Would you buy a car if you didn’t know how to drive? Would you buy a sailboat if you didn’t know how to sail?
Maybe, but you will have a hard time reaping the maximum value of your investments. The issue boils down to usability barriers.
The same applies to your digital transformation effort. Without focusing on digital adoption, poor usability will prevent you from achieving a positive ROI. Moreover, employees will become disengaged due to frustration with complexity and unfamiliarity.
A digital adoption strategy is essential for experiencing the full benefits of a digital transformation. According to McKinsey, more than 50% of businesses said adding new digital solutions is part of the organizational strategy. As companies continue to allocate more budget and resources to their digital change efforts, the need to ensure a positive outcome rises.
If you satisfy these digital adoption must-haves, you’ll set your digital transformation on the track to success.
Dive Deeper: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Digital Adoption
1. Define the purpose of your new digital tool
Users are 3.5 times more likely to report a successful digital transformation when they believe their leaders have properly communicated the purpose of the digital tool.
Creating a plan and communicating it is a digital adoption must-have. If the eventual goal is transformation, what are the milestones to get there? What does it mean for your company to have digitally transformed?
Take time in the beginning to set a clear purpose, strategy, and a defined end-goal in order to provide proper introductions and measurements for success.
2. Create a dedicated digital adoption team
In order to reach your digital adoption goal, you will need a strong and dedicated team working toward it. Start by 
appointing someone to take the lead, such as a digital adoption manager. A digital adoption manager will have a team that aims to provide coordination and oversight between departments on the use of digital tools and works to maximize them.
Nearly half — 47% — of survey respondents report that implementations are most successful “when people with the most relevant expertise develop the business case for the digital solutions,” according to McKinsey.
On the other hand, only 18 percent reported success when the team leading the implementation is comprised of mainly individuals on the management team.
It’s always helpful to have support from management, but be sure to get other opinions and ideas from people with the most relevant experience suitable. With a team of cross-functional experts at the helm, your digital adoption will continue on its path to success.
3. Create a digital adoption strategy
Generally, your digital adoption manager and team should be the ones setting the digital adoption strategy as well. They know the ins and outs of the process and are best equipped to handle integration problems and employee needs.
When building the digital adoption strategy, your team will need to answer the following questions:
- Who will be in charge of each part of the initiative, and what do we need from upper management?
- How are we planning to present this new digital tool to our users?
- What are the change management and engagement strategies?
- What are our key performance indicators?
- How will we keep our digital tools up-to-date in the long term?
In general, you will want to know who is involved, the measurements of progress and the long-term strategy.
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4. Choose a proven digital adoption solution
A digital adoption solution is essentially an insurance policy for your new digital tool. All of those hours spent 
strategizing, building KPIs and presenting your plan to leadership could end up being for nothing if you don’t have a solution to ensure you achieve them.
Adequate training and software onboarding are critical aspects of digital adoption. But without a solution to guide usability, there are no guarantees.
A digital adoption solution is software that mitigates risks by ensuring user adoption, ROI, and data integrity. It removes the burden on employees of learning new software and remembering unfamiliar processes. With user analytics built in, your digital adoption solution can alert you where usability problems and drop-off are common so you can tailor support accordingly.
As your organization progresses in digital transformation, keep these digital adoption must-haves in mind. By satisfying these main points, you’ll increase your chances for high-level adoption and digital transformation success.
