I have sat on a good number of interview panels for transformation roles over the years, and the questions have shifted. Ten years ago, we asked candidates about scope, budget and the platform they delivered. Today, the first question most panels ask is simpler and harder to answer. Did people use it?
The employer panel behind the Digital Transformation standard reached the same conclusion this year. Asked which of the six capability areas they probe first when hiring, adoption came out ahead of every other area.
Why launch is the easy part
A launch is a single event with a date, a communications plan and a sponsor who wants it to go well. Adoption is what happens in the months afterwards, when the new process meets the old habits, the workarounds and the team that was never consulted. Most transformation programmes that underdeliver do not fail at launch. They fade slowly as usage flattens and the old way of working reasserts itself.
The launch announcement tells you the programme finished. The usage data tells you whether the organisation changed.
What employers look for
Panel members described consistent signals that distinguish candidates who understand adoption from those who have only managed launches:
- They can describe usage in numbers, and they know which numbers were misleading.
- They talk about the teams that resisted, and what they learned from them.
- They changed the operating model around the tool, not just the tool itself.
- They stayed involved after go-live, or made sure someone accountable did.
How the standard assesses it
Adoption is evidenced from the candidate’s own work, like every capability area in the standard. At BIPS Practitioner, candidates run a defined workstream and must evidence adoption within it. At BIPS Professional and BIPS Specialist, the expectation widens to the whole programme or enterprise, and assessors look for the link between adoption and the benefits that were claimed.
In the professional discussion, assessors often ask candidates to describe a point where adoption stalled. The answer reveals a great deal. Candidates who blame the users rarely do well. Candidates who can explain what the stall told them about the design of the change, and what they did next, usually do.
For operations leaders and service owners considering the standard, this is often where their experience is strongest. They have lived with the consequences of changes that were launched and not adopted. That perspective, evidenced properly, is exactly what the assessment is looking for.