Adoption intervention
Objective. Diagnose why adoption has stalled by locating the break in the chain - entitlement, configuration, usage, routine or realised outcome - and apply the one intervention that fits, with a follow-up check.
A diagnostic ladder and intervention picker for a stalling account. It stops you from throwing training at a data problem or a licence at a routine problem by forcing you to find exactly where the adoption chain breaks first. This is the tool version of C07 - copy the ladder, find the lowest broken rung, fix that, and set a date to re-check.
What it is and when to use it
An adoption intervention kit is what you reach for when an account is not getting value and you need to know why before you act. Use it when leading indicators slip - logins fall, the weekly routine lapses, the QBR has no evidence - or when a renewal looks at risk. It matters because the wrong intervention wastes the window you have: re-training a team whose data is not trustworthy, or buying more licences for a team that never ran the routine, both fail and burn credibility. The kit forces a diagnosis before a prescription, and finds the lowest broken rung rather than the most visible symptom.
The diagnostic ladder - copy this
ACCOUNT: ____ SYMPTOM OBSERVED: ____ DATE: ____
Work UP the ladder; the lowest broken rung is the real problem, fix that first:
- ENTITLEMENT - do they actually have the application/feature for what they are trying to do? If not -> commercial conversation, not training. (confirm packaging)
- CONFIGURATION / DATA - is it set up correctly and are the numbers trustworthy (coverage, definitions, time zone, freshness)? If not -> readiness re-check (KIT-04), escalate setup to the specialist.
- USAGE - are the intended people actually logging in and looking? If not -> access, relevance or awareness problem; re-enable (KIT-05/06).
- ROUTINE - is the weekly review actually running and ending in owned actions? If not -> re-install the routine (KIT-09); this is the most common real break.
- OUTCOME - routine runs and actions happen, but the business outcome is not moving? If so -> revisit the hypothesis and measurement with the sponsor (KIT-08, KIT-12); the plan may be wrong, not the adoption.
LOWEST BROKEN RUNG: ____ INTERVENTION: ____ OWNER: ____ RE-CHECK DATE: ____
How to fill it
Start at the bottom and climb - do not jump to the symptom. A team that 'is not using the product' (rung 3) very often has untrustworthy numbers (rung 2) that quietly told them not to bother, so verify configuration and data before you blame usage. The single most common real break is rung 4: the routine never became a habit, so re-installing the weekly agenda (KIT-09) fixes more accounts than any amount of re-training. Only when entitlement, data, usage and routine are all sound do you treat a flat outcome as a plan problem (rung 5) - and then you revisit the hypothesis with the sponsor rather than pushing harder on a measure that was never going to move. Name one intervention, one owner, and a date to re-check that the rung is now sound.
The honest caveat
The ladder diagnoses where adoption breaks; it does not guarantee the fix lands - which is why every intervention carries a re-check date, so a failed fix is caught, not assumed. Resist treating every stall as a training problem; training only helps a rung-3 or rung-4 break, and applied to a data or entitlement problem it wastes the window and the customer's patience. An entitlement gap is a commercial conversation to run honestly, not a feature to quietly imply is included - confirm packaging rather than promise. And a flat outcome with sound adoption may mean the original hypothesis was wrong or the value is capacity not cash; the honest move is to revisit the plan with the sponsor, not to re-blend the numbers to manufacture a result.
Interpretation check
Adoption is a chain - entitlement, configuration, usage, routine, outcome - and the lowest broken rung is the real problem. 'They are not using it' is usually a routine or data break, not a training gap, and a flat outcome with sound adoption is a plan problem, not an adoption one.
Practical task
Take a stalling real or seeded account, work the diagnostic ladder from the bottom, identify the lowest broken rung with evidence, choose the one intervention that fits it (not a default of re-training), assign an owner, and set a re-check date. Write one sentence on why the more visible symptom was not the real break.
Self-check
Why work up the ladder from the bottom rather than at the visible symptom?
The lowest broken rung is the real cause; a team that 'is not using it' often has untrustworthy data (a lower rung) that told them not to bother. Fixing the symptom's rung leaves the real break in place.
Which rung is the most common real break, and what fixes it?
The routine - the weekly review never became a habit. Re-installing the weekly operations agenda (KIT-09) fixes more accounts than re-training does.
Adoption is sound on every rung but the outcome is flat. What does that indicate?
A plan problem, not an adoption one - revisit the hypothesis and measurement with the sponsor, and check the value is not capacity being wrongly expected as cash. Do not push harder on a measure that was never going to move.
The team lacks the feature they need. Is that a training intervention?
No - it is rung 1, an entitlement gap and an honest commercial conversation (confirm packaging), never a feature quietly implied as included.
Verified vs demo. The ladder is reusable; the diagnosis rests on the account's real entitlement, data coverage, usage and routine evidence. Entitlement and packaging are confirm-with-product commercial facts, and setup or data-connection fixes escalate to the implementation specialist.