Steering Adoption: Enabling Successful Platform Adoption in a Cross-Functional and International Teams Setting

At A Glance
In 2020, I was tasked with addressing the low adoption rates of two critical digital tools at Chegg: Contentful, a content management system (CMS), and Cloudinary, a digital asset management platform for creative assets.

Despite their potential to streamline operations and support Chegg’s global presence, these tools were underutilized due to missing processes, unclear direction, and the absence of dedicated product management guidance.
Teams across engineering, marketing, creative design, and subsidiaries—spanning multiple countries—struggled to integrate these platforms into their workflows, limiting their effectiveness. 

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The Objective

100% adoption

The goal was to achieve it for both Contentful and Cloudinary across all relevant teams, ensuring they were fully embedded in daily operations. Additionally, I aimed to integrate Optimizely with Contentful to enable rapid A/B testing, supporting Chegg’s marketing efforts in new international markets. Success required overcoming operational inefficiencies, aligning cross-functional priorities, and enabling teams to leverage these tools to their full potential.
The Challenges

A Management Dilemma

Lack of Processes: No standardized workflows existed for using Contentful or Cloudinary, leading to inconsistent usage and inefficiencies.

Unclear Direction: Teams lacked guidance on how to apply the tools to their specific needs, reducing their perceived value.

No Dedicated Product Management: Without a product manager to champion these platforms, adoption efforts stalled.

Cross-Functional and International Complexity: Teams were dispersed across functions (e.g., engineering, marketing, creative design) and geographies (e.g., US, India), complicating coordination and communication.

The Solutions

Cross Functional Collaboration

Platform Evaluation and Stakeholder Engagement
Process Development and Continuous Feedback
Establishing Operations Team and Development

Conducted in-depth testing of Contentful and Cloudinary to understand their capabilities and use cases.

Engaged with peers in engineering, marketing, and creative design, as well as stakeholders like management (for strategic vision) and external agencies (to address challenges like access rights). These discussions revealed team-specific needs and pain points.

Designed and tested processes for both platforms, covering content creation, asset management, and collaboration workflows.

Presented these processes to teams for feedback, refining them iteratively to ensure they were practical and user-friendly.

Established dedicated operations teams to handle backend tasks—major pain points for core users:

    • Contentful Team: Four associates responsible for tagging, structuring, tracking work, cleaning archives, managing data, and providing cross-team support.
    • Cloudinary Team: Two associates (one creative designer for asset iterations, one operations associate for referencing, archiving, nomenclature, and segmentation).

Hired and trained these teams in India, leveraging cost efficiencies and time zone differences. This allowed US-based teams to delegate tasks at the end of their day and receive completed work by the next morning.

Roadmap Alignment and Stakeholder Negotiation
Teams Onboarding, Training and Support
Followup Integrations - Optimizely and Localisation

Collaborated with engineering to understand the platforms’ technical roadmaps and ensure alignment with business goals.

Negotiated priorities with stakeholders across marketing, creative design, business units, and subsidiaries to balance competing needs and secure buy-in.

Developed and delivered onboarding programs to educate teams on use cases, ensuring they could confidently utilize Contentful and Cloudinary in their workflows.

Oversaw the integration of Optimizely with Contentful, enabling rapid A/B testing for pricing and copy iterations in new markets like Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Australia, and the UK.
The Results

Impressive outcomes within tight timelines

Contentful
Cloudinary
Other Wins
    • Achieved 100% migration of Chegg’s core web pages and subsidiary sites within four months.
    • Provided active support during the company’s rebranding, ensuring a seamless transition.
    • Reached 100% adoption across teams in nine months.
    • Supported by a fully trained, India-based team of four associates, enhancing operational efficiency.
  • Hosted all company-wide creative assets within six months, with active usage across web, social, CRM, and other marketing channels.
  • Agencies reported 100% usage with no impediments.
  • Reached 100% adoption in eleven months.
  • Supported by an India-based team of two associates (one creative designer, one operations specialist).

Optimizely:

Successfully integrated with Contentful, enabling 100% usage for A/B testing in marketing campaigns.

Supported pricing and copy testing in new international markets, driving Chegg’s global expansion.

Operational Impact:

The India-based teams provided round-the-clock support, allowing US teams to delegate tasks efficiently and maintain momentum across time zones.

Cost management was optimized by leveraging India’s lower operational costs.

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