What Is Technology Adoption?<\/h2>\n
Technology adoption is how people or organizations accept and use new technologies. It involves learning and adapting to new technologies. Technology adoption is affected by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, and social influence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
What Is the Technology Adoption Curve?<\/h2>\n
The technology adoption curve is a bell curve model describing how people react to, adopt, and accept new innovative products and technologies. While there are many adaptions of the original model, Everett Rogers\u2019s\u00a0diffusion of innovations<\/a>\u00a0dives into the characteristics of each of the five adopter categories within the technology adoption life cycle: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.<\/p>\n Why is this important for enterprise organizations? Because every time you implement new technology<\/a>, you have to win over every type of adopter.<\/p>\n Each category of technology adopter has different motivators when adopting new processes and technologies.<\/p>\n Innovators are those who are willing to take risks. Innovators are those in the technology adoption life cycle who love trying new things and may even be the people encouraging others to try out a new app or tool.<\/p>\n Adopters from this part of the technology adoption curve like going against the grain and trying new things. They\u2019re the first to upgrade their phones or experiment with a tool during beta testing. Because innovators are rarely concerned about failure, they\u2019re very willing to give a new technology a shot.<\/p>\n In fact, innovators are often the initiators of change. If you\u2019re the person introducing new technology into your organization, you\u2019re an innovator.<\/p>\n Innovator Traits Include: <\/strong><\/p>\n To motivate innovators, focus on the exciting opportunities the new technology presents. Although innovators don\u2019t need much convincing, the best way to motivate them is to get them excited about what a new tool can do.<\/p>\n The\u00a0enhanced\u00a0Kotter\u2019s 8-step change model<\/a>\u00a0is a helpful resource for motivating innovators because the model is built around \u201cthe big opportunity.\u201d Every step is designed to encourage your team to move forward. Because innovators are less likely to resist a new tool, they are quick to join what Kotter calls a \u201cvolunteer army\u201d \u2014 people who enthusiastically support a transformation.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you want to use a\u00a0digital adoption platform<\/a>\u00a0to onboard employees to a new piece of software. The big opportunity is being able to save on content creation time, improve user adoption<\/a> rates company-wide, and increase productivity. Innovators will be intrigued by the tool and interested in how it can improve their work.<\/p>\n While early adopters are trendsetters and tend to be comfortable taking risks, they want to form a solid opinion of technology before they vocally support it.<\/p>\n Early adopters love being the first to know about new technology. These people are quick to sign up for new social media sites or experiment with a new project management tool just for fun. What separates early adopters from innovators is early adopters\u2019 concerns about their reputations.<\/p>\n While innovators are comfortable failing publicly, early adopters like to gather information and personal experience with technology before they recommend it to others. When asked about new tech, early adopters want to appear knowledgeable and trendy, which is why they need to test a tool out before they\u2019ll throw their support behind it.<\/p>\n Early Adopter Traits Include: <\/strong><\/p>\n To motivate early adopters, provide guides on how to get started. Early adopters want to hit the ground running. By giving them the guides and training they need to start using a tool, they can become internal champions for your\u00a0organizational change<\/a>.<\/p>\n Consider using these early adopters of the technology adoption life cycle as a test group to work out kinks in implementation. Because early adopters accept small setbacks and issues, they are ideal beta testers. And once they feel comfortable with a new tool, they\u2019re quick to spread the word to others.<\/p>\n Help early adopters master new technology by providing training in a variety of formats, such as walkthroughs, written guides, and video training<\/a>. It\u2019s important to address different learning styles and provide self-paced learning<\/a>\u00a0opportunities. The more knowledgeable early adopters feel about technology, the more likely they are to promote it to their coworkers.<\/p>\n The early majority are interested in technology but want proof of its effectiveness. These are the people who scour product reviews before making a purchase, and they quietly test out tools before committing. Case studies and real-life user stories trump generic promises of what a tool or program can do.<\/p>\n For adopters in this category of the technology adoption curve, you\u2019ll need a pragmatic approach. Go to the early majority with evidence of what technology can accomplish.<\/p>\n Early Majority Traits Include: <\/strong><\/p>\n To motivate the early majority, show how the new technology solves a problem. To win over the early majority, you need to demonstrate what problem the technology solves and how it does so. Remember, this adopter category responds to data-driven arguments, so show these users how your solution has solved a similar problem in the past.<\/p>\n For example, if you plan to use a DAP to train employees, the early majority will want to see the facts of the current situation, as well as evidence, in the form of a few other\u00a0digital adoption<\/a> success stories,\u00a0to prove that your proposed solution is the best option. Present a clear argument.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take an example of improving\u00a0Salesforce adoption<\/a>.<\/p>\n The key to winning over the early majority is showing that your solution is the most logical choice.<\/p>\n Much like the early majority, the late majority want a data-driven reason to adopt technology. Convincing people in this adopter category requires research and solid proof that the technology is worth their time.<\/p>\n People in the late majority do not like to take risks, and they tend to question the need for changes. They are not easily persuaded by trends, preferring instead to watch how changes play out before they get involved. These are the people who hit snooze on software updates for as long as they can, waiting to hear how their peers react to the updates.<\/p>\n Late Majority Traits Include: <\/strong><\/p>\n To motivate the early majority, show them the new technology in action. The late majority needs to see it to believe it. At this stage of the technology adoption curve, you\u2019ll need extensive research and proof that the new technology is effective.<\/p>\n Use your innovators and early adopters to show how the tool or software serves your organization. Late majority adopters appreciate seeing how technology relates to their jobs specifically, so turn your early users within the company into vocal supporters of new technology.<\/p>\n Be sure to demonstrate the specific uses and benefits, and prove the value with data. Let\u2019s say you want everyone on the team to download Slack and move all internal communication from email to Slack channels. Generalized benefits like \u201cSlack is faster and easier than email\u201d won\u2019t resonate with the late majority. They want the facts.<\/p>\n Instead, have innovators and early adopters use a tool like\u00a0RescueTime<\/a>\u00a0to track time spent on communication using email for one week and repeat the experiment with Slack. Then, go to the late majority with productivity numbers from within the organization. They\u2019ll respond better to an argument backed by data, especially if the data comes from people they know and work with.<\/p>\n Laggards are wary of new technology. Before they consider getting on board, they need answers to their \u201cwhat\u2019s in it for me?\u201d (WIIFM) questions.<\/p>\n Laggards prefer the status quo because they know what to expect. They are your most stubborn users \u2014 easily frustrated by new technology and quick to give up on a tool that does not immediately make their life easier.<\/p>\n For myself, I think of my dad’s relationship with the Internet as an example of a technology laggard.<\/p>\n When talking to laggards, answer WIIFM questions, such as:<\/strong><\/p>\n Addressing WIIFM questions helps you move past initial reservations so you can focus on convincing laggards to embrace something new.<\/p>\n Laggard Traits Include: <\/strong><\/p>\n![\"market-share-graph-technology-adoption-categories\"](\"https:\/\/whatfix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image3-2.png\")
<\/p>\nWhat Are the 5 Stages 0f Technology Adopters?<\/h2>\n
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Defining the 5 Stages Of the Technology Adoption Lifecycle<\/h2>\n
<\/a>1. Innovators (2.5%)<\/h3>\n
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What motivates innovators?<\/h4>\n
<\/a>2. Early Adopters (13.5%)<\/h3>\n
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What motivates early adopters?<\/h4>\n
<\/a>3. Early Majority (34%)<\/h3>\n
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What motivates the early majority?<\/h4>\n
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<\/a>4. Late Majority (34%)<\/h3>\n
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What motivates the late majority?<\/h4>\n
<\/a>5. Laggards (16%)<\/h3>\n
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