Digital Adoption Jobs Profile: The Digital Adoption Manager

Perhaps the biggest key role in the digital adoption jobs category is the digital adoption manager.

This role oversees digital adoption projects throughout an organization.

There are certainly others involved – from trainers to change managers to IT specialists. If you’re interested in finding your next role in the field of digital adoption or transformation, you can search available positions here.

However, the job at the center of it all is the digital adoption manager.

Among other things, this role is responsible for:

• Help organizations fully utilize their new technology
• Educate, train, and teach staff, customers, or partners 
• Analyze metrics and monitor adoption project health
• Manage change programs from start to finish
• Manage employee resistance
• Improving employee engagement and performance

Below, we’ll look at these functions in detail and why they matter.

Digital Adoption Jobs Profile: The Digital Adoption Manager

Before exploring the duties of this role in detail, let’s answer a few quick questions about the position.

Here are some common questions and answers about digital adoption managers:

• Why does this job exist? Today, technology is affecting organizations both large and small. To keep up with the technology curve, businesses need to evolve their technology portfolio. However, adopting digital technology takes time, effort, and management. That’s where the digital adoption manager comes in.
• Who is best suited to take on this role? The ideal candidate has a love for technology and people. Because this is a new role, there is no formal career track devoted to it. But good candidates include experienced managers with a background in change management, HR, or IT, among other areas.
• What qualifications should candidates possess? A few good qualifications include: change management experience, partnering with IT department, training others, experience in project management, and related areas.

Now, let’s get started with the profile itself.

Namely…

What Does the Digital Adoption Manager Do?

Here are some of the core duties that digital adoption managers handle:

Help organizations fully utilize their new technology.

It is one thing to deploy new software.

It is quite another to make complete use of that software.

Digital adoption managers ensure that:

• Employees, users, or customers – whoever uses the software – have the skills necessary to accomplish their goals
• Everyone is trained and up-to-speed on workflows and required tasks 
• Productivity targets are met 

Typically, digital adoption managers use digital adoption platforms (DAPs) like WalkMe.

These help adoption managers monitor usage statistics and learn where productivity falters, then how to improve that productivity.

Educate, train, and teach staff, customers, or partners.

Training users is a critical part of any digital adoption program.

When adopting new internal tools, for instance, digital adoption managers:

• Provide training, through digital adoption platforms, e-learning, in-person sessions, workshops, and more
• Collect feedback on where employees need help 
• Use analytics to find growth opportunities

In today’s busy digital workplace, it’s critical to deliver effective training with minimal overhead.

Users who can learn faster will be more productive, satisfied, and efficient.

Analyze metrics and monitor adoption project health

Adoption projects have much in common with other change projects.

There are quantitative targets, deadlines, and countless tasks to manage.

Digital adoption managers use data to:

• Set and achieve KPIs
• Analyze metrics
• Gain insight into the health of the overall adoption efforts

This data can be used to explain why a project is working, where its weak points are, and what needs improvemennt.

Manage change programs from start to finish.

Digital adoption projects, like all organizational change projects, require careful management.

Duties include:

• Developing an adoption roadmap with stages, deadlines, and goals
• Communicating with employees, executives, and stakeholders
• Coordinating with other parties throughout the organization
• Managing risk 
• Cultivating support

Among other change management duties.

Because change management is so closely linked to digital adoption, experience in change management is a great asset.

Managing employee resistance and obtaining support.

Employee support is critical to a program’s success.

If employees resist change, there is a possibility the project could fail completely.

There are a number of techniques for obtaining support – but they are not simple.

Most involve change management best practices, such as:

• Effective two-way communication strategies
• Training and employee onboarding
• Selling employees on the benefits of a project
• Creating projects that actually do benefit individual employees
• Offering personal support and guidance

Among other things.

Ultimately, an effective digital adoption manager should be a good leader.

He or she should be able to inspire others – not just order them to meet goals.

Improving employee engagement and performance.

Improving engagement and performance requires a multi-faceted approach.

On the one hand, it’s helpful to think like a good manager – understand what employees want, how they think, and their needs.

On the other, it’s critical to take advantage of technology.

New training tools, data, analytics, and communication tools can all enhance adoption efforts.

Regardless of the specifics of a given adoption program, managers should be able to think on their feet.

They should be able to design digital transformation and adoption projects that are unique, sophisticated, and structured.

In short – they should be able to build a digital adoption program that gets the job done.