Customer Adoption & Maturity Model

Purpose

This page defines FlowFuse’s Customer Adoption & Maturity Model for Node-RED–based solutions in manufacturing and industrial environments.

The model provides a shared framework used across Sales, Solution Engineering, and Customer Success to:

  • Understand a customer’s starting point
  • Align engagement strategy to customer maturity
  • Select the appropriate sales motion and evaluation approach
  • Anticipate organizational and operational risk
  • Guide customers toward scalable, governed adoption

This is a segmentation and decision model, not a sales stage or qualification checklist.

The Two Axes

The model evaluates customers along two independent dimensions:

Node-RED Adoption Maturity (Technical)

  • Low: Isolated experiments, local usage, individual projects
  • High: Broad Node-RED usage across teams, sites, or use cases

Manufacturing / Operational Maturity (Organizational)

  • Low: Ad hoc processes, limited governance, inconsistent ownership
  • High: Standardized operations, defined governance, structured decision-making

Customers can be technically advanced but operationally immature — or vice versa.

The Four Zones

Z3 — Experimental / Tooling (Local Use)

Profile

  • Individual engineers or small teams experimenting
  • Ad hoc projects and local success
  • Limited organizational visibility or sponsorship

Characteristics

  • Low operational maturity
  • Low Node-RED adoption maturity

Typical needs

  • Education and enablement
  • Use-case validation
  • Proof of value at the local level

Primary motion

  • Early discovery
  • Solution-led evaluation
  • Education-focused demos

Z2 — Manufacturing-First (Solution-Led)

Profile

  • Outcome-driven manufacturing or operations teams
  • Structured buyers solving specific problems
  • Clear business objectives, limited platform thinking

Characteristics

  • High operational maturity
  • Lower Node-RED adoption maturity

Typical needs

  • Solution alignment
  • Business impact validation
  • Confidence that the approach will scale later

Primary motion

  • Edge Connectivity sales process
  • Solution-focused PoC
  • Outcome-based evaluation

Z4 — NR Scale, but Ops-Immature

Profile

  • Widespread Node-RED usage across teams or sites
  • Organic growth without centralized governance
  • Increasing operational, security, and reliability risk

Characteristics

  • High Node-RED adoption maturity
  • Low operational maturity

Typical needs

  • Governance and control
  • Standardization
  • Risk reduction and operational visibility

Primary motion

  • NR Scale sales process
  • Risk- and governance-led evaluation
  • Platform and operating model alignment

Z1 — Platform-Oriented Manufacturers

Profile

  • Node-RED adopted as a strategic platform
  • Governed, standardized operations
  • Central ownership and clear operating model

Characteristics

  • High operational maturity
  • High Node-RED adoption maturity

Typical needs

  • Optimization and expansion
  • Platform hardening
  • Long-term roadmap alignment

Primary motion

  • Expansion and scale
  • Strategic platform discussions
  • Multi-year value planning

How to Identify the Zone (Pre-Meeting Questions)

Use the following questions before or during early discovery to determine a customer’s likely zone.

Node-RED Adoption Signals

  • Where is Node-RED running today?
  • How many teams or sites are using it?
  • Is usage centralized, shared, or entirely local?
  • Who owns Node-RED standards, if anyone?

Operational / Organizational Signals

  • How are deployments governed today?
  • Who is responsible for security, access, and updates?
  • How do teams ensure consistency across projects?
  • What happens when something breaks?

Decision Framing Signals

  • Are they trying to solve a specific problem, or define how problems should be solved going forward?
  • Is risk a growing concern, or is speed the priority?
  • Is leadership asking “does this work?” or “can this scale safely?”

The goal is not to label customers, but to select the right engagement strategy.

How This Model Is Used

This model is referenced across the Commercial Organization to:

  • Select the appropriate sales process (Edge vs NR Scale)
  • Shape discovery and PoC design
  • Anticipate organizational friction and objections
  • Guide Customer Success adoption planning
  • Align internal teams on customer context

This model should be revisited as customers mature over time.

Customers can — and should — move between zones.