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When I first joined Denamico, I had never heard of change management. I didn’t fully understand why we always said: people, process, data, then technology. 

We’re a company focused on technology implementations and integrations, shouldn’t that part come first?

Then I met Tina Bishop. She’s the User Adoption Specialist at Denamico, and she helped me reframe how I think about this. The way Tina talks about it makes it feel so obvious that now I wonder why everyone else isn't thinking this way. 

"You can have the slickest, most interesting, coolest stuff out there, but it's not going to get a lot of use if you're not bringing people along from the beginning." 

Tina's words of wisdom. 

As I learned more about our clients and started writing about their successes, this abstract piece of the puzzle called change management started to fit. 

I’ve seen successful organizations come to us because they think they’ve chosen the wrong tool. They usually think this because:

• They spent months evaluating cool features they weren’t using
• There are still individuals, or even teams, using “the old tool”
• They’ve built dozens of dashboards, but leaders still can't find the number they care about
• They still couldn’t answer leadership questions about ROI

More often than not, we see that people didn’t adopt the system because they didn’t understand or experience the value it would bring them.  

The difference between measurable CRM ROI and a contract you can’t wait to end, is a change management strategy. 

But you need a framework. So, we’re sharing ours. 

We’ve seen organizations achieve 95% user adoption because they followed this framework we’ve refined over the years, focusing on people first and features second.

We documented our change management methodology including checklists, communication templates, and success metrics. We turned it into a PDF that you can grab here.

In the meantime, here’s how to avoid common mistakes and how to set your team up for success.

3 Change Mistakes to Avoid

According to Prosci's 12th Edition of Best Practices in Change Management study, projects with excellent change management practices in the U.S. are 8x more likely to meet or exceed project objectives compared to those with poor practices.

Our methodology starts with Prosci’s ADKAR change management framework, which stands for:

• Awareness of the need for change
• Desire to participate and support the change
• Knowledge on how to change
• Ability to implement required skills and behaviors
• Reinforcement to sustain the change

Effective change management involves measurable actions, strategic timelines, and systematic approaches to building genuine buy-in. It's the difference between showing someone where the buttons are and helping them understand how the system transforms their daily work.

We see organizations make three main mistakes, but each one can be avoided.

Starting Too Late

Quick check: Did change management communications begin before configuration of the software? If not, you’re running behind.

​​Change management is often tacked on at the end of a technology implementation. Even then, it’s often just training. By then, resistance is baked in and people are left asking:

• Why am I just now hearing about this?
• Wasn’t anyone thinking about how this impacts me?
• Do I even have time to learn this before launch?

If you’re spending months evaluating a new technology and only a few weeks bringing your team along, you’re taking a backwards approach. This explains why as many as 68% of CRM implementations fail. 

How to get it right

The winning sequence reverses this priority. 

Timeline: Start during project kickoff & requirements discovery (2–4 weeks before technical build).

Goal: Build awareness and executive sponsorship before the system is ever configured.

Key Steps: While your technology partners build workflows and integrations, focus on building awareness, addressing concerns, and creating genuine excitement.

• Give your team a clear “why now.” 
• Establish a visible project sponsor to champion the platform.
• Write your change narrative and share it early even if every detail isn’t final.

Skipping the Why

Quick check: Can each department and role within them answer, “how does this benefit me and/or change my daily process?” If not, you’re missing what should be at the heart of your communications.

​​

Most organizations focus on what the CRM can do rather than why individuals should care. They announce the business reasons for change, but skip the crucial step of building personal value propositions for each role. 

If you don’t answer "what's in it for me?" for every role, people are left asking: 

• What’s so urgent?
• How does this help me in my role?
• Is leadership trying to track my every move?

How to get it right

Build role-specific value propositions so every team member can answer, “What’s in it for me?”

Timeline: Focus on this during system configuration & design.

Goal: Turn business goals into personal motivation for every role.

Key Steps: Strategic communication moves beyond announcements to meaningful conversations about individual impact and career growth opportunities.

• Interview each department to learn role-specific pain points.
• Build role-specific value propositions (ex: sales reps get automated daily action items; service teams see full customer history in one view).
• Recruit change champions who can influence peers and model excitement.

Stopping at Launch

Quick check: Do you have a 90-day reinforcement plan and adoption dashboard? If not, you stopped the process too soon. 

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Most organizations think user adoption means everyone logs in successfully on day one and can do the basics. If those are the only success metrics, people are left asking: 

• Are we still supposed to be using this?
• This new feature could help me, but how do we add that?
• We keep adding reports, but where do I see what I need?

Launch day celebrations are the beginning, not the end. As Tina puts it, "Reinforcement is the stage that never ends."

How to get it right

Reinforcement isn't congratulating people for logging in. It’s measuring adoption with dashboards that show where users get stuck and offering them targeted support.

Timeline: Focus on go-live and at least 90 days post-launch. (but continue forever!)

Goal: Reinforce new habits, track adoption, and maximize the platform.

Key Steps: 

• Build adoption dashboards to measure logins, data quality, and task completion.
• Celebrate early wins with specific examples.
• Diagnose resistance systematically (is it awareness, desire, knowledge, or ability?) and respond with targeted support.

Remember: The goal isn't to implement new technology. It's to build a platform so valuable that your team says, “I can’t imagine doing my job without this!”

This newsletter only scratches the surface. Download our complete guide to change management to build your user adoption plan.