A customer bought 100 seats, but only 25 users activated them. How would you start the recovery conversation?

Example Answer

In this fictional case, I'd open with a neutral observation: 'The account shows 25 activations against 100 purchased seats. Was that the rollout you expected by this point?' I'd confirm what activation means and whether the rollout is phased before describing the account as behind. Purchased capacity alone doesn't tell me who should be using the product today.

I'd ask which teams were meant to start, what happened to their invitations, and whether users can complete the intended task. I'd listen for access problems, unclear instructions, competing priorities or a workflow that doesn't yet meet their needs. I'd speak with an affected user as well as the champion where practical.

We'd choose a first action based on that evidence, such as resolving access or helping an intended team complete a useful workflow. I'd agree the owner and review point, then check both participation and whether users achieved the result they needed.

Make it your own

The 100 purchased seats and 25 activations are fictional practice inputs. Do not treat 25 percent as a universal adoption benchmark or assume all seats should already be active.

Why this works

Opens a realistic adoption conversation, checks the rollout context and chooses an intervention based on the actual blocker.

Interviewer follow-up

What if the customer says the remaining seats were bought for a later phase?

I'd confirm the expected timing, intended teams and dependencies for that phase. Then I'd assess whether the current users are getting the value planned for them. I'd adjust the adoption view to the rollout instead of pushing activation for its own sake, and record the later phase so we can prepare for it.

References

• GitLab's account-risk discovery and mitigation examples