Applying The Adoption Life Cycle To User Testing and Release Schedules

The technology adoption life cycle is a concept found in the book “Crossing The Chasm” by Geoffrey A. Moore.

High level overview:

Users are broken up by level of acceptance of a new product or feature
When measured, typically the amount of users in each stage creates a pretty bell curve
Stages are broken up into Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards
The “chasm” is referred to the struggle of transitioning your product or feature from early adopters into the majority

More details on the concept can be found here and here.

Prior to starting your project, it may be useful to label your stakeholders and personas with stages of acceptance. Detailed personas account for their specific role in the storyline; buyer, influencer, decision maker, user, etc. Adding the stage of feature acceptance will add more depth to a user narrative.

Buyers

Let’s talk eCommerce. A buyer who is an early adopter may enthusiastically try out your new guided sell tool to help them find their mother a perfect at-home spa kit.

What is that you say? Some personal information in exchange for a detailed spa kit breakdown with cross-sells that I may also be interested in.. Where do I sign up?!

Now let’s compare to a buyer who is a late majority or laggard..

User enters site. Sees shiny new thing that requires an email address to.. aaaand oh they are off to reorder their previously made purchase.

This overly simplified example’s point is that user’s reactions to features should be treated separately and equally. What will motivate them to use it? What are they afraid of? What information are they missing? What is in it for them?

Target Your Beta Releases

It makes sense not to rile people up that don’t like it. Right? So don’t force your Late Majority into an unapproved beta test. This can be applied to A/B testing as well.

You will especially run into problems with administrative and reporting applications or features. These users do their job well. Likely because they’re used to things being in the same place every day. If you drop a redesign of the UI on them without any warning, you will be hearing a few choice words from those customers.

It doesn’t matter if the research proves this will improve efficiency in the long run. One must account for the time it takes to relearn and train on any revisions to the application in relation to the long-term benefit, then release in stages.

Champion Your Influencers

Let’s be honest. If the Early Adopters and Innovators hate your product you will not be seeing the Majority any time soon. If your Early Adopters or Innovators are Influencers, a great experience for them can drive organic marketing by word of mouth and digital sharing. Get feedback from this group early and often.

In contrast to the last point, use Early Adopters and Innovators to A/B test new features. Encourage them to opt into beta launches. They totes would love it.

Mold Yours Sales Approach To Your Decision Makers

Decision makers sign the checks. They decide the direction you may or may not go. They can be massive blockers. They can be grand enablers. The point here is they have a lot of power.

Knowing their adoption stage will help frame a sales approach. Early Adopters want the cool new thing. Late Majority want stability. Learn to talk to these people to get them on board with your product. Having this background on a decision maker can help navigate the politics of some major project decisions.

To Wrap It Up…

Adding an adoption stage to your personas and users can bring depth into your user descriptions. Can you think of any other ways to apply the stages when breaking down personas?

When The Way Your Users Interact With Your Website Is Not As You Originally Intended

I find people’s quirks interesting.

When I meet someone new with a story to tell, I will devour it. I will ask them questions. I will ask why they did that thing… when they did that thing, how they felt about it… How did other people feel about them doing that thing…

Maybe this is why I gravitated towards studying users and the quirkiness that comes along with user experience and interactions. What I find most endearing about our beloved users (whom we’ve interviewed, surveyed and studied to death) are the times when they begin using the application not as it was intended.

Since people can at times be unconventional – so can business processes.

I noticed this usually happens when a platform is implemented with a large offering of different functionalities – all of which weren’t necessary as part of the build but were shared anyway; or a feature that offers a configuration with a wide variety of options. It usually goes something like this:

A business process or piece of information is needed sooner rather than later
A user that feels fairly comfortable in the system gets creative and tries to solve the problem using the system in an unconventional way (thus creating a new use case)
Nothing immediately appears to be broken so user continues to use the new process

Everything is fine until an account manager checks and realizes what is going on and their internal melt down occurs.

So what do we do as product managers and user analysts? Scold them? Coach them? Ignore it and hope it doesn’t cause any problems?

A consultant-minded individual would advise you to coach them.

Administrative users may not be privy to the who’s, whys and hows of a system like a marketing director or eCommerce director would. They can become siloed in producing reports and managing data. At times these hacks can have adverse effects on a system – some not apparent until much later. In these situations, educating administrative users would give them background into why what they do is important and how it affects the bigger picture.

Here is where you can, very politely, explain why this new process may be a bad idea and reasons it should be avoided.

A curious individual would advise you to learn about them.

How lucky you are to have this new use case fall into your lap! You should be jumping for joy to talk to this individual and understand why they felt compelled to do this. Obviously someone who would creatively misuse the system to successfully accomplish something has imagination in their bones. Learn from them! A common pitfall when designing user interfaces is getting stuck in how things “should be done”. It’s hard to step out of the box sometimes with prior system and industry knowledge.

Some Would Say Build Off Of It.

Hell yeah… just go with it! See where it takes you! Here is where A/B testing may come in handy. Releasing a new beta version for a few select users that incorporates this change may be a great success. Offer it up to those who have the time to experiment. HOWEVER avoid any users who love standardized processes and whose job it is to get as much done as possible. These people can wait until this feature has been fully vetted for a full release.

Others Say Just Ignore It.

Sometimes it’s ok to turn a blind eye. If it doesn’t hurt anyone and is a positive to their workflow – why not? Just make sure you do your due diligence prior to letting it go.

Oh and document the sh*t out of it so it doesn’t cause any problems with new builds in the future.

Useful Apps For Planning Trips and During Travel

I wouldn’t call myself a pro traveler. I have learned (and continue to learn) a lot of things the hard way. Seems to be the only way I really learn anything.

Combining my life stumbles with my organizational experience and collaboration tools I use for my career, I’ve developed some different planning habits and gained experience with different apps while traveling that have made my experience easier and better. Below is a list of just some of my favorite go-to’s and tips.

Google Apps

Google Maps

I stumbled upon this feature after taking an online supply chain management course that required students to plot locations of different warehouses and share them with the instructor. Now I use it to plot out restaurants, monuments and other locations of interest.

I usually start off with plotting the airport and accommodations. Google Maps lets you color code and add custom icons (if you are so inclined). Once you get some dots on a map, it’s pretty easy to plan a day based on all the spots in a general area.

Another added bonus, is it is super easy to share with friends if they ever ask you for recommendations!

Google Docs

If you have a travel buddy who loves to plan, Google Docs makes it very easy to work simultaneously. The commenting feature allows you to call out action items and follow ups.

Condensing all your travel info and printing it out before a trip will save you some frustration when you are lost and can’t find a wi-fi spot. Some info I make sure to add to my travel itinerary:

flight numbers and times
accommodation addresses and contact phone numbers
general agenda with phone numbers and addresses
nearest embassy information
contact numbers for loved ones from home (because if my cell ever died I would have zero numbers memorized except for my house land line from high school)

Again, if people ever ask for recommendations, this is an easy document you can share.

Public Transportation

Google Maps

I know I’m really doing the hard sell on Google. But sharing all my personal information and whereabouts in exchange for metro ETAs and walking times is a sacrifice I am willing to make. In big cities like London and Paris, Google Maps tells you the name of the station, what trains to take, train times, etc. Eventually I got the hang of reading the metro maps in the tunnels and trains and didn’t rely on my phone as a crutch every time I needed to get somewhere. Although I may or may not have taken the tube in the wrong direction for like … two stops. Mind the gap.

Another nice feature of Google Maps is it also allows you to save a region locally to your cellphone so it’s not necessary to have wi-fi to get around.

Local Metro Apps

Do a little research ahead of time, to see if the city you are visiting has invested in a metro app. London for example now has an Oyster app that lets you reload your card as well:
https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/ways-to-pay/tfl-oyster-app

Feel Out The Ride Share Vibe

Finally, do some research on the ride share vibe if it is available. Some cities have issues with ride sharing apps and strikes can be common. The morning I was supposed to catch a flight back home from Barcelona, I woke up to a taxi strike. Nothing like the panic of scrambling to get to the airport on time along with at least a hundred other angry privileged tourists trying to cram into a bus while accusing each other of cutting.

In the rain.

But that’s a story for a different day.

Language

When I travel somewhere that speaks a different language, even if they do speak English as well, I like to pick up some basics to get around. In general, I find people appreciate that you take the time and make the effort. Before a trip I like to memorize at least the following:

Hello, Good Morning, Good Night
Thank you
Please
I’m sorry
I don’t understand. Do you speak English?

Google Translate

Google Translator let’s you save languages locally to your cell phone so you can still translate without wi-fi. Recently their instant translation feature supports offline translations as well. Hover over a menu item or sign and your phone translates it for you!

Grab An AudioBook From The Library

Our Cleveland public library system uses an app called “Libby”. Hook it up to your library card and branch and you get access to online audio books and ebooks. Our library usually has major languages like French, Spanish and others ready to download with no wait. I personally have found the Mango Passport Audiobooks to be really great.

Instagram For Restaurants

So I’m pretty sure restaurants have caught on to Trip Advisor.

Welcome patrons. Give free shot of Limoncello.
Feed patrons. Give free shot of Limoncello.
Share check. Give free shot of Limoncello.
Drop the “Hey will you give us a good rating on Trip Advisor” while pouring another free shot of Limoncello and handing you the little Trip Advisor branded card with short link.

Now I’m not saying don’t give me free Limoncello.

Just to be clear.

I just have learned to scrutinize the restaurant reviews on that website. Lately what I like to do is look at the tagged photos tab of restaurants I’m interested in. Places always like to put their best foot forward with imagery and messaging. Having other people tag the photos gives you a better feel for what to expect.

Social Media For Safety

When traveling, sh*t happens. I was in London during an attack last year. Although I had an international plan, I couldn’t consistently send or receive messages on my plan for at least a day after it happened.

If you have a wi-fi spot, using social media to share your status can alleviate the worry of loved ones back at home. One nifty feature is located in the messaging app WhatsApp. You can easily share your location to family members if they are concerned or if you get seperated while traveling with your friends.

But There’s Definitely More

These are just my initial and most widely used recommendations. What are some of your favorite apps or preparation techniques for travel?