Enterprise software
Business applications, data platforms and the infrastructure behind daily operations.
Who makes adoption work
A product can serve the user well and still be difficult to buy or implement. The person doing the work, the budget owner and the team responsible for deployment each bring different requirements.
Understanding those responsibilities connects a useful feature to a purchase, a working installation and continued use.
Daily use, task completion and practical feedback
The business result and the full cost of adoption
Interfaces, permissions, rollout and ongoing support
Deployment is part of the product.
The customer already has systems, data and ways of working. A new application needs to fit that environment and have people who can operate it.
Data and integration
Interfaces, data ownership and compatibility determine how a product connects to existing systems. Migration and configuration work should be understood alongside the features in a demonstration.
For a data platform, the quality and availability of the source data also affect what the customer can achieve in practice.
Access and operations
Permissions, training and administration remain part of deployment. Operational software also needs clear responsibility for monitoring, changes and support when something goes wrong.
These requirements affect the customer’s cost of adoption and the supplier’s cost of serving the account.
What continued use can tell you
Usage, renewal and the work required to support an account answer different questions. Consider them together when assessing whether customer adoption can become a repeatable business.
For the decisions between a pilot and regular use
Why enterprise software stalls after the pilot- Adoption
- Look at who returns to the product, which tasks they complete and how use changes after the initial rollout. A signed contract alone does not explain how the software is used.
- Renewal and expansion
- Examine why customers renew, add teams or stop using the product. Compare accounts at similar stages so that an early trial is not treated as an established deployment.
- Cost to serve
- Understand the implementation, support and engineering work each account requires. Distinguish improvements useful across the product from work specific to one customer.
Introducing a software company
Explain the customer’s work before and after deployment, what has been measured and what remains to be resolved. Include the development and support required to reach the next stage.
Information for foundersOn the evidence behind product development
From prototype to a product customers can run