How do you track adoption post-go-live?

Adoption is the difference between a feature shipped and a feature delivering value.

Metrics by depth:

Basic (login-based):

• Daily / weekly / monthly active users.
• Login frequency per user / role.
• Mobile vs desktop usage.

Engagement (action-based):

• Records created per day / per user.
• Reports run.
• Dashboards viewed.
• Searches performed.
• Feature usage (e.g., "% of opportunities with full required fields filled").

Outcome (impact-based):

• KPIs you care about: pipeline coverage, win rate, case resolution time, etc.
• Did the metric move post-launch?

Tools:

• Lightning Usage App — Salesforce's built-in adoption dashboard. Login activity, page performance, custom component usage.
• Custom reports — build your own adoption dashboard from the standard data model.
• Event Monitoring (Shield) — detailed user-level activity logs.
• PendoApp / Walkme — third-party adoption tools with in-app analytics and guidance.

Cadence:

• Week 1-2: daily check on login and basic engagement.
• Month 1: weekly review of adoption + issue rate.
• Month 3: depth metrics — are users using key features?
• Month 6: outcome metrics — is the business goal moving?
• Month 12: full ROI assessment.

Adoption-friction analysis:

Low adoption signals:

• Users ignoring: bypassing Salesforce for old tools (Excel for sales, email for cases).
• Surface usage only: logging in but not using key features.
• Adoption spike then decline: initial enthusiasm fades.
• Specific roles low: one team adopts; another doesn't.

Diagnose:

1. Talk to users — one-on-ones, surveys.
2. Observe — watch them work; see where they get stuck.
3. Check training gaps — was role-specific training adequate?
4. Check process fit — is the system actually how the work happens?
5. Check tooling — is performance acceptable? Mobile working?

Interventions:

• More training for under-adopted roles.
• In-app guidance to reduce confusion.
• Process changes if Salesforce doesn't fit the work.
• Champions to evangelise within laggard teams.
• Manager accountability — leadership dashboards showing adoption per team often drive behaviour.

A senior consultant treats post-launch adoption as half the work. Brilliant configuration that nobody uses delivers nothing.