How do we get employees to actually use the new digital platform we rolled out?
Platform adoption fails when organizations treat it as a technology problem. The platform works. The question is why people are not using it, and that is a behavioral problem.
A typical diagnosis reveals layered barriers. At the capability level: people completed the training but cannot operate the platform fast enough under real conditions. Training taught features, but not fluency. At the opportunity level: the old system is still accessible, and it is faster because people have years of muscle memory with it. At the motivation level: nobody on their immediate team is using the new platform yet, and there is no visible consequence for sticking with the old one.
The intervention design follows the barrier profile.
For capability: replace one-time training with practice sprints. Use the "Slowly Increase Difficulty" strategy where people start with one simple task on the new platform, then gradually expand. Pair inexperienced users with early adopters through peer-to-peer teaching.
For opportunity: remove or restrict access to the old system. Change the default so the new platform opens first. Build in environmental cues (prompts, reminders at decision points in the workflow).
For motivation: identify and spotlight early adopters whose teams are seeing results. Use implementation intentions: "When I start my morning workflow, I will open the new platform first." Create a learning collaborative where teams share tips and workarounds.
A global shared services organization facing this exact challenge found that the primary barrier was not training (capability) or sponsorship (motivation). It was that the old system was still the path of least resistance (opportunity). Restricting legacy access and redesigning the default login flow produced more adoption lift than six months of additional training.
