Digital Workplace Adoption: Why a great launch isn’t enough

Every channel launch has its confetti moment.

The all-staff email has gone out. Leadership makes a cameo in a video announcement. The homepage banner is live. People are saying nice things in Teams. And somewhere in the building, there’s always cake.

After months of workshops, meetings, governance debates and platform configuration, the project team takes a breath. 

The steering group signs off. The project team finally sleeps. Someone posts screenshots on LinkedIn. Everybody assumes the difficult bit is over.

But it isn't. It's barely the start.

Most organisations spend six months planning launch day and about six days planning what happens next. The reveal is the result of weeks of planning, but excitement fades in the months that follow.

But channels don’t succeed because they landed well on day one. They work, and they deliver the intended benefits, when people are still using them 12 weeks or 12 months later.

A launch shouldn’t be considered a single event. It's the beginning of behavioural change – the starting line, not a victory lap.

Why launch day gets too much attention

Big launches create the illusion of progress.

They give sponsors something tangible to point to. They reward months of work. They produce screenshots everyone feels good about.

Unfortunately, none of those things tells you whether anyone will still be using the platform in October.

The problem is that launches are often designed around the needs of the project rather than the needs of people using the channel.

Nobody has ever woken up thinking, "You know what would improve today? A better document repository." 

They're thinking about today's deadlines. The meeting they've forgotten to prepare for. Whether they can leave in time for the school pick-up. The report they need to finish before lunch.

A new platform is somewhere down the list. That's why launch announcements create awareness, but rarely create adoption.

Nobody changes how they work because they received a beautifully branded email. They change because, three weeks later, they notice the colleague next to them is getting something done faster.

A launch message can pique curiosity, but it doesn’t create habits.

As we argued in our earlier post on the five-layer model for internal communications platforms, channels only succeed when they play a clear role in a wider communications ecosystem.

The brutal reality of the 9x rule

This challenge is harder than most organisations realise.

Harvard Business School professor, John Gourville, described what has become known as the ‘9x rule’. Put simply, people tend to overvalue what they already use by a factor of three, and undervalue anything new by the same. So a replacement doesn't need to be slightly better than the current solution – it needs to feel nine times better before most people will change their behaviour.

This explains why seemingly successful launches fail. The new channel may be a genuine improvement. It may be faster, clearer and easier to use – but employees will inevitably compare it to something more familiar.

This is why launch communications matter so much. The story cannot be built around abstract promises about transformation or innovation. People need concrete answers:

• How will this save me time?

• How will it make my work easier?

• What problem does this solve?

• How does it fix frustrations with the existing channel?

The stronger the answers, the greater the chance that curiosity becomes sustained use.

But those answers can be difficult to answer if the launch was built around platform features rather than employee needs. As we explored in our post on intranet audits versus discovery, understanding how people actually work should shape channel decisions long before launch day.

The work starts after launch

The most useful way to think about launching a channel is as a long journey, not a single moment.

Digital Communications at Work introduces a framework that treats launches as something that must be sustained over time, not limited to a single day.

But you don't need the entire framework to understand the principle.

Successful launches create meaning, so employees understand why the channel exists and why it matters. But momentum is built by people. Early adopters create visible examples that others can learn from, encouraging people to stay active long after launch.

This is where many launches stall: the channel debuts, the excitement fades and attention drifts elsewhere. Meanwhile, employees are still trying to figure out whether the new channel deserves a place in their working day. Most organisations think users adopt new channels on launch day – but those decisions are being made over the following weeks and months.

Adoption runs on two engines

Another common mistake is assuming that leadership endorsement alone will drive adoption.

Leadership matters enormously, and it’s an important engine to help drive adoption. But not in the way most launch plans assume.

A leader appearing in a launch video and declaring support is useful. But a leader actively using the channel is more powerful as people notice behaviour more than messaging.

A senior leader saying, "I used this to prepare for a board meeting and it saved me an hour," does more for credibility than a polished corporate script ever could.

But leadership is only half the equation. The second engine for adoption comes from champions, ambassadors and early adopters.

These are the people who translate organisational change into practical reality. They answer questions. Share examples. Demonstrate how the channel fits into actual work. They spot problems early and create local relevance.

Without leadership, adoption lacks legitimacy. Without champions, adoption lacks practicality.

You need both. Leaders explain why the new channel matters, but champions show people how to make it work.

This mirrors a pattern we explored in our recent post on AI adoption. Whether the technology is AI or a new communication channel, people are far more likely to change behaviour when they see colleagues like themselves using it.

Choose the Long Wow over the Big Bang

Chapter 10 of Digital Communications at Work makes a distinction between two launch styles.

The first is the Big Bang.

Everything arrives at once. The launch is highly visible. The homepage changes overnight. Leadership sends the email. There are webinars, posters, videos and maybe even cake. Enthusiasm peaks, then fades almost as quickly.

Project teams love the Big Bang because it's measurable. Users couldn't care less. They just want next Tuesday to be easier than last Tuesday.

The second is the Long Wow.

Instead of treating launch as a single moment, organisations deliver a steady sequence of improvements, stories, tips, examples and enhancements over time. The launch becomes less like a firework display and more like building a habit.

Behaviour change rarely happens overnight. People adopt new ways of working gradually. They need opportunities to experiment, learn, ask questions and build confidence. More importantly, they need repeated evidence that the new channel genuinely makes work easier.

A useful story shared by a colleague. A manager who starts using the platform consistently. A feature that solves an annoying everyday problem. None of those moments feels particularly dramatic on its own. Together, they change behaviour.

As we argued in our post on post on internal comms distribution, sustained adoption depends on repeatedly surfacing the right message to the right people on the right channel.

The Big Bang celebrates the launch. The Long Wow builds the habit.

A few traps to avoid

Organisations often make the same mistakes at launch, and these problems happen more often than you’d think.

One is treating naming exercises as a democratic process. Organisations hoping for engagement often discover that open voting produces results they didn't expect. The internet's affection for Boaty McBoatface remains a useful reminder that curated options are usually safer than open suggestions.

Another trap is leaving the old channel running indefinitely.

If the legacy system remains available, many employees retreat to familiar habits. Adoption stalls because there’s no real need to change. Sunsetting old tools is often uncomfortable, but sometimes necessary.

A final trap is confusing silence with success. The absence of complaints does not necessarily mean people have adopted the channel – sometimes it just means they've ignored it.

The starting line

The confetti moment is still worth celebrating. Launches matter. Endorsements matter. But they only matter when they mark the beginning of something.

Launch day is where projects declare victory. Adoption is when users cast their vote.

The organisations that succeed aren’t the ones with the loudest launch. They're the ones still paying attention in week 12 – still listening, still improving, still helping new behaviours to take root.

Nobody remembers your launch. They remember whether the channel was worth coming back to.

Digital Communications at Work (Kogan Page, July 2026) is available for pre-order now. In Chapter 10 we explore launching channels in more detail, including the 5Ms framework, champion networks, behavioural change, governance and why the most successful launches focus less on the reveal and more on what happens after the confetti settles.