Top-down support of your Digital Adoption Platform:

A sunny walk in the park or CERTAIN DOOM?

The first time you implement enterprise software, you think: "man, this would be so much easier if I had top-down support"...

Well, maybe. It depends what you mean by that.

Suppose a different org requests an IT project for a web-based "lesson" or "training" system for one of their apps. There are a ton of products that to an exec may have similar-sounding or overlapping use cases.

Lessonly? Trainual? A new LMS? Huh? Are those like WalkMe? 

I thought we just bought a new Digital Training thing?

What you want IT leadership to do is say "Hmm.. We may have an even better way of solving that need, you should talk to our DAP team first.."

You don't want them to say "YOU MUST implement WalkMe on that system" or set goals like "Every division needs WalkMe implemented on one system by the end of the year".

Forcing it will result in a lot of half-hearted work. Box-checking. No buy-in. Folks in your organization are going to treat it as "flavor of the month" and try to wait it out. I have seen this firsthand.

Why? Here's a few reasons:

1. No one likes being told what to do.
2. People think "If it were that good, you wouldn't have to decree it."
3. The projects will be executed "under duress" resulting in compliance energy as opposed to creative energy.

But when people in the organization "discover" something that a peer department is taking advantage of, they will jump on it.

So if you're presenting to Sr. Leaders, be careful what you're asking.

You don't want edicts. You want resources in the DAP team to support bottoms-up, organic growth.

OK, so what's the nature of the support we need? 

You want leadership to:

• Resist buying overlapping technology.
• Redirect to internal DAP team for consulting.
• Let DAP grow organically.

You DON'T want leadership to:

• Say "THOU SHALT" implement WalkMe.
• Set numbers-based "Systems with DAP" targets.
• Attempt to force the organization.

As your DAP program starts to get momentum, this is a tricky issue to navigate but it's crucial.