The journey to digital adoption: Inspiring stories from DAP community leaders
Welcome to the first blog in our series that explores the journeys of eight leading professionals who were recognized among the Top 100 DAP Professionals of 2024. The Top 100 Digital Adoption Professionals is a global roundup of the Digital Adoption (DAP) Professionals who inspire their peers, transform user experiences, and drive impact. What makes this recognition particularly meaningful is that it’s fully crowdsourced – community members nominate and vote for the DAP leaders who inspire them most.
Discover the moments that shaped their careers, get their advice for developing successful DAP programs, and gain exclusive insights into their perspectives on the future of the industry. Whether you’re just getting started or a seasoned DAP Professional, this series offers invaluable inspiration and knowledge from those at the forefront of digital adoption.
Let’s kick this off with learning a bit about how they got started as DAP Professionals and what inspires them.
Real-world insights into building a career in digital adoption
A digital adoption strategy is no longer a nice-to-have but a need-to-have, bridging the gap between an organization’s technology investments and users’ proficiency. For professionals considering this dynamic field or organizations building their digital adoption strategies, understanding the paths of those who’ve successfully navigated this landscape is invaluable.
These individuals are shaping how organizations and users embrace technology, and their journeys offer practical insights into entering the field, creating meaningful impact, and finding professional fulfillment in the field.
Discovering digital adoption
Artem Silka, Digital Learning Analyst at EDF Renewables and recent winner of WalkMe’s DemoJam competition for his innovative solution, remembers his early fascination with technology, recalling the days of “loading games from a cassette tape on my first PC.” This childhood experience sparked a lifelong curiosity, one that eventually led him to the world of digital adoption.
“I was drawn to digital adoption because of my love for technology and people, and my ability to combine both daily.” Artem shares.
For L’Tanya Dawson, Director of Digital Adoption and Instructional Design at AMN Healthcare, the path to digital adoption was more sudden. “A coworker showed me WalkMe one day and I was immediately hooked!” she says. “I had to learn more and had to be part of this amazing tool.”
Stephanie Dybdal, from AMN Healthcare, adds “I’m passionate about helping organizations leverage technology to improve efficiency and the user experience, and I believe that with the right support and training, anyone can thrive in a digital environment.”
Embracing new challenges
While some professionals started with digital adoption serendipitously, others were presented with the opportunity to lead their organization’s efforts.
Kristy Ruzesky, Solutions Adoption Manager at Federated Co-operatives Limited, was tasked with heading up a new Solutions Adoption team. “Over three years ago, a leader asked me to lead a new team,” Kristy explains. “I was excited for this new opportunity, as digital adoption was new to our organization, and I jumped at the chance. I could see the value of digital adoption and how impactful it would be for the user experience in a number of the new systems that would be implemented in the next few years across the Co-operative Retailing System.”
Similarly, when presented with the opportunity to drive change at IHG Hotels & Resorts, Tonette Ilano embraced the challenge as Sales Excellence Manager. “In my role, I focus on empowering our sales teams with industry-leading tools and resources designed to differentiate IHG’s sales approach for our customers and key stakeholders,” she says.
Driving continuous change and impact
As these professionals navigate their digital adoption journeys, they’re creating solutions and strategies that have big impacts on their end users and organizations.
Tonette shares her most significant accomplishment: “I have the most pride in elevating our user engagement in our CRM tool from 35% to an impressive 98% over the span of three years.” She adds, “By leveraging WalkMe, we were able to automate 80% of our sellers’ manual data entry tasks, significantly streamlining their workflow. This not only enhanced productivity, but also allowed our team to focus more on building relationships with clients, driving overall business success.” This achievement underscores the ability of DAP Professionals to simplify workflows and empower team members to focus on high value work that drives the business forward.
Becky Lane, Senior Solution Architect at Aprimo, faced a different challenge. As part of the Pre-Sales team, her role involves managing all trial requests and partner environments – and she needed a way to scale enablement. “As a ‘team of one’, [our digital adoption approach] has freed up a significant number of resources to focus on other objectives and keep the sales cycle moving forward. So, just getting to the point we are at now, when at one time we were told it’s impossible, is still what I take pride in the most,” Becky explains.
For Danielle Conroy, Senior Instructional Designer at Shiftwise, a division of AMN Healthcare, the proudest moment was building the Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) program at Shiftwise from the ground up. “I am responsible for developing learning content for both the ShiftWise Classic and ShiftWise Flex systems. Using WalkMe and traditional instructional design methods, I educate users, address pain points, drive adoption, and implement effective change management strategies to ensure a smooth transition and enhanced user experience,” she says. “WalkMe has revolutionized the way we deliver training and communication. By collaborating with stakeholders, leveraging user feedback, and implementing targeted training,” Danielle is helping her organization make users’ transition from Shiftwise Classic to Flex seamless and sustainable.
The human element in digital transformation
While digital adoption is fundamentally about technology, many professionals find the most satisfaction in the human aspect of their work, be it celebrating their team’s accomplishments, seeing others understand and get excited about the possibilities, or delivering innovative solutions that create a better user experience.
L’Tanya Dawson, for instance, takes immense pride in “celebrating [her] team’s achievements on their WalkMe journeys. Whether it’s mastering a new WalkMe skill, improving efficiency for end users, building partnerships with previously skeptical product owners or development teams, or witnessing unexpected engagement with a particular solution, these wins are truly inspiring. It’s a joy to recognize and share in their successes.”
Similarly, Gavin Ashpool, Digital Adoption Manager at Tesco, finds joy in seeing others’ excitement when they discover the possibilities of digital adoption solutions. “When we demo WalkMe to our internal teams and you see them get very enthused about the possibilities of what can be achieved,” Gavin shares, “I take the most pride in, for example, when we can reduce support tickets or reduce the amount of effort required by our teams.”
At Federated Co-operatives Limited, Kristy and her team also place a strong focus on engaging various stakeholders into conversations and ensuring they create human-centric experiences, including developing “Solution Adoption Allies,” Kristy explains, “Solution Adoption Allies is a bi-monthly meeting with my team and business builders where we present recommendations, continuous improvements, and other digital adoption opportunities.”
Becky adds on to this theme, “We are currently working on gamifying the experience using the data collected from WalkMe Insights. We did a soft launch just over a month ago – and what was intended to be a gradual rollout ended up being bigger than expected because of the positive feedback received from the sales team and the increased engagement from users.”
Conclusion
The journey to becoming a top Digital Adoption Professional is paved with diverse experiences, a passion for technology, and a drive to empower others and improve digital experiences and workflows. As organizations continue to digitize their operations, these professionals play a crucial role in streamlining change and ensuring new technologies are effectively adopted and used to their fullest potential.
In our next post, we’ll explore the strategies these top professionals use to ensure success in their digital adoption initiatives. Stay tuned!