Adoption Design

Shipping is not adoption. This skill covers the gap between a feature existing and a feature being used: what you remove so the first attempt happens, what you put in front of the user so the next step is never a question, and what you build for the predictable moments where people stall, freeze, or quietly route around you.

It assumes the feature was worth building and that it cleared the launch bar — those are questions for [[../duo-product/SKILL]]. It also does not own the metric that proves adoption moved; see [[../duo-experimentation/references/metric-selection]].

Remove the choice, then relieve it

• [[one-ordered-path-beats-a-branching-surface]] — when users ask whether they are using it "correctly," the fix is one ordered sequence, not better docs.
• [[the-progression-selects-give-a-test-out-and-a-side-door]] — the system picks the item; the user skips by demonstrating, and self-diagnosed gaps get their own surface.
• [[build-for-the-user-your-ladder-skips]] — the segment that is advanced on one axis and novice on another needs a separate track, not a middle rung.

Lower the cost of starting

• [[lower-the-exposure-before-you-lower-the-difficulty]] — people avoid the witness, not the work; teach inside a task they already want to finish.
• [[ship-a-coached-variant-of-the-thing-people-avoid]] — a guided version beside the open-ended one, and do not price it out of reach of the users it was built for.
• [[social-features-die-in-empty-boxes-and-one-way-relationships]] — write the message for them, and make sure both sides of a pairing give and receive.

Design for the moment it goes wrong