DAP Roles & Responsibilities
Brief Overview
A DAP professional is someone who uses a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) to drive digital transformation goals for their organization. This requires competency in one or more of the seven DAP disciplines. Get to know the complete set of responsibilities that work together to run a successful and impactful DAP program.
7 DAP Disciplines
1. Builder
The DAP Builder creates DAP content to meet project objectives for specific platforms and applications, performs troubleshooting and testing, and provides support assistance.
Primary responsibilities
- Identifies business objectives and applies the correct DAP solution to the system, app, or platform
- Designs and builds WalkMe content to meet project directives across web, desktop, and mobile apps
- Conducts quality assurance testing, hosts technical training calls, provides troubleshooting support, and leads solutioning sessions
- Maintains and troubleshoots published DAP content
- Consults on DAP best practices and creative DAP solutions that deliver maximum impact on KPIs
Required skills
- Experience working in an environment that requires the ability to multitask/prioritize a workload of competing priorities
- Ability to independently manage several projects simultaneously and operate under tight deadlines
- A natural excitement and ability to learn technologies and explain technical issues to a variety of audiences, including enterprise architects, developers, and management
- Strong organizational skills with a high attention to detail
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
- Background in organizational change management or learning & development is a plus
- An understanding of basic website features/technicalities
- HTML or CSS experience
- WalkMe experience is preferred, although not required
Roles who typically do this work
- Instructional Designer
- Technical Writer
- App Administrator
- Business Analyst
- Solution Engineer
- Sales Engineer
- Implementation Analyst
2. Project Lead
The DAP Project Lead owns DAP projects from start to finish: gathering requirements and managing scope, budget, schedule, risks, resources, etc.
Primary responsibilities
- Plans and owns DAP projects from start to finish
- Works cross-functionally to gather project requirements and manage project scope, budget, and schedule
- Identifies and addresses project risks, removes roadblocks, and engages the appropriate resources for escalations
- Ensures the project is delivered on schedule, within budget, and with the promised impact
- Serves as primary point of contact for onboarding and implementation
- Partners with DAP Builders to deliver comprehensive status reports and communication plans to stakeholders
- Understands and consults on DAP best practices and creative solutions for using WalkMe to create maximum impact on KPIs
- Handles user management and administration of the WalkMe platform
Required skills
- Experience in operations, professional services, customer success, or another role requiring project management
- Experience delivering enterprise software application implementations throughout the entire lifecycle
- Excellent communication skills with all levels of an organization including technical, business, and C-level
- Experience creating structure and designing processes that ensure customer success
- Ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences and to translate requirements into technical deliverables
- Process flow optimization and organizational change management experience within a company or as external consultant
- WalkMe experience is preferred, although not required
- UX background is a plus
- Familiarity with Workday, Salesforce, SuccessFactors, Dynamics, other enterprise software is a plus
Roles who typically do this work
- Project Manager (PMP)
- SCRUM Master
- People Manager of the DAP team or larger team where the DAP team resides
3. Program Manager
The Program Manager runs the digital adoption program for their team, department, or company. They create the strategy, drive the governance, and oversee the projects.
Primary responsibilities
- Manages the company's digital adoption initiatives
- Develops and enforces a governance model that supports scaling the program across the organization
- Oversees project-level execution with WalkMe technology
- Works with stakeholders cross-functionally to develop and execute a holistic strategy based on value and impact
- Partners with business owners and analysts to continually measure solution impact on company KPIs
- Conducts regular retrospective analyses of impact with recommendations for future quarters
- Drives feedback of the digital adoption program through a cadence of NPS or CSAT surveying
Required skills
- Ability to facilitate leadership discussions and build consensus around a strategic direction
- Expertise related to driving adoption with digital user experience journeys
- Ability to prioritize and implement projects from multiple stakeholders based on value added back to the business
- Ability to understand technical possibilities and limitations of the tools at your disposal in order to troubleshoot and maintain implementations
- Experience collaborating cross-functionally to create alignment and support
- Experience working in a deadline-driven environment and multitask/prioritize a workload of competing priorities
Roles who typically do this work
- Director or manager-level leadership
- Digital Transformation leader
- Program Manager of the broader digital adoption program (that includes other apps besides WalkMe)
4. Data Analyst
The DAP Data Analyst informs decisions and validates results using analytics. They run reports to enrich leadership communications to show tangible impact and inform operational roles about project success.
Primary responsibilities
- Responsible for leveraging the analytics capabilities of WalkMe Insights to monitor application usage, track useful events, and run relevant reports
- Responsible for leveraging data from other data sources in the company tech stack that are relevant to DAP projects and the overall digital adoption strategy
- Understands the company's short-term and long-term business goals and delivers analytics mapped to relevant KPIs
- Supplies leadership with analytics and reports demonstrating impact on company KPIs
- Supplies Builders and Project Leads with actionable feedback on the success of their projects
Required skills
- Understanding of data mining principles to find patterns and converting raw data into information useful for decision making
- Knowledge of statistical components like mean, median, range, variance, etc.
- Knowledge of description analysis for understanding if there are outliers, missing values, abnormal or skewed distributions, etc.
- Knowledge of data visualization tactics using area charts, bar charts, heat maps, TreeMaps, scatter plots, Gantt charts, etc.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for clearly reporting insights to leadership and cross-functional stakeholders
Roles who typically do this work
- BI Analyst
- Data Scientist
- Manager or Director
- Consultant/Analyst
5. Designer
The DAP Designer makes the content easy and enjoyable to use, analyzes user behavior, and adds ease-of-use improvements. 
Primary responsibilities
- Responsible for all aspects of a user's experience including usability and brand perception
- Collaborates with the Project Lead to offer suggestions and design flows
- Studies user behavior, measures the ease of task completion, and applies creativity to make ease-of-use improvements
- Understands and executes the core concepts of Usability, Research, and Visual Design
Required skills
- Experience creating prototypes, wireframes, mockups, and user flows
- Experience with visual design software applications like Figma, Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.
- Experience with Information Architecture (IA) principles for organizing and structuring content
- Knowledge of HTML and CSS is a plus
- Experience conducting usability testing to validate design choices is a plus
- Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with various teams and departments
- Strong communication skills to build enthusiasm with stakeholders and get valuable input from users
Roles who typically do this work
- UX Designer
- Interaction Designer
- Product Designer
- Solution Engineer
6. Champion
The DAP Champion raises awareness of and gets people excited about digital adoption: they showcase benefits that align with team and company goals and use analytics to reinforce storytelling.
Primary responsibilities
- Raises awareness of and builds a mass of users for digital adoption
- Works to embed DAP into company processes as an integral part of people's daily jobs
- Showcases potential uses and benefits of DAPs and helps people across the organization understand how it can benefit them
- Aligns communications and recommendations to company goals
- Leverages analytics to validate their storytelling
- Instructs others on how to tell the digital adoption story
Required skills
- Knowledge of how features of Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) drive business KPIs
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for clearly showcasing DAP benefits to develop urgency and need
- Understanding of DAP analytics: running reports and interpreting dashboards
- Understanding of change management principles like readiness assessment, addressing resistance, measurement, etc.
- Ability to use and demonstrate DAP functionality
Roles who typically do this work
- Program Manager for digital adoption
- Digital Transformation Leader
7. Architect
The DAP Architect fits WalkMe into the company tech stack. They create the foundation to enable deployments, configure the platform to comply with privacy and security requirements, and integrate data between WalkMe and other systems.
Primary responsibilities
- Responsible for fitting WalkMe into the company's app ecosystem
- Composed of three core responsibility categories, owned by different people or by a single person:
- Deployment: Leads all technical efforts regarding the installation, implementation, and maintenance of WalkMe; deploys a code snippet or browser extension as applicable; provides the right level of platform access to all users; mitigates technical risks to deployment
- Privacy & Security: Ensures that WalkMe is configured to comply with all applicable regulatory requirements around user privacy and data security; attends meetings with the Security team to address concerns
- Integrations: Connects WalkMe to systems in the company tech stack and configures incoming data flow for user identification, authentication, and segmentation; configures outgoing data flow from WalkMe to other systems to enrich business data
Required Skills
- Familiarity with cloud computing operations, such as scaling and sharing resources
- Knowledge of how to manage resources, such as hardware, data, data centers, and software.
- Knowledge of online data fraud, hacking, viruses, and other cyber attacks
- Understanding of systems architecture that includes the behavior, structure, and views of IT systems via a conceptual model
- Understanding of virtual machines such as hardware platforms, storage devices, and network resources
- Ability to interpret and understand information to make efficient, effective decisions
- Ability to clearly communicate guidance and complex concepts
- Ability to be highly organized to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, handling issues like prioritization, resource management, and time management
- Program certifications such as Microsoft, VMware, SQL, or Oracle
- Experience with web application development
Roles who typically do this work
- IT Architect
- IT Engineer
- IT Manager
Responsibility Combinations
Not every DAP professional fits into a single box. Every organization is different so there's no one way to do this. Here are a few examples of roles that can cover more than one discipline.
- Builder Lead: Project Lead & Builder
- Builder Designer: Builder & Designer
- Super Lead: Program Manager & Project Lead
- All-In-One: Program Manager, Project Lead, and Builder
- Leader Champion: Program Manager & Champion
Crucial Allies
The DAP project ecosystem extends beyond those who work directly with the DAP to some key allies who help the projects succeed. These allies aren't DAP professionals because they don't need to touch the WalkMe platform and don't require any skills specific to executing DAP projects.
Executive Sponsor
Someone director-level or higher who gives final approval on projects, receives reports on project value and progress, and makes decisions on contracts, resources, and budgets.
Subject Matter Expert
Someone with expertise on the underlying application that WalkMe provides guidance and analytics for like a power user, system administrator, or product owner.
Business Analyst
Someone who coordinates the setup of dashboards and reporting to measure quantified value of digital adoption projects using metrics that are pertinent to the team or department.
What Makes a Great Executive Sponsor?
You might have someone with the title "Executive Sponsor" - but are they present in the right ways for your Digital Adoption Program to achieve maximum success?
The Executive Sponsorship matrix below is adapted from a matrix by Harvard Business Review. The upper righthand quadrant - Authentic Sponsorship - is reserved for Executive Sponsors who exhibit high levels of Public Advocacy and Relational Authenticity - for Digital Adoption Professionals as individuals, the Digital Adoption Team as a whole, and the company's vision of Digital Adoption impact.
Resource Trajectory with Maturing DAP
The following shows common resource trends in a maturing digital adoption strategy. On average, a Digital Adoption Center of Excellence (CoE) has 3-5 total FTEs.
Elevate Your Digital Adoption Career
In the videos below, hear from seasoned Digital Adoption Professionals about how they began their journeys, the lessons they've learned, how they've developed their programs and careers, and where they're heading next.
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