Meet our host

With deep experience in digital adoption, learning, and enterprise rollout strategy, Sean brings a uniquely practical lens to change management. His approach blends adult learning science, stakeholder alignment, and real-world execution patterns gathered across hundreds of implementations. His insights are especially timely as teams face constant tool turnover, shifting priorities, and pressure to prove adoption impact.

Key Takeaways  

✅  Adoption succeeds when you design strategy before tactics. 

✅  Learners only change behavior when content matches their journey.

✅  Reinforcement (not launch) determines long-term success. 

Tactics Don't Create Adoption. Strategy Does. 

Background context: When Sean kicks off a new project, he often hears the same thing: “We bought a new tool. We need training. Can you help?” But what’s actually being handed over is a leadership mandate, not a strategy. No defined outcomes. No metrics. No timeline clarity. No learner journey. Just an expectation.

🎤 “Leadership gives you these loose, back-of-the-napkin objectives..and we have to figure out how to translate that into an actual programmatic rollout” - Sean Adams

Rather than jumping to content or communication, Sean pauses. He re-centers the rollout around the fundamental question: Why? This is the foundation of the 5D Framework — a reset from reactive execution to intentional design.

Key Insight #1: Discover

You have to define success before you build anything. Sean begins every adoption initiative by translating ambiguity into clarity. Discover is where you build the Objective Brief, identifying:

• What outcomes matter
• How success will be measured
• What is driving the initiative 
• Why now
• What constraints or risks exist

🎤 “You’re looking for what success looks like. And you want to take those objectives and break them into specific measurable outcomes.” - Sean Adams

Without Discovery, teams default to guesswork. With Discovery, they operate with purpose.

Key Insight #2: Design

With the “why” in place, Sean turns to the program architecture. You need to build the rollout first, before you touch any of the training.

Design is where you answer:

• Who is the audience?
• What is the scope of work?
• What's the cadence and timeline?
• What milestones matter?
• Who owns what?

 🎤  “You’re picking scope, timeline, what the milestones are, and who’s involved… these are almost always cross-functional projects.” — Sean Adams

This is where pilots are shaped, crawl–walk–run plans are formed, and rollout friction is eliminated before it begins.

Free Adoption Template: The 5D Adoption Framework

The Problem: Teams default to tactics like emails, webinars, and live training without a strategic container. As a result, adoption is inconsistent, reactive, and unsustainable. 

How it works: 

1. Discover - Define the why and translate leaderships mandate into something measurable. 
2. Design - Build milestones, timelines, audience segmentation, and stakeholder ownership. 
3. Document - Capture the how with SME extraction and learner journey mapping to build high impact content. 
4. Deploy - Deliver learning intentionally by placing content in the right moments across the learner journey. 
5. Drive - Strengthen behaviors, audit content, and expand the future initiatives. 

🎤  “This isn’t just a program or a project. There’s always going to be a new tool or initiative… you need a repeatable strategy."— Sean Adams

More Episodes

Get access to all the past episodes of Adoption Curve for free! Includes all downloadable workbooks and contact information for guest speakers.