medium📋 Customer-Facing Case Study
Your client's ops team refuses to adopt the software you deployed. What do you do?
You've deployed a new workflow management tool at a manufacturing client. The software works technically, but 6 weeks in, the ops team (30 people) is still using spreadsheets. The project sponsor is frustrated. You have 4 weeks before your engagement ends.
**What do you do?**
💡 Hints (3)
- 1.Diagnose before prescribing. What's the actual reason for non-adoption? (UX? Training? Trust? Incentives? Politics?)
- 2.Find your internal champion. Who on the ops team is already using it, even a little?
- 3.Don't fight spreadsheets — bridge to them.
✅ View Solution
**Week 1 — Diagnose:**
- Ride-along with 3-5 ops team members during their actual workflow
- Don't ask "why aren't you using it?" — ask "walk me through your day"
- Likely findings: the new tool adds steps for their core task, or they don't trust the data in it yet
**Week 2 — Quick wins:**
- Fix the top 1-2 friction points surfaced in diagnosis (if technical, fix it; if UX, escalate to product)
- Find the one person who's already using it and make them look good (public recognition from their manager)
**Week 3 — Bridge:**
- If they love spreadsheets, add a CSV export that matches their existing format
- Run a "lunch and learn" that shows the tool doing something they currently can't do in sheets
**Week 4 — Handoff:**
- Document 3 workflows where the tool is clearly better, with before/after metrics
- Brief the sponsor on what will drive continued adoption post-engagement
**Key principle:** adoption is a change management problem, not a technical one.