Love and Trust: The Way to your User’s Heart 

Adoption will only occur if users are genuinely convinced that the effort of changing their current working style is worth it. That sense of relevance should already have been established in the previous steps (see our first 3 articles and their related tools): 

1. Are we taking a meaningful first step toward our big ambition (see Ambition Line)? 
2. Is the scope of this initial project focused on a limited set of clear goals and recognizable, practical jobs (see Ambition Fiche)? 
3. Have we validated the relevance, even as a quick rough draft: the likely impact versus a realistic view of costs and risks (RoI rough calculation)? 

If the answer to all three questions is “yes,” then the project shows a solid foundation for which one can seek change. Although this makes the case for a change in habits, in theory, it does not automatically translate into practice. 

This justification speaks to the calm, structured, and reasonable people. It reassures, explains, and aligns the arguments for a change. But it does not move people, and without movement, there is no adoption, only polite agreement, followed by quiet inertia. Because adoption, the change of a trusted habit, is hard. Adoption isn’t just about learning something new; it’s also about unlearning something that already works. 

Real change does not begin when something makes sense. It begins when something feels inevitable, desirable, or simply too compelling to ignore. Adoption, in its deeper form, asks for more than understanding. It asks for trust, and, in a quieter way, for attachment, and love. 

Our solution must therefore do more than prove its value. It must create a sense of closeness with those who use it, a feeling that it understands their work, respects their reality, and perhaps even makes their world slightly more coherent. 

At the same time, it must earn the confidence of those who sponsor it: that this is not just another initiative, but a step that will hold, endure, and justify their belief in the solution. 

Only when both are present (affinity with users, and trust from users and sponsors) does change begin to settle. Not as an obligation, but rather as a new way of working that no longer needs to be defended. 

 

 

This kind of attachment cannot be engineered from a distance. It requires a deep understanding of the user’s job to be done as a lived reality, rather than as an abstract definition: 

• What is the context of the job?  
• What actually happens in the field, on the shop floor, in the quiet moments before a decision is made?  
• Are we breaking some unwritten rules of the team?  
• What are the expected users truly trying to achieve: to report, decide, act, avoid risk, or gain control? 

There lies another question beyond functionality: what creates ease, or even delight? Such joys are rarely grand. They live in small, thoughtful details that trigger emotion, such as a birthday acknowledgement,   or a quiet expression of appreciation.  

Because it is in these details that love and trust are built. Not in grand promises, but in the recognition of the small frictions, unspoken constraints, and invisible pressures that shape daily work. 

A solution that understands this does more than support a task. It feels aligned with the user’s reality. And it is precisely this alignment that opens the door to something stronger than acceptance, and something closer to attachment. 

Some of this is simply part of project discipline: Keeping it simple, less being more, moving step by step. But it is such small, tangible improvements with visible impact that build trust. They create momentum, invite engagement, and over time, they may even create attachment. 

The opposite, however, has become the industry’s default. Endless, shapeless “sausage”-like projects, strung together from long inventories of technical features, that stretch on without ever converging toward a clear outcome. Such ventures usually generate more noise, blur focus, and quietly accumulate frustration, more than they do transform. Most features will never be used, nor will they be remembered. 

Progress rather follows a different kind of rhythm: talk, act, talk again, adjust, celebrate… and repeat. Because digital transformation rarely unfolds as a single, decisive victory. It is not a war won in one grand battle. Instead, it is a series of small, persistent advances, closer to a form of relentless guerrilla warfare, where each step secures a bit more ground, until, almost unnoticed, the landscape has changed. 

To sum up, keep business impact, love, and trust as your compass. Once they align, adoption follows naturally. And when it does, don’t rush past it, rather mark it and celebrate it, because we are humans, even at work.  

If you’re interested in diving deeper into the details, you can order the book on Bol.com  (Dutch) or on Amazon (French). 

If you would like a more personal and tailored guidance for your business, you can request a meeting with the authors through the following link: https://www.sustain.brussels/contactus  

Previous Article  The hidden costs of digital projects risk adoption and cultural transformation