| name | adoption-sequencing-k12 |
| description | Sequence K-12 partner adoption activities by stage (newly-implemented / first-year-sustaining / multi-year-mature / pre-renewal) with school-year-phase overlay. Surface-by-surface rhythm (teacher / admin / student / family-facing). Diagnostic-before-intervention discipline — don't push feature-breadth in stage 1. Used by `learning-analytics-analyst` + `success-playbook-designer`. |
Skill: adoption-sequencing-k12
Invoked by: learning-analytics-analyst (when interpreting an adoption signal), success-playbook-designer (when authoring an adoption / activation / low-engagement play), edtech-partner-success-manager (when responding to "why is adoption stalled?").
When to invoke: any question of the shape "how should this K-12 partner sequence their feature/role/school rollout?" or "is this adoption pattern a problem or just the expected calendar shape?"
Output: a partner-stage-aware, school-year-aware adoption sequencing plan (or signal-interpretation) that distinguishes expected-slow from actually-broken.
The core insight this skill encodes
K-12 adoption does NOT follow a generic SaaS adoption curve. It follows the school year. A flat August week is not a problem; a flat October week is. A teacher-facing feature adopted at 20% in week 1 of the year is on-pace; the same number in week 12 is alarming. Without the calendar overlay, the same adoption signal gets misdiagnosed half the time.
This skill pairs the calendar overlay (from ../../knowledge/k12-adoption-arc-fall-spring-summer.md) with a sequencing framework that respects partner stage, product surface (teacher vs admin vs student vs family-facing), and segment depth.
The flow
When invoked, the agent should:
- Establish partner stage — newly-implemented (first 90 days) / first-year sustaining / multi-year mature / pre-renewal. Each has different adoption-priority maps.
- Establish product surface — teacher-facing / admin-facing / student-facing / family-facing. Each adopts on a different rhythm.
- Establish where in the school year the partner is — opening (Aug-Sep) / settling (Oct-Nov) / mid-year (Dec-Feb minus dead-zones) / spring (Mar-Apr minus state-testing) / closing (May-Jun).
- Cross-reference the K-12 arc knowledge file to check whether the current adoption signal is on-pace, ahead, or behind.
- If behind: run the adoption-diagnostic flow (from
../../templates/adoption-diagnostic-worksheet.md) to identify root cause BEFORE recommending a play.
- Sequence the next adoption activities — what should the partner be focused on adopting NEXT, given where they are.
The sequencing rules
Stage 1 — Newly-implemented (first 90 days)
Adopt in this order:
- Core access for all rostered users (login works, can find the product, can see their content)
- Trained champions running training waves (per
../../templates/train-the-trainer-curriculum.md) — not vendor-direct training of every teacher
- One workflow used 80%+ by intended-users — pick the single most-load-bearing workflow and drive it before broadening
- Admin-side reporting so the partner can self-serve their own usage data
DO NOT push feature-breadth in stage 1. A partner with 20% adoption across 10 features is not as healthy as one with 80% adoption of 2 features.
Stage 2 — First-year sustaining (months 3-12)
Adopt in this order:
- Second workflow (rooted in the success-plan stated outcomes)
- Admin dashboards for the named decision-maker
- Family-facing surface (if applicable) — but ONLY after teacher-side workflows are at 80%+
- Cross-school replication (if multi-school) — schools that adopted early carry the pattern to schools that haven't started
Stage 3 — Multi-year mature
Adopt in this order:
- Power-user features — the 10-15% of usage that drives 50% of value (when the partner is ready for depth)
- Integration depth — additional data sources, more roles, deeper rostering
- Outcome instrumentation — closing the loop on the success-plan stated outcomes
Stage 4 — Pre-renewal
This is NOT primarily an adoption-sequencing stage. It's a measurement-and-narrative stage. The PSM should be:
- Surfacing the outcomes-vs-stated-goals story (per
../../templates/renewal-decision-memo.md)
- Identifying the 1-2 expansion adopters within the partner (which schools, which roles, which use cases earned value worth doubling down on)
- NOT pushing brand-new feature adoption in the pre-renewal window — late adoption surge looks like vendor-driven adoption-padding to a renewal-skeptical CFO
Surface-by-surface adoption rhythm (within a school year)
Teacher-facing
- Strong adoption window: weeks 3-8 of school year (post-setup, pre-grading-crunch)
- Weak adoption window: week 1-2 (setup), Thanksgiving week, winter break, end of grading periods, state testing
- Sustained-engagement signal: mid-October monthly active rate
Admin-facing
- Strong adoption window: continuous, with a spike in early September (setup) and February (mid-year reporting)
- Weak adoption window: late August setup overload, end-of-year wrap
Student-facing
- Strong adoption window: weeks 4-12 of school year (after teacher introduces the product)
- Weak adoption window: week 1-3 of year, holidays, summer
Family-facing (parent comms, family-engagement products)
- Strong adoption window: early in school year (welcome window) + early Nov (conferences) + early February (mid-year)
- Weak adoption window: state-testing window, end-of-year wrap, summer
- Multilingual overlay: non-English-primary families adopt on different rhythms; community-school events drive bursts
Anti-patterns this skill flags
- Pushing feature-breadth too early. A partner that's at week 6 of implementation and being pushed to adopt 5 features is being sabotaged by the PSM.
- Misreading the calendar dip as a problem. A January engagement drop that's actually just winter break + new-year-startup-friction gets a "yellow" health score and a Recovery play that the partner doesn't need.
- Adopting admin features before teacher features hit 80%. Admins want reports; admins won't have reports if teachers aren't using the product yet.
- Late-renewal-window adoption surge that reads as vendor-padding.
- Bottom-quartile-school within a multi-school partner getting the same intervention as the whole partner. The intervention should fire at the school level, not the partner level.
When NOT to invoke
- The adoption signal is broken (rostering issue, telemetry gap). Diagnose the signal first via
rostering-data-quality.md before sequencing.
- The partner is in active recovery (red health). Adoption sequencing assumes a stable relationship; recovery plays come first.
- The partner-stated outcome is "use the product less" — the sequencing framework assumes the partner is trying to adopt MORE, not LESS.
Refresh triggers
- A major product release changes the surface (e.g., a new family-facing module changes the sequencing)
- K-12 calendar conventions shift (rare)
- Real-engagement signal contradicts the sequence (the
/wrap slash command surfaces scenarios where this skill's recommendations went sideways)
References
