9 Proven Ways To Increase Feature Adoption (for Product Managers)

Are your users ignoring key features despite your best efforts? It’s not just about awareness—most users need a nudge at the right time. What’s the solution?

Science-backed strategies that tap into user psychology to drive adoption.

In this blog, we'll explore how you can increase feature adoption with smarter, data-driven techniques that go beyond the basics.

Frameworks for Feature Adoption

1. ARIAR model

If you have been a product manager for quite some time, you probably know the ARIA model—Analyze, Reduce, Introduce, and Assist.

It was invented by Seth Rudin, who has diverse experience working at Salesforce, Zynga, Facebook, and the like.

So, here’s an effective framework to improve your feature adoption:

a. Analyze

In the Analyze stage, you’re required to analyze the correlation between the most used metrics and growth. It could be tied to acquisition, retention, revenue, and expansion. Once you identify them, calculate the usage rate and the multi-step efforts taken to complete a task.

Let’s take an example. In fintech, figure out which app features generate more sign-ups, retention, and revenue. Hypothetically, users who set spending goals in a budgeting app are likely to upgrade to premium.

Next, measure how users interact with core features—like how many set up automatic savings and complete the process. Study the user experience for deeper insights.

Finally, prioritize features that unlock growth but have low usage. If automatic savings improve retention but only 13% of users enable it, that’s an opportunity to boost engagement.

b. Reduce

Under Reduce, your objective is to reduce the obstacles users face while using the features. This includes any friction that hinders feature adoption. Anything tough to use and that’s mostly unnecessary is a major reason why your features are underutilized.

Focus on achieving the following:

Intuitive design—Make every feature accessible so feature usage is friction-free
Incremental improvements—Don’t just add new features but work on making small enhancements to existing ones
Effort-to-task ratio—Too many steps required to use a feature to achieve a goal puts off users
Instead of asking users to type too much, provide options to choose, swipe, and click especially on mobile devices

Imagine you’re a product manager working to improve the fund transfer rate after noticing a high drop rate due to complex design. As a solution, you plan to resolve the issue by

Adding QR code scanning for payee details to make the UI user-friendly
Auto-save frequent payees and suggest transfer amounts based on user history to save time
Reduce steps by offering quick transfer options and one-click confirmations to bridge the effort-to-task difficulty

c. Introduce

While reducing friction helps, that alone won’t do much if your users aren’t aware of how a feature can help them in their workflows.

As per this principle, you must work on:

Communicating value—Introduce users to its uses when they are performing a task. Educate them about its added value with the help of tutorial videos, tooltips, and onboarding guides
Reaching out via in-app messages—Send gentle reminders on using this feature can help them do their tasks more efficiently. Empower them so that they need other tools to help them do it
Creating feedback loops—Use channels to encourage feedback from customers to constantly improve your products, this you’ll be able to lead to their Aha! Moment quicker

Here’s an illustration of this solution in action

A product manager at a fintech app notices users struggle with the "automated expense tracking" feature. To address this:

Tooltips and onboarding guides highlight how the feature saves time by automating expense tracking
Notifications and tutorial videos to remind users of the feature’s benefits during key tasks
A feedback button helps gather user insights, refining the feature and accelerating the "Aha!" moment

d. Assist

After the user expresses their interest in trying the new feature, as a product manager you might want to try:

Simplify the purpose—Features are supposed to be intuitive, in case you can’t you will want to explain the same; explain the benefits and the before and after scenarios using the feature as an enabler
Don’t leave your users hanging—After users land on the feature page, don’t leave them hanging by displaying a blank screen; direct them via instructions to activate the feature; point them to tutorials or help guides
Offer templates—Templates offer help to users to first use product features in a controlled environment
Use error cues—Showing error cues informs users of their mistakes and reduces drop-off rates

Here’s an example of how a product manager can use this principle for a fintech app:

Rename the feature to “Budget Buddy” with a simple description showing how it automates expense tracking and suggests savings
On the feature page, display a clear prompt to activate the tool, with step-by-step instructions and links to tutorials
Provide in-built budgeting templates like “Essential Budget,” and “Emergency Fund” to help users get started quickly
Show error messages like “Income amount does not match” with suggestions to fix the issue to avoid user frustration

2. HEART

HEART is a framework developed by Google to evaluate UX in product management. The expansion includes Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, and Time success.

For product managers dealing with various problems, it helps you with critical user metrics that matter. Plus, it’ll help you measure UX over a large scale while helping prioritize based on impact and business outcomes.

Here’s a breakdown of each metric:

a. Happiness

Measures user sentiment and contentment using metrics like NPS and feature adoption surveys. The high score means retention and advocacy.

Try these tips to implement better:

Implement regular in-app surveys using standardized questions
Run transactional NPS to measure short-term sentiment
Track Net Promoter Score (NPS) quarterly
Monitor social media sentiment and app store ratings
Conduct user interviews focused on emotional response

b. Engagement

The frequency of usage indicates how well users find it helpful based on DAU, WAU, and MAU. The more users use the feature highly it means that they have found their Aha moment.

To get it right, measure only the critical metrics such as Session duration & frequency, Number of key actions performed, and Time spent on core features.

Start implementing the following features:

Define key actions that show actual engagement, for instance, creating a song playlist
Segment users by engagement level—New, Highly engaged, Regularly engaged, At risk
Create engagement loops within the product
Set benchmarks for engagement (e.g., 5 songs listened per week) and track drop-offs
Use notification sequence to re-engage dropped-off users

c. Adoption

The number of users adopting new features and functionalities. Measure the feature adoption rate for a specific time.

Follow these tips to ensure your feature adoption rate is high:

Streamline the onboarding process
Start segmenting users to understand adoption patterns; case in point, power users (Daily usage, multiple features) and Regular Users (Weekly usage, core features)
Track adoption rates for different features by user segment such as power users vs. regular users
A/B test feature rollouts to identify barriers to feature adoption
Measure feature adoption metrics like New user signups, Completion rate of onboarding flow, Time to first key action, Feature adoption rate within the first week, etc

d. Retention

The number of returning users who score high on feature adoption. Patterns signal multiple usage over a short period. This will help indicate issues in case of low retention rates.

Here are a few actionable tips:

Focus on features that drive business outcomes—identify the stickiness of features
Send emails or newsletters to engage people
Create habit-forming triggers in your product
Implement a re-engagement strategy for dormant users
Use cohort analysis to understand retention patterns
Measure metrics such as Day 1, 7, and 30 retention rates, Churn rate, Lifetime Value (LTV), and Retention by user segment

e. Task success

The number of tasks users can complete in a specific duration. This involves finding completion rates and time taken to achieve tasks.

Work on Optimizing the effort-to-task ratio. Begin by:

Identifying tasks involving high effort and making incremental improvements to reduce friction
Tracking task completion rates and satisfaction scores to gauge usability
Define clear success metrics for key user tasks(Filling a form in under 5 minutes, max 2 corrections)
Use funnel analysis to identify drop-off points if 70% of users leave after payment info—provide a one-click payment option
Implement error tracking and monitoring where a stock purchase isn’t happening as it's not added to the cart
Regular usability testing of core workflows—common actions such as viewing stock portfolio performance shouldn’t require more than one sign-up
Track metrics such as Task completion rate, Time on task, Error rate, Number of support tickets related to specific tasks

Product Building Principles

3. Create gentle exposure

Feature adoption falls flat when your feature discovery campaigns are repetitive or frustrating. When you gently bring those features in a targeted manner, the ability to try the feature is high.

Here are the tried and tested strategies to get started:

a. Phased rollout

Do a soft launch for the first 2 weeks and target the power users and early adopters which will comprise 5-10% of your user base
Ask for early feedback and study usage data to highlight areas of improvement
Do an expanded release after 3-4 weeks to 25-50% of your user base—logged in at least 5-10 times in the last 30 days
By now, you’d have implemented the feedback from the soft launch and sent targeted in-app messages or emails to your target audience
Do a full rollout in weeks 5-6 and make it accessible to 100% of your users
Send drip campaigns to users announcing the release

b. Communication strategy

Begin a teaser series(soft launch) showing messages with a Coming soon theme—-reveal a piece of interesting info and withhold the next—Something’s cooking! It’ll help you save 50% of your time. Coming soon. Join the waitlist.
In weeks 3-4, implement tooltips and info icons to guide users to naturally merge the feature with their workflow—a one-liner on the benefit would reassure
Create educational videos as you set foot into weeks 5-6—educate them on use cases and their effect on productivity
Here’s a pro tip—tutorials from an SME with build more trust and drive feature adoption

4. Reduce cognitive load

When the human brain is presented with too many options, it becomes difficult for it to commit to a decision. That’s something even feature adoption isn’t immune to.

Most SAAS brands and apps can fix their declining adoption rates just by:

Making it easier to use the feature with no little to no learning curve or proactive help
Use your brand colors to create a brand recall as visual cues to help use the feature to finish the task
Present the information in phases so that it doesn’t become overwhelming
Display directional cues or explicit cues to guide users toward completing the task
Use familiar patterns for actions so users can find their way based on heuristics—mental shortcuts allowing faster decision-making
Allow users to save their progress—this allows them to find their time to first value quicker
Use paginations to help people find their way around and reduce cognitive strain

Here’s a fictional example based on an expense-sharing app.

Increase feature adoption rate: Reduce cognitive load

An option to save progress along with a progress bar.

5. Try Behavioral nudges

Behavioral nudges when timed well can increase feature adoption rates by 20-40% on average. Not just this, well-designed triggers can reduce time-to-first-use by up to 50%.

But, not all of them get it right, here are tips to make sure you don’t make mistakes:

Used trigger-based prompts to gently push users such as welcome messages on sign-up, celebratory messages on achievements like 7-day streak completed, 5 subscribers engaged, etc
Ride the wave of continuity—introduce new features after a user has surpassed the average usage time on your site, this builds the momentum
Do a sequential disclosure—introduce a new feature after the user has completed the customer journey for instance, if a user completes 5 fitness activities in a week, ask them to set up a heart rate monitor
Flex your social proof—create case studies for common use cases and bring out the value for eg. Learn how X increased their remote productivity by 73% using Zoom note-taking assistant
Show peer adoption updates—Feature in-app notifications in the far right or left corner saying X just started using Y feature
Utilize the power of regret—tell them of the consequences of not completing a task and how this feature can do it with ease
Send teaser emails containing evoking curiosity such as You could save 2 hours weekly using our automated reporting feature—don’t let these hours slip away!

6. Create habit loops

For humans to adopt a habit, three things need to occur.

a. Trigger or cue: Necessary for a stimulus to occur

b. Routines: Instances essential for the behavior to take place

c. Reward: The appreciation or incentive gained from the behavior

If you want to create a habit loop, you might want to follow these tips:

Send a notification at the preferred engagement time of the user; if a user logins at 6:30 PM frequently, send notifications to re-engage them
Make it easier to build a routine by gamifying elements such as points, badges, bonus lessons, or streaks
Showing a message saying ‘Jenson, you’ve completed a 7-day streak’ triggers a subconscious urge to hear compliments
Promote users to higher levels based on activity levels and offer rewards; the Adidas Running app offers Adiclub which allows users to redeem their points on the latest products

Grammarly sends weekly emails like these to encourage users to continue using the product. It gives a sense of validation for your efforts.

Increase feature adoption: create habit loops

Enhancing Feature Understanding

7. Use webinars and events to educate

Webinars and events create a buzz among your product users. More so, when coming from SMEs who are an authority thanks to their expertise.

For what it's worth, 60% of webinars related to the product lifecycle encourage users towards new feature adoption. Plus, it's a great opportunity for Q&A sessions where users get to go from being aware to considering using a particular feature.

These tips could help you encourage feature adoption the next time, starting with:

Show the practical use cases by connecting the benefits to the JBTDs—for instance, an HRMS product webinar could show tracking and scheduling interviews with 100+ applicants and automating offer letters
Community events where users get to learn and interact with peers on the pros and cons of using the feature; for example, an LMS event can feature teachers who used the platform and saw improved business outcomes
Select user champions to be a part of webinars and educational videos to convey a sense of relatability
As a rule of thumb, identify users having a high engagement rate who are also advocates via referrals and social media reviews
In the case of B2B products, your champion must be someone who has decision-making power and is willing to train his team or replacement before he leaves the organization

8. Create snack-sized videos

With the human attention span averaging around 8 seconds, it's becoming more challenging to capture your user’s attention. Even long videos aren’t always effective.

Instead, we recommend creating snack-sized videos that are 30-90 seconds long as it increases memory retention. This gives you higher completion rates.

It isn’t tough if you break the process into chunks. Here you go:

a. Prep (1-2 days)

Identify the top three underutilized features of your product
List the micro-actions to break down complex features into simple and actionable steps
Pinpoint key user touchpoints in the user journey where these features can be highlighted

b. Create Video Structure (2-3 days per video)

Introduce the feature and its benefits in the first 5 seconds
Give a demo of how to use the feature 20-60 seconds
End with a clear call-to-action in the last 5 seconds
Focus on one feature per video to avoid information overload
Highlight the fastest path to value showing users how they can benefit quickly
Use screen recording plus voiceover for clarity and engagement
Add subtitles for accessibility and better comprehension

c. Distribute (1-2 days)

Use in-app contextual tooltips to introduce videos at specific moments
Use popup modals to announce feature announcement
Send out email onboarding sequences that include links to these videos
Update your help center with video resources for easy access regularly

9. Up-to-date help documentation

Regularly updated help documentation helps build better confidence in trying a new product feature. It reduces dependency on support thereby minimizing tickets.

If you feel that you don’t what to do, start by:

Doing a monthly audit—a monthly review of the top 10 feature documents
Ensure updates are made with every new feature release
Keep it user-focused by incorporating common use cases to illustrate practical applications
Using visual aids (screenshots and videos) to develop feature understanding
Providing direct links from the UI to relevant documentation for quick access
Assessing impact by measuring document views about feature usage for ROI
Implementing surveys asking users, “Was this helpful?” to gather actionable feedback
Update docs before feature launch—the more you delay, the lower your feature adoption rate
Ignoring User Feedback—use their open-ended responses to improve your docs
Create documentation for all kinds of users—from the less tech-savvy ones to the geeky folks

In the end….

Your feature adoption rate is going to increase when you use strategies in tandem with feedback surveys. But, all of this is only going to succeed if you build features incrementally. Even enhancements to existing features can help build features that matter while not falling into technical debt.

If you want to understand why your users aren’t engaging with product features as much as you’d hoped, our product team at Blitzllama might be able to help you. Book a demo now.