Adoption by design

There is a misconception that if you build a "great" dashboard, people will naturally use it. They won't.

Finance professionals are creatures of habit. They have their Monday morning routine, their month-end close checklist, their favorite Excel template.

To drive adoption, you must stop building "destinations" and start building "rituals".

The Ritual Map

Before writing a single line of SQL, identify the target ritual.

• Is this for the Monday Sales Standup?
• Is this for the Monthly OpCo Review?
• Is this for the Quarterly Board Prep?

Once identified, design specifically for that context.

Example: The Monday Standup

• Needs: Speed, variance highlights, top 3 issues.
• Format: Mobile-friendly (people are running to rooms), high contrast.
• Adoption Hack: The team lead must project this dashboard on the screen. If they open a PowerPoint instead, the dashboard is dead.

Trigger, Action, Reward

Use the Hook Model:

1. Trigger: An email at 08:00 AM Monday: "Week 42 Results - We missed target by 3%."
2. Action: User clicks link to see why.
3. Variable Reward: They find a specific logical driver (e.g., "Product X stockout") they can fix.

If your dashboard doesn't trigger action, it's just wallpaper.

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