How To Drive Adoption

[AJaySutton]

I'd be interested in hearing thoughts from others about how you drive adoption or how you position M365 products for customers who are reluctant to move forward technologically speaking and aren't interested in change.

Typically, I try to find one thing that they like (in one recent interaction, Polly was the way I got my foot in the door) and when I find that thing, they think is cool, I can usually branch out from there. But our implementation has been slow, and not planned the way it could have been. I'm new to the organization and am tasked with making people like and want to use the technology that's been deployed. I just wanted to hear from others about how you clear those hurdles.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@AJaySutton nice to hear from you!

The idea of finding something they like and expanding from there is a great start and usually needed to help people find that "common thread" bringing them along to the new but still connected to something familiar or that they really enjoy using. From there I find a lot of success with the branch out on "an art of the possible" tour and asking questions to let them lead the conversation and find out what is impactful for them.

• What else can you do with Polly inside of Teams or channels for example that you couldn't do before using a similar tool?
• Where are some places you frequently find you can't get the engagement you are searching for - could one of the solutions help there?
• You've really shown you are a champion at using (insert product) - others would love to hear how you do these things with it, please share your experiences and see how they may implement/use it

Fostering that connection and understanding go a long way to both understanding the need and the desired rate of change.

It's also ok to have different adoption strategies for different areas. It's a different mindset but some areas may be more keen to a faster adoption of new tools than others - and meeting the different groups where they are could go a long way. Plus those that are faster could hopefully help then come back and show the value they've gotten from adoption the new tools and show the others.

Look forward to seeing the communities response!

/Josh

[#3]

Thanks Josh! I appreciate the feedback!

[#4]

Hi @AJaySutton, I have 2 additional thoughts to share:

1. Embrace the resistors.  They tend to be very vocal and some are also very influential, which can be detrimental to the change you are trying to drive.  This can turn into a good thing if you are able to convert them.  Some of my biggest resistors have turned into my best champions/advocates.   But remember that you may not win everyone over. 
2. The method that has worked best for me is simply to listen and try to understand their concerns.  These will vary from person to person, but there will probably be some common themes.  Once you understand, then you can figure out how to address.  Often the concerns stem from some misunderstanding and this ends up being a great opportunity to provide clarity. 

[#5]

@Mark_Sonntag That's sage advice! I especially appreciate what you shared about 'resistors'. And listening is always a good thing. Thanks for those good reminders! 

A. Jay

[#6]

@AJaySutton 

To add to the excellent advice already offered, I would suggest that you pick a real-world project for users to work on with the new technology. Part of the success of this approach is selecting the right tool(s) for the job, so that users can clearly see the benefits over the old way of doing things. To add to that, having a follow-up project for the users to work on gives an opportunity to keep the momentum going.

Good luck!

[#7]

@Graham_McHugh That's one of those answers that's so simple I should have thought of it. But that's an excellent idea! Of course, that creates the extra work of me having to come up with projects for them to work on... LOL

But that's a really wonderful thought, and I appreciate the feedback more than you can know.  Thanks so much!

A. Jay