If You Build It, They Won't Come
Many product managers often fall into a dangerous trap. They believe their job is done once they've shipped a new feature. This "build it and they will come" mentality is pervasive in the tech industry, but it's fundamentally flawed.
To be clear: shipping is only half the battle.
The real challenge (and the true measure of product success) lies in driving adoption and creating tangible value for customers and the business. Let’s break down why that’s the case.
The Adoption Gap
Consider this scenario: A product manager at a B2B SaaS company spends months developing a new analytics dashboard. She meticulously gathers requirements, works closely with designers and engineers, and shepherds the project through development. Finally, after countless hours of effort, the feature ships.
And then... crickets.
Three months later, usage metrics are abysmal. Only 5% of customers have even clicked on the new dashboard. Of those, barely half have used it more than once. The sales team isn't mentioning it in pitches. Customer success isn't sure how to position it. And the executive team is starting to ask pointed questions about ROI.
What went wrong?
This scenario plays out far too often in product organizations. Many times, PMs get caught up in the excitement of building and shipping, losing sight of the ultimate goal: solving customer problems and driving business value. If no one adopts what you’ve built, you can’t achieve either of those goals.
Redefining "Done" for Product Managers
To address this issue, we need to fundamentally redefine what it means for a feature to be "done."
A feature isn't done when the code is written. It's not done when it passes QA. It's not even done when it ships to production.
A feature is only truly done when it meets the following three criteria:
It's being actively used by a significant portion of the target user base.
It's solving the intended customer problems.
It's driving measurable business impact.
This expanded definition of "done" changes the way that we approach product management. It extends our time horizon, broadens our scope of responsibility, and forces us to think holistically about the entire customer journey.
It's a more challenging definition of success, to be sure! But it's also a more meaningful and impactful one.
The Adoption-Centric Mindset
To bridge the gap between shipping and value creation, product managers should embrace an adoption-centric mindset. This mindset shift involves several key principles:
Start with the end in mind: From day one of product development, think about how you'll drive adoption post-launch.
Involve go-to-market teams early: Sales, marketing, and customer success shouldn't be afterthoughts. They're critical partners in driving adoption.
Focus relentlessly on customer outcomes: Features don't matter; outcomes do. Frame your thinking in terms of customer benefits.
Measure what matters: Shift your metrics from "features shipped" to "features adopted and value delivered."
Don’t stop iterating: Adoption isn't a one-time event. It's an ongoing process of measurement, learning, and improvement.
Let's dive deeper into each of these principles and explore how to put them into practice.
Starting with the End in Mind
Too often, PMs treat go-to-market as an afterthought. They build the feature in isolation, then toss it over the wall to sales and marketing at the last minute. This approach is a recipe for failure.
Instead, bake your adoption strategy into the product development process from the very beginning. From day one, start thinking about:
How will you position this feature to different customer segments?
What objections or barriers to adoption might arise?
How will you onboard and educate users?
What metrics will you use to measure success?
By considering these questions early, you'll not only build a better product, but you'll also ensure that your entire organization is aligned and ready to drive adoption when you ship.
Involving Go-to-Market Teams Early
Your sales, marketing, and customer success teams are your secret weapons for driving adoption. They have direct relationships with customers and can be incredibly effective advocates for new features, but only if you empower them to do so.
From the earliest stages of product development, involve these teams in the process. Get their input on positioning, messaging, and adoption strategy. Help them understand the customer pain points you're solving and the value proposition of the new feature.
Let’s talk through an example of how this might play out!
A PM at a marketing automation company is developing a new AI-powered content generation feature. Instead of working in isolation, she:
Invites the head of sales to a brainstorming session on potential use cases.
Works with marketing to develop messaging that resonates with their ideal customer profile.
Collaborates with customer success to identify potential early adopters for a beta program.
Brings in the training team to start developing enablement materials.
By involving these teams early, the PM ensures that when the feature ships, the entire organization is ready to drive adoption from day one.
Focusing Relentlessly on Customer Outcomes
As much as customers might ask about features, the features aren’t what customers truly want.
Instead, what your customers truly want are outcomes. When communicating about your new feature (whether to internal stakeholders or customers), focus relentlessly on the benefits it will deliver.
How will this make their lives easier? What problems will it solve? What new capabilities will it unlock?
For example, instead of saying "We've added AI-powered content generation," you might say:
"This new feature will cut your content creation time in half, allowing you to produce twice as much high-quality, SEO-optimized content with the same resources. It's like adding an expert copywriter to your team at a fraction of the cost. In fact, it’s better than an expert copywriter, because it’ll help you with scheduling too: no more worrying about weekends, holidays, time zones, or out-of-office schedules when you work with our AI capabilities."
Frame everything in terms of customer value, not product functionality. This mindset shift will help you craft more compelling messaging and drive stronger adoption.
Measuring What Matters
As the saying goes, "What gets measured, gets managed." If you want to drive adoption, you need to measure it. But not all metrics are created equal!
Move beyond vanity metrics like "number of users who have accessed the feature." Instead, focus on metrics that truly reflect adoption and value creation:
Activation rate: What percentage of users have completed key actions that indicate meaningful engagement with the feature?
Time to value: How quickly are users achieving their first "win" with the feature?
Impact on core product metrics: How is the feature affecting key business metrics like retention, engagement, or revenue?
For example, a PM working on a new collaboration feature for a project management tool might track:
Activation: Percentage of teams that have used the feature to collaborate on at least 3 projects
Time to value: Average time from feature release to first successful cross-team collaboration
Impact: Change in team retention rates for teams actively using the new feature vs. those who aren't
By focusing on these types of metrics, you ensure that you're not just shipping features, but actually delivering value.
Keep Iterating Relentlessly
Your job isn't done when you ship the feature, or even when you execute your initial adoption plan. Driving adoption is an ongoing process of measurement, learning, and improvement.
Set up dashboards to track key adoption metrics. Conduct user interviews to understand any barriers to adoption. Work with your analytics team to identify patterns and opportunities.
Use this data to continuously refine your adoption strategy. Maybe you need to tweak your messaging. Maybe you need to improve your onboarding flow. Maybe you need to build additional functionality to unlock more value.
Here's an example of how this iterative process might play out:
A PM at a CRM company launches a new AI-powered lead scoring feature. After the initial launch:
Weeks 1 & 2: Monitors adoption metrics daily. Notices that while many users are trying the feature, few are using it consistently.
Week 3: Conducts user interviews. Discovers that users find the AI's scoring criteria opaque and don't trust the results.
Week 4: Works with the AI team to develop an "explainable AI" feature that shows users why each lead received its score.
Weeks 5 & 6: Implements and launches the new explainable AI feature.
Weeks 7 & 8: Sees a significant uptick in consistent usage. Continues monitoring and iterating.
This process of continuous improvement enables PMs to drive long-term adoption and value creation.
Building Adoption into the Product
Of course, while go-to-market efforts are crucial, the most effective way to drive adoption is often through the product itself. As you're designing your feature, think carefully about how you'll introduce it to users and encourage adoption.
Some strategies to consider:
In-product onboarding: Create an interactive tour that guides users through the new feature when they first encounter it.
Contextual prompts: Use in-app messaging to suggest the new feature at relevant moments in the user's workflow.
Progressive disclosure: Gradually introduce more advanced functionality as users become comfortable with the basics.
Personalized recommendations: Use data on each user's behavior to suggest how they might benefit from the new feature.
For example, a PM working on a new data visualization feature for a business intelligence tool might:
Create a short video tutorial that plays the first time a user accesses the feature
Add a "try it now" button that appears when users are viewing complex datasets
Initially show only basic chart types, with an option to "see more" for advanced visualizations
Use ML to analyze each user's data and suggest relevant visualizations
By baking adoption strategies directly into the product experience, you reduce friction and increase the likelihood of sustained usage.
Overcoming Common Adoption Barriers
Even with the best-laid plans, product managers often encounter barriers to adoption. Let's explore some common challenges and strategies to overcome them:
Lack of awareness: Users simply don't know the feature exists.
Solution: Implement a multi-channel communication strategy, including in-app notifications, email campaigns, and targeted outreach from customer success teams.
Perceived complexity: Users think the feature will be too difficult to use.
Solution: Invest in user education through tutorials, webinars, and simplified onboarding flows. Consider offering personalized training sessions for key accounts.
Inertia: Users are comfortable with their current workflows and resistant to change.
Solution: Clearly articulate the benefits of the new feature in terms of time saved or improved outcomes. Provide easy migration paths and consider temporary incentives for early adopters.
Lack of integration: The new feature doesn't fit seamlessly into existing workflows.
Solution: Work closely with UX designers to ensure the feature feels like a natural extension of the product. Invest in robust API integrations with complementary tools.
Performance issues: The feature is slow, buggy, or unreliable.
Solution: Prioritize performance optimization and bug fixes. Consider a phased rollout to catch issues early and maintain user trust.
By proactively addressing these common barriers, product managers can significantly improve their chances of successful adoption.
Celebrating Adoption Milestones
Finally, consider shifting how you celebrate success. Don't just pop champagne when you ship a feature. Save the real celebration for when you hit key adoption milestones.
This reinforces the importance of adoption to your team and to the broader organization. It also provides motivation to keep pushing beyond the initial launch.
For instance, you might celebrate when:
You reach 25% adoption among your target user base
A major customer successfully implements the feature and sees significant ROI
The feature drives a measurable improvement in a key business metric
By celebrating these milestones, you reinforce the message that shipping is just the beginning, and that real success is measured in customer value and business impact.
The Business Case for Adoption-Centric Product Management
While the benefits of focusing on adoption might seem obvious to us, we can still benefit by clearly articulating the business case to our executive stakeholders. This is especially crucial when advocating for resources or organizational changes to support an adoption-centric approach.
Consider these data points:
Pendo Study (link): According to Pendo, 80% of features in the average software product are rarely or never used, suggesting that only a small portion of features deliver significant value to users. This represents a huge opportunity to focus on adoption and increase the impact of your product.
Standish Group “Chaos” Report (link): The 2002 Standish Group report found that 45% of features in typical systems are never used, highlighting the inefficiency of developing features without a focus on adoption.
By focusing on adoption, product managers can:
Increase ROI on product development: Ensure that the features you build actually deliver value, maximizing the return on your engineering investment.
Improve customer retention: Users who adopt new features are more likely to find ongoing value in your product, reducing churn.
Drive expansion revenue: Successful adoption of new features can open up opportunities for upsells and cross-sells.
Enhance competitive differentiation: High adoption rates of innovative features can set you apart in the market.
Accelerate product-market fit: By closely tracking adoption and iterating quickly, you can more rapidly hone in on the features and capabilities that truly resonate with your market.
Quantifying these benefits can help make a compelling case for investing in adoption-centric practices.
For instance, if improving adoption of a key feature from 20% to 40% could reduce churn by 10%, what would that mean for your company's bottom line?
Closing Thoughts
The harsh reality is that if you build it, they probably won't come… at least, not without significant effort on your part.
As product managers, our job extends far beyond just building great products. We need to be adoption managers, go-to-market strategists, and internal evangelists. We need to care just as much about driving usage as we do about shipping code.
This expanded scope of responsibility can feel daunting, especially for newer PMs. But it's also incredibly rewarding! There's nothing quite like seeing real customers derive real value from something you've built.
By embracing an adoption-centric mindset and implementing the strategies outlined in this essay, you'll not only build better products, but you'll also drive more value for your customers and your business.
Remember: Your feature isn't done when it ships. It's done when customers have successfully replaced their old workflows with new ones that leverage your product. That's the goal that we should strive for as PMs, no matter how junior or senior we are.
Thank you to Pauli Bielewicz, Mary Paschentis, Goutham Budati, Markus Seebauer, Juliet Chuang, and Kendra Ritterhern for making this guide possible.
