Field note · 20 January 2026
What “I already have a way to do that” means in adoption work
The sentence sounds like rejection. In observed sessions it is usually a map of the work you did not know you were competing with.
Amina Rahman
When a participant says they already have a way, inexperienced observers write “not interested” and move to the next prompt. That is a missed brief. The sentence is an offer: they are willing to show you the method that currently carries the job.
In a Selangor finance team, “I already have a way to track follow-ups” meant a ring-bound book with a ribbon and a code of ticks in the margin. The new follow-up feature in their email client asked them to click twice, name a date, and trust a list they could not take to a meeting without a laptop. The book came to the meeting. The feature did not. Adoption was never going to be a matter of a brighter button.
Sometimes the existing way is another feature in the same app. People will use the calendar block as a task, the task as a note, the note as a reminder. They are not using the product “wrong.” They are collapsing jobs onto the surface they can reach fastest with a colleague watching. A study that insists each capability must be used as labelled will scold the very behaviour that keeps the app open.
Our write-ups treat the existing way as a first-class finding. We describe it with the same care we describe your feature: where it lives, who else can see it, what happens if it is lost, how long it takes at 9 a.m. on a Monday. Only then do we say whether your capability could stand beside it, replace it, or should stay out of the way.
If that sentence keeps appearing in your support mail, it is a reason to commission interviews, not a reason to add another empty state. Bring two examples of the work people say they already know how to do. We will go and watch that work, even if it happens on paper.