User adoption
Involving your users in the entire process of designing the solution is a great way to encourage user adoption. Another good practice is to create a group of power users or champions who have been involved from design to deployment and are well trained in how to use the new solution and its benefits. This group can evangelize the new solution with your broader user base to help improve adoption. For more information about how to build a champion program, see the Build a champions program.
When you design a system with the users in mind, you'll create the best solution for your users. Typically, users want to know, "What's in it for me?" Answering this question will help make it easier for them to understand why they should use the solution that you've created.
Consider a scenario where you're in the middle of creating a new sales solution. Management wants to have 40 columns on a form so that they can create reports. A salesperson wants to have as few columns as possible on a form. The salespeople want to work quickly, so filling out 40 columns doesn't give them personal value. They don't consider it as a good solution. If you can justify for the salespeople why they should fill out those 40 columns, and that it will give them more information and generate more sales, they'll understand the reasons for it and might decide to fill out the columns. Alternatively, you might be able to get some of those 40 columns from elsewhere, without salespeople having to do manual entry.
Define successful user adoption
A good practice to improve user adoption is to spend time at the beginning of the project defining what success looks like. Then, everything from design to deployment is focused on achieving success. The plan should also not stop with initial measurement after deployment; it should include how to ensure ongoing engagement long term. A solution that's heavily used on day one when everyone is watching, but is quickly abandoned, isn't a success. As part of your adoption plan, consider the following factors:
How you'll monitor usage and adoption
How users will get training
How you'll ensure long-term usage
Whether you've identified early adopters and champions
How you'll identify and remediate adoption problems