What is feature adoption?
Feature adoption is the share of eligible users who use a specific feature after it ships, and whether they keep using it. It is narrower than product adoption: a user can be fully adopted on a product while using only a few of its features.
How feature adoption is measured
Adoption rate is the share of eligible users who have used the feature at least once. Time to first use is how long after launch, or after signup, a user first touches it. Repeat use is whether users who tried it come back to it, which separates curiosity from adoption. For features with several parts, depth is how much of the feature they use.
The denominator is where mistakes happen. If a feature is only available on one plan or to one role, counting every user in the product makes adoption look worse than it is and hides which segment is actually not using it.
Why feature adoption is usually low
A new feature competes with the habits users already have. Someone who has been doing a task one way for six months will keep doing it that way unless the new option appears at the moment they are about to do the task again. Launch emails and changelog posts reach users outside that moment, and the ones who open them are a small minority.
The second cause is that the feature is visible but the user does not know what it is for. A new button with an unfamiliar label is easy to ignore, and a one-line tooltip rarely answers the question the user actually has about it.
How to improve feature adoption
Announce the feature inside the product, on the screen where it applies, to the users it applies to. A user who is on the export screen, exporting the old way, should be told about the new bulk export then and there. Then give users a way to ask about the feature when they encounter it, since the question a user has about a new feature is usually specific to what they are doing, and a static announcement cannot answer it.
How Frigade fits
Frigade handles the announcement side with Suggestions, a short brief targeted by page or user property that puts the assistant in front of users on the screen where the feature applies. When a user wants more than a pointer, they ask, and the assistant explains the feature in the context of what they are doing and can run it for them. The assistant picks new features up on its own, so nobody writes guidance content for a launch.
Common questions
- How do you calculate feature adoption rate?
- Divide the number of users who used the feature in a period by the number of users who could have used it, meaning those on a plan and in a role where the feature is available. Restricting the denominator to eligible users is what makes the number meaningful. Track it over time rather than as a single snapshot, since usage in the first week after launch often does not hold.
- Why is feature adoption low even for features customers asked for?
- Usually because users do not find out the feature exists, or find out at a moment when they have no reason to use it. A launch email or changelog post is read by a small fraction of users, and read at a time when they are not in the product. Announcing the feature inside the product, on the screen where it applies, closes that gap.
- Product adoptionProduct adoption is the process by which a user goes from signing up for a product to using it as a regular part of their work. It is measured as the share of new users who reach a defined activation milestone and keep coming back, rather than as raw signups or logins.
- In-app guidanceIn-app guidance is help delivered inside the product interface, where the user is working, instead of in a separate help center, email, or support ticket. It includes tooltips, walkthroughs, checklists, contextual hints, and in-product assistants that answer questions and complete tasks.
- User onboardingUser onboarding is the process of getting a new user from their first session to the point where they get value from the product on their own. It covers account setup, the first valuable action, and the guidance that carries a user through both.
- Contextual helpContextual help is assistance that changes based on where the user is and what they are doing in the product, so the answer matches the screen in front of them. It ranges from a tooltip on a single field to an assistant that knows the user's current page and answers accordingly.