When is a Digital Adoption Platform not relevant?
When your product has no visual user interface, such as with API-only tools or non-software products where user interaction relies on docs or direct training.
When dealing with non-web platforms like native mobile apps not based on web technology, where mobile-first tools are more applicable.
When product engagement does not = business success, like products where value is independent of user interaction frequency, or where external constraints prevent the use of third-party software.
Not every company uses a DAP, especially in the following cases, where it may not be relevant or worth much investment:
No user interface
If a product does not have a visual user interface then digital adoption platforms are defunct. Products like this include pure API tools, chat-based interfaces, non-software products, etc.
Note that user onboarding and feature adoption remain challenges in these cases, but documentation, videos, real-life training, etc., are channels and methods to solve those.
Non-web platforms
There are cases where platforms are disconnected from the internet or based on technologies outside of the browser. For example, the interfaces on smart devices, software running in space, etc. DAPs will not support these atypical cases, although some offer on-prem installation and deployment options.
Another more common case is where a native mobile app (vs. web or HTML-based mobile app) is the only/primary software product. In these cases, companies typically rely on mobile-first tools that deliver (push and other) notifications and support dynamic components within mobile apps.
Tools commonly used for this purpose include Braze, Airship, and Onesignal.
Product engagement doesn’t correlate with success
Some products do not prioritize usage or product engagement. This might be because revenue is driven by a top-down model based on relationships or because the value offered is unrelated to the use of the interface.
For example, AWS generates revenue through its server infrastructure. That use case is so compelling that the ease of use or adoption of its web interface to set up and manage these servers is a low priority. The company may not invest in product adoption tools or efforts in such a case.
Restrictions on external vendors
Certain products cannot incorporate third-party code into their platforms due to their risk tolerance for dependencies on third parties. This might be due to severe security restrictions (e.g., national security government applications), scalability reasons (e.g., not many companies can support Netflix's scale requirements), or engineering culture (e.g., Facebook’s approach is to build its tooling rather than depend on outside vendors).
These cases differ from companies considering buying a DAP but choosing to build in-house; more on that next.