--- title: "Post go-live pulse survey: is the change landing? | Spradley" description: "Find out how a change is really landing after go-live: what to ask at baseline and at 2 to 6 weeks, how to spot workarounds, and how to compare teams." url: https://spradley.io/articles/post-go-live-pulse-survey --- # Post go-live pulse survey: is the change landing? Find out how a change is really landing after go-live: what to ask at baseline and at 2 to 6 weeks, how to spot workarounds, and how to compare teams. Magnus Størum Co-founder & CEO Jun 4, 2026 ![A manager walks empty new shelving with a shop worker who points along the aisle](https://spradley.io/media/blog/post-go-live-pulse-survey/hero.webp) To find out how a change is really landing after go-live, run the same short pulse twice: once as a baseline before go-live, then again two to six weeks after it. Ask what has become easier or harder, what people still do the old way, and what they still can’t do in the new system. Compare teams rather than reading one average, and treat workarounds and old spreadsheets as the clearest sign that the change has not landed yet. ## Why isn’t go-live the same as adoption? Go-live means the new system or process is switched on. Adoption means people use it to do their work, and use it well. Prosci separates three things in its [guide to measuring change management](https://www.prosci.com/blog/metrics-for-measuring-change-management): speed of adoption (how quickly), ultimate utilisation (how many) and proficiency (how well). Its examples include counting the number of people using a new system at go-live, then at 10 and 30 days after. System data covers the first two reasonably well. Log-ins and transactions tell you who is in the system. They cannot tell you that the planners in one depot log in to record the job for the audit trail and then plan the actual shift on their own spreadsheet. That is the gap a pulse survey fills. The same problem shows up with AI tools, where licence data says little about real use; see [how to measure Copilot adoption beyond licence data](https://spradley.io/articles/measure-copilot-adoption-beyond-licence-data). ## What should you ask before go-live? The baseline gives you something to compare against. Without it, “it’s harder now” has no reference point, and you can’t tell a team that struggled from the start from one that fell back. Run it in the two or three weeks before go-live, after training has started. ### Baseline questions 1. How do you do this part of your work today? 2. Which tools, spreadsheets or paper forms do you rely on for it? 3. What works well about the current way, that you would want to keep? 4. What do you expect to be easier after the change? 5. What do you expect to be harder? 6. How ready do you feel to work the new way from day one? 7. What would you still need before go-live? Question 2 matters most later. If people name the spreadsheet they use now, you can ask about that spreadsheet by name after go-live. For a fuller set to run earlier, before the change is even announced, see our [change readiness survey questions](https://spradley.io/articles/change-readiness-survey-questions). ## What should you ask 2 to 6 weeks after go-live? The first week or two is dominated by teething problems, and answers then mostly tell you about the support desk. By about six weeks, habits have started to set, including the bad ones. The window in between is when people can tell you what the change is really like and there is still time to fix it. For a large rollout, ask at two weeks and again at six. ### After go-live questions 1. What has become easier in your work since the change went live? 2. What has become harder? 3. Tell me about a recent time the new way of working didn’t work as expected. 4. Are you still using any of the old tools, spreadsheets or workarounds? What for? 5. What do you feel least confident doing in the new system? 6. When you have raised a problem with it, what happened? 7. What does your manager do differently now that the change is live? 8. If you could fix one thing about the rollout tomorrow, what would it be? Ask questions 1 and 2 in the same order every time, so the answers line up with the baseline expectations. Question 6 is your early warning: if people say they reported a problem and heard nothing, they will stop reporting, and the issues go underground. ## How do you find workarounds and old spreadsheets? Ask without blame. People keep the old spreadsheet because it does something the new system doesn’t, or because they don’t yet trust the new one. Prosci’s article on [ADKAR Reinforcement](https://www.prosci.com/blog/adkar-model-reinforcement) notes that people naturally revert to what they know, and that this tendency persists when the old workflow is still easy to reach. A useful framing is “what do you still use, and what for?” rather than “are you using the new system?”. The second invites a yes. The first gets answers like “we use both: the system for the record, the sheet to actually plan”, which tells you exactly what the new system is missing. Often it is a single view or report. Building that is cheaper than a retraining programme. Watch also for shadow processes that aren’t files: a WhatsApp group that has replaced the shift handover, or one experienced person who now does everyone’s approvals because the new flow is slower. ## What does reinforcement look like after go-live? Reinforcement is the R in ADKAR: what makes the new way stick so people don’t slide back. Prosci warns that once a change goes live, organisations are often already moving to the next priority, and reinforcement is among the first things to be dropped. Its examples of reinforcement include direct feedback from supervisors, visible recognition from senior sponsors, and appraisal systems that line up with the change. Your pulse tells you whether any of that is happening. Question 7 (what does your manager do differently?) is a direct check. If the answer in most teams is “nothing”, the change is relying on people’s goodwill, and Prosci’s [ADKAR guide](https://www.prosci.com/blog/adkar-model) notes that ability, like the earlier ADKAR elements, can regress. ## How do you compare teams after go-live? Use the same questions at the same points in time for every team, and compare each team with its own baseline as well as with the others. A change rarely lands evenly. Most teams may use the new planning system daily while one, often the one with the most complex work, has quietly kept its own spreadsheet. Look for the team that diverges, then read what its people said. The reason is usually specific: the system can’t show cover across sites, the training happened before the rota was finalised, or their manager was on leave during go-live. Set a minimum group size of five so nobody can be identified, and combine very small teams. If a transformation office tracks several changes at once, running the same pulse at each milestone gives it a consistent read across workstreams. We describe that set-up on our [transformation office page](https://spradley.io/solutions/transformation-office). Before and after a go-live, it is also worth checking for [early signs of change fatigue](https://spradley.io/articles/change-fatigue-early-signs), because a team absorbing three changes at once will adopt each one more slowly. ## How can you hear the reasons, not only the scores? A five-point rating of “the new system works well for me” shows you where to look, and stops there. The answers that change a rollout plan are stories: the cover problem in Dispatch, the approval step that doubled the time to close a ticket. Spradley runs the pulse as a one-on-one AI interview, by text or voice. People are invited by email or Slack and answer on their own phone or computer, in their own time. The interviewer asks follow-up questions on each answer, so “it’s slower” turns into which step and why. The report groups the answers into themes with the quotes behind them and lets you compare departments, with numbers and ratings never shown for fewer than five people. See our [change management page](https://spradley.io/solutions/change-management) for how a before and after round is set up. ## Frequently asked questions ### When should we run a pulse survey after go-live? Between two and six weeks after go-live. Earlier answers mostly reflect teething problems; later, workarounds have already become habits. For a large rollout, ask at two weeks and again at six. ### Why do we need a baseline before go-live? Without one, you can't tell whether a team found the change harder or was already struggling. The baseline also records which old tools people rely on, so you can ask about them by name afterwards. ### Isn't system usage data enough to measure adoption? Usage data shows who logs in and how often. It can't show who still plans on an old spreadsheet, what people can't do in the new system, or why one team is behind. ### How do we compare teams without identifying anyone? Report results only for groups of at least five people, and combine smaller teams. Ask every team the same questions at the same points so the results are comparable. ## Key terms go-live The point at which a new system or process is switched on. Adoption, meaning people use it well for their actual work, comes later. baseline A first measurement taken before a change, so later results have something to be compared against. pulse survey A short survey run often, typically five to ten questions on one or two themes, monthly or quarterly. It shows whether something is moving between larger surveys. speed of adoption, utilisation and proficiency Prosci’s three measures of how a change is adopted: how quickly people take it up, how many use it, and how well they use it. reinforcement The final ADKAR stage: what makes a change stick so people do not slide back to the old way. workaround An unofficial way of getting a task done when the standard process or system falls short. Workarounds show exactly where a process breaks. ## More articles [Explore all resources](https://spradley.io/articles) [ ![A woman at one of the few occupied desks in an office of cleared, empty desks](https://spradley.io/media/blog/layoff-survivors-how-to-find-out-how-they-feel/hero.webp) Change management ### Layoff survivors: how to find out how they feel How to find out how people feel after layoffs: when to ask, questions on workload, trust and job security, and how to keep answers safe in small teams. ](https://spradley.io/articles/layoff-survivors-how-to-find-out-how-they-feel)[ ![A man with a loosened tie sits on office stairs surrounded by moving boxes](https://spradley.io/media/blog/change-fatigue-early-signs/hero.webp) Change management ### Change fatigue: why it happens and the early signs Why change fatigue happens (saturation, overlapping initiatives, low trust, nothing stopped) and the early signs you can spot before survey scores move. ](https://spradley.io/articles/change-fatigue-early-signs)[ ![A woman sits on a packing crate with a mug in a half-emptied office mid-move](https://spradley.io/media/blog/change-readiness-survey-questions/hero.webp) Change management ### Change readiness survey questions to ask employees Copyable change readiness survey questions grouped by ADKAR stage, plus trust and capacity, and when a validated scale like ORIC is the better choice. ](https://spradley.io/articles/change-readiness-survey-questions)[ ![A manager in an insurance office, seen from behind, taps a blank wall barometer while a claims handler at a desk of folders raises a hand to speak](https://spradley.io/media/articles/spradley-vs-lattice/hero.webp) Comparisons ### Spradley vs Lattice for Employee Feedback Spradley vs Lattice: run one fallen score through both, see what each does when the reason is unknown, and when to keep Lattice and add interviews. ](https://spradley.io/articles/spradley-vs-lattice)[ ![A practice manager in a 1980s veterinary clinic, seen from behind, presses a stethoscope to the closed staff-room door while a vet nurse in profile waits beside her holding a cat carrier](https://spradley.io/media/articles/spradley-vs-leapsome/hero.webp) Comparisons ### Spradley vs Leapsome: Surveys or Reasons? Spradley vs Leapsome on one workplace problem: what each tells you, what each does when the cause is still unknown, and whether to keep, add or replace. ](https://spradley.io/articles/spradley-vs-leapsome)[ ![A 1980s airport baggage hall. A manager in a blazer, seen from behind, kneels with a torch to peer under a stopped luggage carousel, while a baggage handler in ear defenders, seen in profile, stands holding a suitcase in each hand, waiting to load them](https://spradley.io/media/articles/what-to-do-when-one-department-has-low-engagement-scores/hero.webp) Taking action ### One Department Has Low Engagement Scores: What to Do Is it the manager, the work, or a company problem that only shows there? A decision rule, the evidence for each, and what to do when the group is tiny. ](https://spradley.io/articles/what-to-do-when-one-department-has-low-engagement-scores)