We are thrilled to announce that the WalkMe Digital Adoption Platform won an InfoWorld 2022 Technology of the Year Award. This tremendous honor comes right after we won Business Intelligence Group’s 2022 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Award for our UI Intelligence product.

This prestigious recognition coupled with the clear momentum in the digital adoption space feels like an arrival moment for WalkMe on the world stage.

While 2022 is certainly looking like a watershed year for the Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) category WalkMe created, the momentum has been building for just over a decade. And now we celebrate our incredible journey as a company. 

April 2022 marks the 10 year anniversary of when WalkMe introduced the industry’s first Digital Adoption Platform to the market. What got its start as a “nice to have” evolved to a “got to have it,” thanks to the continued investment in digital transformation projects and the ROI derived from increased digital adoption.

More than 13 patents, 2,000+ customers, a global pandemic and an initial public offering later, we are finally seeing digital adoption as a line item carved out within budgets for digital transformation projects. We are seeing critical mass for DAP. 

Over the past few years alone, there has been a significant uptick in DAP category coverage within the industry analyst community. As of Q1 2022, leading analyst firms including Gartner, Forrester and IDC all officially covered DAP as a category with at least one dedicated analyst. 

And in January 2022, IDC published its first dedicated report on Digital Adoption Platforms (IDC TechBrief, Amy Loomis and Marci Maddox), and we expect to see evaluative reports from Forrester and Gartner later in 2022-2023 (Forrester NewTech, Forrester New Wave, and Gartner Magic Quadrant).

The importance of successful digital adoption technologies

In an era when digital transformation reigns supreme, technology adoption is the gatekeeper to those projects’ success. Over time, enterprises have come to realize that their digital projects are at risk if they can’t better embed those technologies into their businesses. It’s as simple as that. 

Undoubtedly, digital adoption’s role in successful digital transformation projects was a foregone conclusion when the first DAP was launched a decade ago. Yet the tipping point–and critical mass–is upon us now. Why? 

One big reason is that technology adoption has traditionally gone unmeasured. This is because management’s attention has not been where the value is achieved. For example, management is very involved before a new system goes live; they are very focused on identifying the business needs, the development strategy, and deployment.

However, it’s only once the new system goes live that value will actually be realized. Yet, by go-live, management’s attention is already focused on the next digital project, often leaving the new system without the dedicated resources it requires to realize its full potential and bring home the best possible ROI.

It’s like a farmer who continuously plants crops but does not go back to tend to them because they are busy planting the next one.

The rising demand for Digital Adoption Professionals

Yet companies that broadly embrace DAP across their tech stack do not need to work on individual business outcomes. They can focus on many business outcomes at once from shortening customer ticket handling time to ensuring CRM data quality by following our four step process:

1. Evaluate systems to discover actual adoption metrics.
2. Identify areas of improvement using WalkMe’s insights.
3. Define success for your organization and deploy solutions, the result is a better user experience with in-app guidance and automation.
4. Continue to measure and optimize to ensure success into the future.  

Over time, it became more and more clear that enterprises need a dedicated person or team to focus on the critical moment of when digital projects go live — and beyond.

What is the ROI? How can it be measured? This can be a digital adoption professional who works exclusively on the successful adoption of technology within an organization.

And their tool of the trade is a robust digital adoption platform, which provides immediate insights to create and deliver elegant experiences for users to access the full functionality and value of applications, ultimately fulfilling the promise of digital transformation. 

The successful creation of the DAP market category has given rise to an entirely new profession – Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) Professionals.

There has been a 30% increase in LinkedIn profiles with this title, from 2,700 in March 2021 to 3,500 in March 2022. This model works. Individuals are recognizing it a career opportunity and enterprises are recognizing it a winning strategy for digital transformation success. 

With digital adoption being the missing link between the investment in technology and the value being realized, critical mass for DAP is here. And it’s growing steadily.

Hear more from our WalkMe executives as they share their perspectives on the state of digital adoption and introduce exciting new products and services that will transform the digital outcomes enterprises can achieve on the market-leading WalkMe platform.

Editor’s Note: Rafael Sweary, President and Co-Founder at WalkMe, was recently interviewed by Vmblog.com and shared his thoughts and predictions for 2022, as part of their 14th annual series exclusive featuring top industry executives and experts. Here are his top 3 predictions:

The year of extreme technology overload

More and more software will be marketed to organizations of all sizes, creating a technology overload on employees. Given the large number of startups that have been able to raise money over the past 2+ years, we will see more offerings available for organizations to add to their tech stacks, resulting in a: “There’s a system for every problem,” kind of problem. And as we saw during the pandemic, organizations bought. A lot. 

This technology overload was driven in large by the necessity of a digital-first approach due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And the rise of digital transformation and increase of IT investments are not likely to die down. In 2022, it’s estimated that spending on digital transformation will reach 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars, according to Statistica.

Organizations will start investing in even greater scrutiny, and as a result, a hybrid-approach will become the new norm. Then, we will start seeing more of a focus on seeing a return on investment (ROI) to justify their IT spend.

The shift to analytics on all tech investments

In 2022, we will see organizations analyzing and measuring those investments they made to their technology stack. What’s working? What’s not? It’s time to reap the benefits. It’s no longer going to be ok to have shelfware. For years, organizations have been running analytics on their websites but not doing the same for their other tech platforms, software, and apps. The shift to the need, and mandate, for analytics on all tech investments is coming, if not already here. No one can justify spending millions without proving its worth through strong analytics.

Then, in terms of measurement, there is no one-size-fits-all definition for the success of a new system. Companies must come up with clear definitions regarding success, once they have implemented a new software. What metric is most important to track? Is it the number of users using it? Does it achieve key business objectives? These types of questions need to be answered, and we can really tailor measurements to fit business needs.

The relationship between the digital and the human-user

As part of the “measure what you got” stage, organizations will use analytics and data to see how well employees are using the technology platforms provided to them. Organizations will be able to see where employees are being held up, if their tech investments are proving productive, and where improvements can be made.

When those areas have been identified, this is where automation can come in. In recent years, we have mainly seen organizations centered on “back office automation,” which includes connecting systems together to help streamline operations. What is more essential for many organizations is “front office automation,” which is focused on making employees more efficient in their roles and focused on assisting versus replacing. This will help solve key pain points and lead to overall better user experience.

In 2022 and beyond, we will see organizations measuring their IT spend and tracking their success. The user experience will become paramount for true digital adoption that will lead to greater return on organizations’ technology investments. And while technology is indeed digital, the user is human. Those organizations that bridge the gap between the digital and the user will achieve greater ROI. 

For more 2022 insights, read our latest predictions from industry leaders and analysts. 

I’m pleased to share that WalkMe has officially unveiled our Growth Advisory Board, which will guide our vision to fundamentally transform the productivity of humanity through the power of technology. Sounds like a huge endeavor, I know — because it is! But it’s equally exciting as it is huge, because we get to work with some of the greatest minds in the industry. 

Each of our founding members were selected because of their unique backgrounds and the alignment of those backgrounds with our top priorities: from global expansion into new markets, to penetration within key verticals. As WalkMe continues our journey along a fast and steep growth trajectory, we looked for the right individuals who could guide us through our next phase of growth and beyond. 

With that, I’d like to introduce our founding members of the WalkMe Growth Advisory Board and pass along a few remarks from each: 

Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst and CEO, The Josh Bersin Company

Josh Bersin founded Bersin & Associates in 2001 to provide research and advisory services focused on corporate learning. After expanding the company to encompass all areas of HR, he sold the company to Deloitte in 2012 and was a partner in Bersin by Deloitte through 2018. 

In 2019, Bersin launched the Josh Bersin Academy, the world’s first global development academy for HR and talent professionals at all levels and across all industries. Today, the Academy is part of The Josh Bersin Company, which  provides a wide range of research and advisory services to help HR leaders and professionals tackle the ever-evolving challenges and needs of today’s workforces.

“Technology plays a huge role in keeping employees connected and productive. However, deploying new technology at speed and scale is no easy feat, and achieving wide adoption is even harder. During the pandemic, HR and IT departments have had to work closely together to ensure ‘business as usual’ continues while ensuring employees remain engaged.

My goal for participating in the Growth Advisory Board is to represent the needs and challenges of HR so the HR function can be factored into the creation of business-critical solutions for the future of work. WalkMe is the market leader in DAP solutions, and I am confident their customers will continue to benefit from the advanced, human-centric technologies being deployed by WalkMe around the world.” 

Shlomit Harth, Venture Partner at TPY Capital and former Vice President and Israel Country Manager, Gartner

Shlomit is former VP at Gartner who has held various leadership roles in the high-tech industry over the last 20+ years. She has a track record of creative strategic planning and execution and leading people to success in complex situations, diverse cultures, and challenging business circumstances.

Shlomit is currently a Venture Partner at TPY Capital and is also a champion of diversity in the tech industry, leading the Tel Aviv chapter of Upward Women.

“WalkMe is a business that perfectly exemplifies the most important trends driving the tech industry forwards: composability and automation. As the building blocks of composability will increasingly be evident across all market sectors, I will be working with WalkMe to help leadership navigate the complexities of the evolving technology landscape.

In order for businesses to be successfully future-proof, their underlying technology stack—as well as their business model—will need to support the kind of modular architecture that enables an environment of continuous reinvention. I believe that WalkMe will continue to lead its category and support its customers in achieving their digital transformation goals.”

Michael Hubbard, SVP, Customer Success, Services & Support at SmartSheet

Michael is an advisor to executives of the largest and most innovative firms in the world on obtaining value from enterprise technology. Hubbard changes how big companies adopt technology in pursuit of maximizing outcome achievement. He advises leadership teams on incorporating mega trends such as cloud, mobile, automation, and collaboration to reinvent jobs and digitize work. 

“I am focused on helping successful, disruptive companies who have created their own markets achieve success as an enduring technology platform. I’m delighted to be joining WalkMe in an advisory capacity to ensure that, as they continue to evolve their platform, the company’s focus remains firmly on the customer and their journey.

I’ll be working closely with leadership and the rest of the Growth Advisory Board on operationalizing processes and practices on the sales side and place a focus on our enterprise value proposition to ensure we continue to capitalize on the digital adoption market opportunity with a sharp, strategic focus on the customer.”

Enrique Oti, CTO, Second Front Systems

Enrique is currently the CTO at Second Front Systems and an experienced technologist and leader with a strong track record of organizational transformation, technological innovation, and capabilities delivery. As a US Air Force veteran, he has deep insights into Department of Defense policies, processes, and needs.

Over the last five years, he has focused on finding creative ways to connect the DoD to the start-up ecosystem in Silicon Valley and beyond, helping establish the Defense Innovation Unit, and the Air Force software factory, Kessel Run.

“I’m excited to work with WalkMe and extend its reach into vertical markets. As part of my time in the Air Force, I helped roll out new software development capabilities with a focus on the user journey and experience. There are a plethora of antiquated systems at the government level that are ripe for digital transformation.

As an expert on user experience, I’m drawn to WalkMe as I have seen first hand how navigating digital disruption takes a toll on the user, their capabilities, and productivity levels. I have a strong track record in the innovation ecosystem in the tech community, and I’m confident that with WalkMe, the federal government and its users will have a profoundly better experience navigating the digital change mandated by the fourth industrial revolution.”

What does a Formula 1 race car driver have to do with WalkMe?

That’s what my colleagues asked me when I came to them with this idea. I had just returned from Monaco Formula 1, where I had the amazing opportunity to meet Tatiana Calderón, the 26-year-old racer who is close to breaking into the male-dominated Formula 1 arena.

Tatiana is a force. She’s the test driver for the Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team, has competed in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, and trains relentlessly — physically and mentally — to qualify for Formula 1. 

When I listened to her speak, I was blown away at her ambition and dedication. As a woman racer, she not only needs to overcome the expected challenges of elite training, but she must also confront all of the naysayers and critics who tell her she’ll never be able to achieve her goals. 

I returned home and thought more about her story. Then I realized there are many stories like this, ones that have the power to motivate others and make a positive impact. 

That’s what this is all about. We created the Hear the Leaders interview series to showcase these inspiring individuals, empower others to pursue their dreams, and change the world for the better.

“You’re crazy and you don’t have a chance.”

These are the magic words. 

They either break you or push you to create your own success. Tatiana has heard them many times. I’ve heard them countless times, too.

What impresses me most about Tatiana’s story is not everything she’s achieved so far, although her prior successes are extremely laudable. To me, the most admirable part is the level of motivation and commitment she’s developed to keep her pushing forward.

Our world is full of people who have forced us to expand our definition of success — in sports, business, science, art. There are many more who are still on their way there. Every day and each step forward demands an unbreakable drive and commitment. The people who manage to keep that momentum are the ones I want to highlight.

The people who still hear the words, “You’re crazy,” or, “You don’t have a chance,” or, “You should cut your losses and give up,” and are determined to succeed anyway also deserve the spotlight.

Someone recently asked me what kind of advice I would give people who are pursuing a tough goal in the face of adversity.

There’s a lot of tips I might give. But if I have to choose one, it’s this: don’t be afraid of failure. 

This might sound obvious, but learning how to persevere in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges can feel impossible.

In the spirit of the upcoming interviews, I’ll get personal.

It wasn’t until I was an adult that someone told me I might be dyslexic. Finally, the struggles I faced in all of my years of school made sense. No matter how hard I worked — and trust me, I worked relentlessly — I was just barely passing my classes. 

For many years I felt completely discouraged and demoralized. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but everyone around me kept suggesting I pursue manual work, like plumbing or construction. Why make myself suffer through more school when I could simply take a less demanding route?

It took a lot of motivation and strength, but eventually, I found a way to overcome the challenges I faced. I learned to recognize the mistakes my dyslexia caused me to make and which tools could help me avoid them. After years of determination, I earned my Master’s degree and launched several businesses. 

Even in the early days of WalkMe, it was difficult to convince people of the need for a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP). Companies that set out to disrupt the common wisdom about a particular topic face this hurdle. A lot of people told us it would be impossible to succeed, but look where we are now. Seven years later, WalkMe has helped establish an entirely new category of technology, and the company is thriving.

No one’s path to success is straight. 

Yes, when pursuing a goal, you want your overall direction to be up. However, when you zoom-in to the path of achievement, you’ll see that it’s really a series of ups and downs, wins and losses.

Set milestones, define what progress will look like, and ask yourself what price you are willing to pay. It’s not a straight shot to victory. Those who fare well understand what it means to fail well.

You don’t need to take my word for it. Stay tuned for the upcoming interview series. Our team here has taken the idea and really run with it. We have some amazing stories for you — and I hope you enjoy them.