Driving Successful Adoption: The Importance of User Discovery in Mining Technology [Part 1]
Read time: ~3min
As the mining sector continues to evolve, companies are under sustained pressure to reduce their environmental impacts while simultaneously increasing outputs and profits. As a result, mining companies need to utilise technology to achieve greater efficiencies to stay competitive and meet tighter legislative requirements. As mining companies continue to deploy new digital technology initiatives into the field they are struggling to create sufficient adoption in the workforce, causing many initiatives to underperform, or fail altogether.
Some reasons why adoption may fail on-site
Risk-averse culture
Change-averse culture
Regulation
Overly complex systems and processes
Remote and harsh environments
Shortage of skilled workers / experienced workers aging out of the workforce / employee turnover
Lack of support to users
Lack of belief in a proposed solution
Solution does not address the real needs of users
While most of these reasons are well known, their solutions may not be. As an example, in response to harsh environments and remote locations, technology providers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) developed isolated on-premise systems (e.g. SCADA) that are almost bomb-proof in their reliability. The siloed nature and extreme reliability of these systems gave confidence to the users, and these systems now form the backbone of modern mining operations.
Alternatively, risk-averse and change-averse cultures present a more complex challenge to overcome on the road to the adoption of new technologies. Often, when new technology is selected for deployment on-site there is limited engagement with the real users of the technology; the functional users to whom the technology should be providing real value. To drive successful adoption, the solution must address real, tangible problems faced by those on-site, and the users must believe that the solution can and will solve their problems.
Identification and validation of the real issues is best done through the process of user discovery. User discovery refers to the process of understanding the needs, behaviours, and pain points of users in order to inform the development and optimization of a solution. This involves actively seeking feedback from users, conducting user research, and analysing user data to gain insights into how they would use the solution and what problems they are trying to solve. By focusing on user discovery, companies can deliver solutions that resonate with their target audience, which in turn drives user adoption, and ultimately delivers a successful solution.
Simply but effective ways to perform user discovery
Unpacking each users' problems not ‘what they want’…
Most users don’t understand what they want, they only know they hate what they have currently. Problem discovery will help you understand the ‘why’ behind all your users, so you can configure a solution/training/UI/UX accordingly to fit this. Each person will have a ‘Wishlist’ of what they think they want, so don’t go down rabbit holes!
Watching what they do, not what they say…
Most people are usually quite nice when you ask them if they like what you’ve done for them. It’s a natural reflex. Either that, or if they are brutally negatgive about someting, they usually are negative about everything. So the best way to understand what is working and what isn’t, is to make sure you also look at their behaviour and actions:
Are they logging in at all?
How long are they logging in for?
Is the system achieving what it is meant to for them?
Are they rage clicking anything?
Are they taking less time with the new solution, than the ‘old way of doing things’?
In conclusion, mining companies are facing increasing pressure to reduce their environmental impact while maintaining profitability, leading to the deployment of new digital technology initiatives (i.e. the need to do more with less). To overcome some of these challenges, companies looking to deliver successful digital transformation projects need to focus on user discovery, which involves actively seeking feedback from users to gain insights into how they would use the solution and what problems they are trying to solve. By focusing on user discovery, mining companies can deliver solutions that address the real needs and problems faced by those on-site, which will help drive successful adoption, and ultimately deliver a solution that is valuable for those on-site. In part 2, we’ll dig into the change-averse nature of some mine sites and how it can be overcome.
If you are looking for help with adoption for your technology projects, reach out to the team to see how we can help: