How many times have you heard “my boss told me I have to use your product”?

It’s not a great start to the relationship, is it? 😅

That’s why tackling change management early on is so important. We discussed this last week through the idea of creating a Customer Effort Guide.

But once you get through that phase of alignment - how can you effectively motivate individual users?

This week we're looking at the idea of Self Determination Theory and a 6-step project to inspire, motivate, and excite new users on your platform.

Your boss told you to read on. ↓

🧠 The Theory: Self-Determination Theory

Self Determination Theory (SDT) focuses on human motivation. The idea is that we’re driven by 3 innate needs:

• Autonomy: The need to be in control of one's own life and actions.

• Competence: The need to master tasks and learn different skills.

• Relatedness: The need to feel connected to others and have a sense of belonging.

We experience enhanced self-motivation, mental health, and well-being when these needs are met.

This is a different angle to motivation when doing something for external rewards or to avoid punishment. I talked about that in a previous newsletter about gamifying the learning process.

Let’s look at a familiar example.

👀 The Example: Students & Educators

Students who learn through the theory of self-determination are more likely to feel motivated to achieve. They also tend to feel greater levels of competence and satisfaction.

Exceptional educators can help students foster a sense of self-determination and intrinsic motivation by:

• Providing unexpected positive feedback when students perform well

• Avoiding excessive external rewards for actions students already enjoy

• Giving students choices about how to complete tasks

• Offering resources to help students succeed

🧪 The Project: Self Drive Learning

I’m going to use the idea of a 90-minute product training session to demonstrate SDT in action. Take this as direct inspiration or just add elements of it into your existing training experience.

Step 1: Pre-session choice (Autonomy)

Send customers a brief survey asking them to choose which aspects of your product they're most interested to explore. You can use this to tailor the focus of the session.

Users will see value in the product when you focus on the parts they find interesting.

On the flip side, if the users don’t know enough about the software to answer the survey, that’s a red flag.

Use this as a prompt for some alignment and “reselling”. (This is another case for implementing a Customer Effort Guide in the pre-sales process).

Step 2: Interactive demo (Competence)

Start the training session with a brief 10-minute interactive demo. Use this to get customers situated in the platform.

Give customers access to their accounts and ask them to follow along. Get them to replicate basic actions as you explain them.

Step 3: Guided exploration (Autonomy and Competence)

Have a list of around 5 task-based challenges related to your product. Choose tasks that are important to complete early on.

Allow 30-minutes for the users to complete these tasks independently in their own accounts. Be available to answer questions, but encourage self-discovery.

You can do this in an “office hours” style setting. The more they explore, the more the conversation flows.

You will be able to get a sense of their adoption of the product in real time.

Step 4: Peer sharing (Relatedness)

Now have 15-minutes for customers to share their discoveries, solutions, and ideas with the group. Encourage discussion and questions among participants.

This will help you get some immediate feedback on the platform. It will show you who your power users are and who may need additional guidance.

You can encourage this peer sharing over email threads or in Slack channels throughout the onboarding experience.

It’s a bonus if you can get their leader to reward participation!

Step 5: Real-world application (Competence and Autonomy)

In the next 20-minutes, get customers to think of a specific use case in their business to apply their knew knowledge. Have a back up prepared in case they have no idea where to start.

But encourage them to think first. Encourage them to play.

They don’t need to complete the task during this time. The aim is to get them confident using the product. To help them see the possibilities. To motivate them to want to use the product.

Step 6: Reflection and feedback (Autonomy)

Close the session with a 15-minute reflection period. Ask customers to share how they will use this product going forward. Are there any challenges or roadblocks mentioned?

Gather feedback on the training session experience. It will inform your future sessions.

🤓 The Analysis: Take The Wheel

This way of training transforms a potentially passive introduction into an engaging, self-driven learning experience. It gets the synapses firing as customers consider how they can use this amazing new tool.

It empowers customers to take control of their learning within the structured session. This ultimately leads to more confident and effective use of your product.

What you can expect when you try this:

• Deeper engagement

• Improved knowledge retention

• Immediate application

• Clear visibility of adoption