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I’ve been trying to get our small team to actually use the new project management platform we invested in, but it’s like pulling teeth. Everyone just defaults back to email and spreadsheets, and I’m starting to wonder if the real issue is our workflow itself, not the tool. Has anyone else hit this wall when trying to introduce new systems?

Yep, I’ve hit that wall too. The issue wasn’t the tool by itself but how our workflow fits or doesn’t fit the tool. People kept defaulting to email because it was familiar and fast, and the new platform felt like extra friction rather than a help.

Analytically speaking, the map between your real workflow and the PM tool is the bottleneck. If the steps in your process aren’t the ones the tool enforces, people skate around it. Start by documenting the current flow, then design the tool’s stages to mirror that, not the other way around.

A bit of a misunderstanding here: people hear 'new system' and assume it means more meetings, more buttons. They switch back to spreadsheets because that’s their mental model for how work actually gets done within a week.

Feels like a bandwagon problem. Training and nudges won’t save you if the value proposition isn’t obvious in daily work; a blurry workflow invites backsliding.

Maybe reframe the question from adoption to outcome. If the platform is supposed to help the team hit a target, what specific workflow changes would make that outcome obvious? It shifts the framing away from tool worship.

Try a two week pilot with one project, one template, and one owner who follows it end to end. Rename tasks to your real world terms and make everyone use the same view. It’s about enforcing a minimal viable workflow, not perfect automation.

In my team we let people help design the first version of the workflow. When they own it, they’ll actually use it even if they still grumble about the UI.

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