Digital Adoption 101: The Digital Leader’s Playbook

WalkMe Team
By WalkMe Team
Updated May 2, 2023

How can long-standing, traditional companies compete with digital natives? How do new tech-based entrants stand out from their peers?

Whether your organization was built in 1919 or 2019, the answer is  digital transformation.

Today, technological progress and customer demands are evolving with unprecedented speed. The only way to maintain your market share is to continuously evolve with them. Indeed, digital transformation success is a moving target.

New digital capabilities have the potential to unleash novel business models, revenue streams, and opportunities to satisfy customer desires. They can give your brand an edge and leg up on the competition.

But there is no such thing as digital transformation success without digital adoption, which means ensuring users can use your technology as it is intended and to the fullest extent.

Getting your hands on the most powerful digital tools is just one part of your mission. But unless your users actually know how to use them, your exciting new tech investment will never realize its true worth.

Digital adoption 101: 11 must-reads

Let this collection of articles be your guide to achieving digital adoption. With insights on digital adoption strategy, tools, digital transformationand supporting culture, digital adoption 101 is your first step to leading successful digital transformation.

1. Digital Adoption Vs. Digital Transformation: What’s the Difference?

Digital transformation and digital adoption. They sound alike, and they’re sometimes (mistakenly) used interchangeably. But while these two terms are closely related, there is a critical distinction between them.

2. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Digital Adoption

Because there are so many digital platforms both in the workplace and the consumer space (and that number is quickly growing), finding a way to get users up to speed is critical. That’s where digital adoption comes in. Without it, lack of usability will keep people from getting the most out of their digital tools.

3. How to Design a Winning Digital Adoption Process

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone adopted new technology as easily as an excited four-year-old with an iPad? Sadly, navigating the complexities of a sophisticated CRM is not as easy as figuring out consumer-grade tech. When half of your employees are struggling to adopt your software, designing an effective digital adoption process is critical.

4. Digital Transformation 2.0: What’s Holding You Back?

Moving from the first phase of digital transformation to digital transformation 2.0 requires a carefully planned, clearly articulated digital adoption strategy. You can’t address your users’ true needs and challenges without it. A digital adoption strategy ensures you keep the human element front and center and increases the chances for digital transformation success.

5. 4 Digital Adoption Mistakes That Destroy Employee Performance

Digital adoption mistakes can lead to frustration, lost productivity, and worse overall employee performance. They can employee performanceeven derail your entire digital transformation strategy. That’s why learning how to avoid them is so crucial.

6. Not Having a Digital Adoption Manager in 2019 Will Haunt You By 2020

As companies pour investments into digital transformation, the need for dedicated leadership to ensure digital adoption has emerged, such as a Digital Adoption Manager. The person in this role is responsible for supporting the digital change strategy and advocating for employees. A Digital Adoption Manager is the fundamental missing link between your employees and IT.

7. How to Measure Digital Adoption and Get the Most Out of Your Software

Achieving digital adoption will be impossible without establishing some sort of framework for assessing key metrics on the usability of the software. Your digital adoption strategy will guide you to achieve your goals, but you need to know how to measure digital adoption in order to understand if you’re on the right track.

8. 5 Digital Adoption Tips to Reduce Software Training Overload

If your company is pursuing digital transformation, you must focus on minimizing the learning curve and reducing software training overload. Otherwise, digital adoption will always be out of reach. Check out these five tips to keep software training simple.

9. The Secret to Overcoming Employee Resistance in Digital Transformation

When it comes to successful digital transformation, getting buy-in from business decision makers and board-level employee resistancestakeholders is only part of the battle. Organizations looking to achieve digital adoption will also need to swiftly address the reluctance of their primary users — the rest of the workforce.

10. Ignoring This Factor Will Cap Your Software ROI at $0

The human element is often overlooked when planning digital transformation, but doing so will prevent you from achieving digital adoption. Without digital adoption, your users will be unable to take full advantage of your software investments and your ROI will be severely stunted. Check out this interview with Andrea Schnepf, Managing Consultant at nepf LLC, for how to ensure a positive ROI.

11. Can You Bake Digital Adoption Into Your UX Design?

Usability is the secret sauce to effective UX. Without it, you won’t achieve the conversion rate you’re aiming for, and your customers will have a poor experience on your platform. When the goal is high adoption, what angle can UX designers take?

WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) transforms the user experience in today’s overwhelming digital world. Using artificial intelligence, engagement, guidance, and automation, WalkMe’s transparent overlay assists users to complete tasks easily within any enterprise software, mobile application or website. Discover how a DAP can revolutionize your business.

WalkMe Team
By WalkMe Team
WalkMe pioneered the Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) for organizations to utilize the full potential of their digital assets. Using artificial intelligence, machine learning and contextual guidance, WalkMe adds a dynamic user interface layer to raise the digital literacy of all users.