Adoption Playbook Writer

---
name: adoption-playbook-writer
description: Use when designing an adoption playbook for a customer with low usage. Triggers on "adoption playbook", "adoption plan", "they're not using the product", "drive adoption for".
---

# Adoption Playbook Writer

Low adoption rarely means "they need more training." It usually means a) the wrong feature was sold for their actual workflow, b) the wrong people were activated initially, or c) no internal owner is driving usage. A playbook without diagnosing this is just more training that won't stick.

## Required inputs

1. **Customer + ARR + segment**
2. **Time since contract start**
3. **What they bought you for** (original use case)
4. **Current adoption state** — which features used, by how many users, how often
5. **Adoption gap** — what "good" looks like for this segment + customer
6. **Champion / sponsor health** — engaged? distracted? changed?
7. **Why adoption stalled** — your honest read (not the polite version)

If the user can't articulate WHY adoption stalled, push back: "Was it onboarding scope? Wrong feature for their workflow? Champion left? Too many tools in their stack? Different reasons need different playbooks."

## Diagnostic — pick the right playbook

### Cause 1: Onboarding never finished
**Signal**: Activated 1-2 features, never set up the rest, time-to-value milestones missed.
**Playbook**: Re-onboarding workshop, scope reduced to next critical workflow.

### Cause 2: Wrong people activated
**Signal**: Champion uses it, team doesn't. Single-threaded.
**Playbook**: Multi-threading workshop, identify 3-5 net new users, give them their own activation path.

### Cause 3: Workflow mismatch
**Signal**: They tried, it didn't fit how they actually work, they reverted.
**Playbook**: This isn't an adoption playbook — escalate to product / solutions architect. A re-implementation, not a workshop.

### Cause 4: Champion lost momentum
**Signal**: Champion still in seat but distracted (new priority, scope change, exec change).
**Playbook**: Re-engage at exec level FIRST, then return to adoption with their air cover.

## Structure of the playbook

### Phase 1 (Days 1-15): Diagnose & align
- **Champion 1:1** — confirm the cause and get explicit sponsorship for the next 60 days
- **User research** — 3-5 short interviews with intended users (10 min each)
- **Audit** — current usage, what's missing, what's blocking
- **Output**: a 1-page diagnosis doc shared with champion

### Phase 2 (Days 16-45): Activate the right people on the right thing
- **Targeted workshop** — NOT generic training. Specific to the next critical workflow.
- **Pilot user group** — 3-5 users committed to active use, with weekly check-in
- **Internal champion stand-up** — 15-min weekly with the customer's owner
- **Output**: 3-5 users active in core feature within 30 days

### Phase 3 (Days 46-75): Habit & expansion
- **Habit reinforcement** — usage report shared weekly with champion
- **Add-on workflow** — second feature activated, bridging from the first
- **Internal showcase** — champion shares a win at their team meeting
- **Output**: weekly active usage above [segment benchmark] sustained for 4 weeks

### Each phase has owners
- **Customer-side owner** — who from the customer drives this (champion isn't always the right person)
- **CSM-side owner** — you, mostly, with named hand-offs (SA, technical, exec sponsor)
- **Exec sponsor** — when, how often, what for

### Each phase has a kill criterion
If by Day 30 the pilot user group hasn't activated, the playbook isn't working. Don't keep grinding — escalate or change strategy.

## Anti-patterns

- "Schedule a training" as the only intervention — generic training has near-zero adoption lift
- Adoption playbook without champion buy-in — pushing on a string
- Workshops with 30 attendees — drives compliance, not adoption. 5 active users beats 30 passive ones.
- Playbook with no kill criterion — will run for 6 months without progress
- Playbook that's CSM-side only — adoption requires customer-side ownership

## Tone

Honest about the diagnostic. If adoption stalled because the wrong product was sold, name it and escalate to AE / Product. A playbook can't fix a sales mismatch.

## Output format

Markdown. Phases with weekly granularity in Phase 1, biweekly in Phases 2 and 3. Named owners. Kill criteria. End with the verbatim email to send to the champion to kick off the playbook.