The system was ready-made, global-grade, feature-complete, mobile-ready and free to onboard. Almost nobody touched it.
A carrier was building a nationwide 5G network, coordinating tower and fibre partners under intense delivery pressure. With the delivery system idle, teams returned to email. People then manually keyed those emails back into the system so downstream work would not stall. Software meant to cut cost was quietly adding it.
Ask why they will not use it
Instead of copying another project’s setup, I rebuilt the As-Is flow from conversations and went into the field. The reason became obvious in one afternoon: the system covered every scenario, but not the one that mattered—a person outdoors, wind in their face, a cable still in one hand. Pages were too complex, so the field crew simply did not fill them in.
The redesign followed field logic: a standard mobile submission, automatic ticket ID, version control, status tracking, multi-level approval, certificate checks and GPS check-in. It exposed important uncertainties early, including tower-company APIs, online certificate verification, data residency and a manual fallback if integration was unavailable.
Adoption is the outcome
Feature completeness had hidden the missing requirement: the interface had never met the reality it was intended to serve. The useful measure was not training attendance or modules enabled. It was whether a person at the site reached for the tool.
Digitalization only counts when someone actually uses it. You rarely learn why they will not from behind a desk.