Designing for Adoption, Not Just Capability

Products rarely fail because they lack capability. They fail because users cannot succeed with them.

This playbook treats adoption as a core design responsibility. Onboarding is not a wrapper around the product — it is part of the product. Defaults matter more than options, and clear success paths matter more than feature completeness.

Across platforms and enterprise systems, adoption improved most when configuration was reduced, self-serve success was prioritised, and time-to-value was measured explicitly.

If users need help to succeed, the product is unfinished.