When you are tapped to be the first SME for a brand new enterprise platform, the first thing you need is a clear platform adoption strategy that puts the customer first and anticipates where the pain will hide.

In 2024, my task was straightforward on paper: Lead the implementation and onboarding of a major cloud based call recording and analytics platform while partnering closely with our telephony team as they moved from an older on-prem solution to a cloud native one.

In reality, the migration was not going to slow down for me. If I fell behind or if users were not onboarded or configured in a timely fashion, the telephony cutovers would continue. I remember nodding along as this was explained to me, doing my best to sound excited.

No pressure at all, right?

No one asked me to create a platform adoption strategy or build training or write documentation. But those gaps were obvious within the first few sessions with future admins and the vendor engineering team.

This new platform was not just another tool.
It was a mission critical platform supporting thousands of users across multiple operational teams. It would reshape workflows for agents, analysts, supervisors and support teams. My platform adoption strategy had to be on point.

If adoption went poorly, the consequences would be felt everywhere. And my small team would be help responsible.

I kept thinking that people perform to the level of their confidence and preparation. So I took ownership as their guide.

From a technical standpoint, the platform was powerful compared to the legacy software. I saw that immediately. But the people using it were not as confident.

And I have learned something consistent across every environment I have worked in including power companies, manufacturing plants and large scale call centers.

People resist change when clarity is missing. This aligns with expert research on why teams resist change. Your platform adoption strategy must increase clarity for end-users, because clarity reduces the risk of low platform utilization and maximizes the ROI of the investment. That entire chain of positive outcomes begins with a clean, intentional platform adoption strategy.

Why does adoption break down
Because processes are unclear
Because questions go unanswered
Because uncertainty becomes hesitation

And once hesitation sets in, the pattern begins.

Confusion
Frustration
Low adoption
Erosion of trust
Erosion of ROI
Endless support requests

Having watched other teams suffer through this cycle, I made a decision early.

This time, we are not repeating the pattern.

During training sessions and planning meetings, I kept asking myself,

“How do I take everything I’ve learned from months of implementation and testing and transfer it to future admins in a way that makes them confident, capable, and fully self-sufficient?”

I will be honest. One of my motivations was reducing the classic request to hop on a quick call only to spend fifteen minutes helping someone edit a user profile for the third time.

Most of my past experience involved inheriting platforms that were already stood up. It was clear the original owners focused only on implementation, not on systematizing how people should actually work inside the system. There was no real platform adoption strategy in place… no frameworks, no guides, nothing that empowered users once the implementation team stepped away.

That always stood out to me because my definition of engineering is simple.

Engineering is the art of making things easier.

Given the chance to lead a major implementation as the SME, something I used to look for in other people, I was not going to waste the opportunity.

I chose clarity early.
I chose adoption before confusion.
I didn’t know it then, but I was building my first platform adoption strategy playbook, one step at a time.
And that choice changed everything that followed.

How I Built a Platform Adoption Strategy Around What Admins Needed

Instead of treating onboarding as a check the box task, I built a structured platform adoption strategy centered on clarity, repetition and real world scenarios.

I started by building a functionality test based on my firsthand experience with the platform. Then I partnered with call center leaders and future admins to determine which features from the old platform mattered most and which new capabilities they wanted to take advantage of. From there, I built around their needs, held training sessions and iterated continuously while aiming for small and steady improvements.

The result was a scenario based functionality test that covered nearly eighty percent of what admins actually do including:

• enabling screen recording
• creating and managing users
• searching and reviewing calls
• navigating admin functions
• handling permissions and compliance tasks

I partnered with app consultants and call center leaders, read documentation end to end, took training classes and focused my efforts through a Pareto lens by pulling only the insights that mattered and letting the noise fall away.

If something confused an admin, I refined it.
If a workflow was missing something, I researched it and added it.
Every repeated question became a permanent note.

I customized by platform adoption strategy and treated each admin like my number one customer because in the call center IT space, they were.

Once the process was solid and vetted, I converted the entire workflow into a clear and simple Admin How To Guide and published it in Confluence where every team could access it from day one.

No one requested it and no one suggested it.
But the platform needed it, the business deserved it and seamless adoption required it.

The Impact: Confident Users and a Protected Investment

How a Strong Platform Adoption Strategy Delivered Real Results

The results were immediate and long lasting.

Admins who began unsure of the new platform started day one after cutover with confidence, clarity and the ability to support their teams. More than one person told me that they hated the old system but loved the new one.

And I knew my platform adoption strategy played a major hand in that transformation.

They did not love the platform because it was engineered like a consumer app to create instant gratification. It was not designed to be addictive. It was a work tool.

What they loved was that they finally understood it.

When people understand something, they can use it.
When they can use it with confidence, they can begin to appreciate it.

That is what happened here. Clarity created comfort and comfort created adoption. All because of a platform adoption strategy rooted in clarity.

That clarity created ripple effects far beyond training including:

• thousands of users supported by better prepared admins
• smoother operations across multiple teams
• complete cutover success with admins helping validate call flow
• fewer escalations and configuration errors
• stronger alignment between technical teams and the business
• a major multi year investment protected and fully utilized
• future automations and analytics enabled because adoption was strong

The user guide remains a living, breathing document that is updated, referenced, and actively used today. Its longevity exists because clarity came first and my platform adoption strategy supported every step.

And this work positioned me as the key SME for the platform. Business teams, corporate security and development teams reach out directly to me when issues arise, not my team, me.

What This Taught Me About Platform Leadership

Most teams stop at the basics.

Install. Configure. Go live.
Most teams think that is the finsih line.

But organizations do not succeed because a tool works or looks impressive. They succeed because the people using the tool understand it deeply and can move through it with confidence. This is where a strong platform adoption strategy plays a part.

That is where adoption begins.
That is where trust is built.
That is where real value is unlocked.

This was not just about documentation. It was about anticipating customer needs, removing friction before it appeared and turning a complex system into something people want to use every day.

Because in every rollout, one truth is consistent.

Clarity unlocks adoption. Adoption unlocks ROI.

And looking back, the entire experience revealed the three insights that made my platform adoption strategy a success — the same three pillars that now define my ARC lens.

Adoption came first because empowering users early removes uncertainty before it grows.
Return was protected through strong enablement, consistent guidance, and mechanisms that reduced rework and confusion.
Clarity was delivered at every step, turning a complex platform into something teams could understand, trust, and rely on.

Those three lessons, Adoption, Return, and Clarity, worked together to transform this rollout into a measurable success.

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