Designing and building learning materials is a tough enough job, but what happens when you spend weeks or months on a project and nobody even bothers to use it? This presentation will explore more than a dozen ideas for increasing user adoption of learning materials through a series of strategies and tactics you can begin using immediately. Increasing user adoption requires an in-depth understanding of your users, including their jobs, behaviors, wants, and needs. Once you understand these elements, you can design your implementation approach and introduce on-going activities to increase adoption. In this presentation, we will explore the psychology of the user, the intent of the organization, and the actions you can take as a learning professional to drive adoption and improve the performance of your users.

1. If You Build It, Will They Come?
How to Increase Learning Adoption
B.J. SCHONE
TECHKNOWLEDGE 2015
SESSION W401
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2. About Me 2

3. How should we define adoption?
 Adoption is when a majority of your intended
audience participates in a learning event that
you have implemented.
 Learning event:
An online course, instructor-led class, a job aid, or
any other learning program.
Anything to add?
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4. Adoption Horror Stories
AKA: Why I wanted to present this session
 I have spent hours and days designing
courses that nobody ends up using.
 I have been told to build training by my
boss, an executive, an HR partner, etc.,
“We need training. Just build it.”
 One employee screws up, so now
everyone gets training. Yay!
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5. Adoption Horror Stories
AKA: Why I wanted to present this session
 Employees are too busy for training,
they have too many other priorities.
 Employees think they already know the
material, so they don’t want to attend.
 Training has a bad reputation, so
employees avoid it like the plague.
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6. How about you?
Share some horror stories of your own…
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7. Does adoption equal success?
YES! NO!
Wait.
Adoption should be one of several KPIs.
Sort of.
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8. Does adoption equal success?
 You….do have KPIs, don’t you?
 Figure out how you want to
measure adoption and then
stick with it.
 This is the easy stuff to measure!
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9. Defining and measuring adoption
 Combine data from LMS reports, Google Analytics, your intranet, etc.
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10. Let’s get started!
 User adoption research
 Understand (and influence!) your
organization’s stance on L&D
 Know your audience. Seriously.
 Conduct a learning needs survey
 Communication and Marketing
 WIIFM
 If you don’t believe in it, don’t
launch it
 Look out for warning signs
 Understand the basics of
change management
 Focus on usability
 Utilize ambassadors
 The reputation of your learning
department
 Learn to influence stakeholders
 Learn (Steal) from the Best
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11. User Adoption Research
’
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12. User Adoption Research
Knowledge Persuasion Decision Implementation Confirmation
Five stages of the adoption process:
Heavily influenced by:
• Perceived usefulness
• Perceived ease-of-use
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13. User Adoption Research
 Technology Acceptance Model
Resources:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_lifecycle
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_acceptance_model
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14. Understand (and influence!) your
organization’s stance on L&D
 What is the organizational view of training?
 Do your executives support training initiatives?
 Understand the environment well, so you know
what/who/how to influence.
 What motivates employees at your organization?
 What gets a positive reaction?
- How? Examples?
- Examples?
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15. Know your audience. Seriously.
 This is one of the primary rules of
instructional design, right?
 Spend a ton of time with your
learners on the job, learn about
them, their job, etc.
 Spend several days with them.
Ask as many questions as you can
without driving them crazy.
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16. Know your audience. Seriously.
For every training project, think to yourself:
 Do users want it?
 Do users need it?
 If you were them, would you take it?
You will have issues with adoption is you answer “No” to 1 or 2 of these questions.
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17. Know your audience. Seriously.
 Use employee personas to make
your training more personal.
 Consider “Steve,” who works as an
entry-level software developer:
 What does Steve need to do his
job better?
 Where does Steve see his career
in 2-3 years?
 How will he realistically get there?
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18. Conduct a learning needs survey
 Send out a survey to understand wants, needs, and preferences:
 What training would help you do your job better?
 What training would help you develop your career?
 When do you prefer to take training? On what device(s)?
 Be careful with “learning styles.”
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19. Conduct a learning needs survey
 Design the survey well: Keep it short and focused.
 Send out the survey once or twice a year to get fresh data.
 Collect basic data about each user: role, tenure, business unit,
geographic location, etc., to help you use the results appropriately.
 Consider incentivizing for participation, running a contest, etc.
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Be careful with that part…

20. Communication and Marketing
Ads on your
company
intranet
Videos /
blog posts
from the
CEO
Targeted
emails from
executives
Signage in
lobby,
kitchen,
bathroom
Lunch with
the CEO
Contests /
Prizes /
Rewards
Leader boards
Recognize
successful
employees
 Do you have a Corporate Communications team? Partner with them!
(Make sure to schedule projects around company events and busy times of the year.)
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21. Communication and Marketing
Don’t forget the…
WIIFM
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22. If you don’t believe in it, don’t launch it
 Have you ever been half-
hearted about a project?
 Recognize this early and
do a reset. Trust your gut.
 Talk with your client and
be honest. How can you
get back on track?
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23. Look out for warning signs
 Carefully think through
every step of every
training project.
 Always run through a
mental checklist of
things that could affect
user adoption.
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24. Understand the basics of change management
Prepare learners to avoid “Why do we have to take this?!”
Kurt Lewin’s Model Of Change
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25. Focus on usability
 Do you conduct formal UX / UI reviews?
 Do you hold focus groups?
 Do you listen to your users?
 Do you take action based on feedback?
 What barriers can you remove?
 How many clicks can you reduce?
 Do you need to use the LMS for everything?
 Can you get content to your users faster?
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26. Utilize ambassadors
 Designate certain employees to be ambassadors (power users)
 Create a feedback loop to continually get their input
 Use them represent and promote learning programs
 Have them run focus groups with end users
 (Fair warning, they may not be the best teachers)
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27. User Adoption Research
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Ambassadors
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28. What is the reputation of your learning department?
 How do you know?
 Do you need to ‘reset’ your reputation?
 Consider re-branding, overhauling content, introducing
new programs, new marketing campaigns, launching a
corporate university, etc.
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29. Learn to influence stakeholders
 Be direct. Educate them on what works well – and what doesn’t.
 Make your case with data and user testimonials.
 Gain credibility by learning how their business operates. Understand their
wants and needs, goals, etc.
 After large projects, conduct a post-mortem to figure out what can be
improved for next time. Be transparent with this information, don’t hide it.
 Share successes together: When a training event hits the mark, make sure
it gets recognized and celebrated.
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30. Learn (Steal) from the Best
v v v
~500 million
iPhones sold
5.9% acceptance rate ~10 million cars
sold in 2014
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31. Learn (Steal) from the Best
Products are simple, easy to use
Great customer experience, every touch point is
easy, fast, and effective
Only makes a product if they can make it better
than everyone else
Forward-thinking, they are often ahead of the
industry by 1 – 2 years
v
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32. Learn (Steal) from the Best
Super-high quality
Reputation: If you attend, you will be successful
Methodically built and improved year after year
For those who want to be the best
v
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33. Learn (Steal) from the Best
Great value for the price
Consistency and quality, which leads to very high
customer loyalty
Continuous improvement (kaizen) mindset
“Relentless pursuit of perfection”
v
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34. Be the Best
Products are simple, easy to use
Great customer experience, every touch point is
easy, fast, and effective
Only makes a product if they can make it better
than everyone else
Forward-thinking, they are often ahead of the
industry by 1 – 2 years
v
Your
Team
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35. Be the Best
Super-high quality
Reputation: If you attend, you will be successful
Methodically built and improved year after year
For those who want to be the best
v
Your
Team
35

36. Be the Best
Great value for the price
Consistency and quality, which leads to very high
customer loyalty
Continuous improvement (kaizen) mindset
“Relentless pursuit of perfection”
v
Your
Team
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37. Let’s end on a happy note.
Share some of your success stories!
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38. What we covered…
 User adoption research
 Understand (and influence!) your
organization’s stance on L&D
 Know your audience. Seriously.
 Conduct a learning needs survey
 Communication and Marketing
 WIIFM
 If you don’t believe in it, don’t
launch it
 Look out for warning signs
 Understand the basics of
change management
 Focus on usability
 Utilize ambassadors
 The reputation of your learning
department
 Learn to influence stakeholders
 Learn (Steal) from the Best
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39. Q&A
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40. Thank you!
 B.J. Schone
bjschone@gmail.com
@bjschone
If You Build It, Will They Come?
How to Increase Learning Adoption
TECHKNOWLEDGE 2015
40