focus.

8. Leverage formal solutions.

?? Key insight: Persuading people to change their behavior won't suffice for transformation unless formal elements - such as structure, reward systems, ways of operating, training, and development - are redesigned to support them

?? How it applies to product adoption: The "formal elements" of your product or company include the interface, official positioning and messaging (like the website) and the normal channels of communication.

Consider letting users opt-out of changes rather than asking them to opt-in, but treat that decision with care (to avoid upsetting users). 

9. Leverage informal solutions. 

?? Key insight: Even when the formal elements needed for change are present, the established culture can undermine them if people revert to long-held but unconscious ways of behaving.

In a technology company example, one of the most powerful solutions was purely cultural and informal - changing the informal slogan, "Ship by any means," was replaced by a new aphorism: "If it's not right, don't ship it."

?? How it applies to product adoption: Think about the "informal elements" of your product and company - how your customer support managers reference changes or the specific taxonomy you use to describe the product. If you can better shape the conversation between your team and your customer or between your users, then you stand a better chance of product adoption. 

10. Assess and adapt

?? Key insight: Many organizations involved in transformation efforts fail to measure their success before moving on. Leaders are so eager to claim victory that they don't take the time to find out what's working and what's not, and to adjust their next steps accordingly. 

?? How it applies to product adoption: Measure, analyze and optimize! Set your goals for success beforehand and ensure that key events are instrumented to help you assess whether users are engaging with the new features. Use this information to shape further releases and messaging. 

Your Toolbox for Driving Product Adoption

Tools can make processes and systems much easier to adopt and implement, and with a plethora of SaaS solutions available, here are some of our favorites to manage change and help your product gain better adoption...

...read the rest of this post (including key tools to use) on Chameleon's blog here.