A few weeks ago I participated in a panel webinar with Chris Capistran and Ashley Steiner where we talked about User Adoption Best Practices in Dynamics 365. You can catch the recording on CRMUG! I wanted to share a few of the tips we discussed.
Super Users
Enlisting a ream of Super Users (or Power Users or Evangelists) can be a great way to build adoption. You can get this group involved early to start building excitement for new releases or features. These users can have extra training and serve as the first-line of support for people in their department. You can also use them to solicit feedback from their co-workers that you can add to your backlog.
Executive Buy-in
It is always important to have the right level of support. This might not be at the full-company level but always needs to be at the department level. Support and direction needs to be provided from above to ensure users know what they are doing and why.
Learning the new tool or changes will take time and department heads need to understand and support that. There is additional time involved for Super Users but teams should be able to see the value in that role and support the time commitment.
Training Best Practices
We discussed a bit about the best size of a training class. This is difficult as there are many factors that go into this decision such as the content being shared, the users being trained and more. It is more important to focus on what material will be shared and figuring out how to divide that appropriately. This includes making sure the training is relevant for the users such as diving up by job role or department.
It is also important to focus on minimizing distractions. This can include keeping the class sizes smaller, taking breaks, removing phones, etc.
We also discussed the importance of putting ownership on the users who are listening to this training. It is important to answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” The trainers need to give something to the users so that the users will give their buy-in in return. This can include demonstrating things they will be able to do themselves such as self-service reports and small tangible things that will make their lives easier. Demonstrate how you have identified and met their pain points so you can build the right attitude.
The person or group responsible for training is different in all organizations. Sometimes this will fall within the D365/CRM Team or the department or even a training department. In any scenario, it is important to work closely with the department being trained to ensure materials are customized with the correct procedures and business language.
How do you measure User Adoption?
You can start measuring adoption based on metrics such as activities created or accounts modified so you can see which users are the most active. This will just show you who is using the system but not necessarily who is engaged with the system. When users start to come up with new ideas, this is when you know they are really using and understanding. D365/CRM should be central to their job and part of the job description to ensure users know the importance of learning and using.
What other User Adoption tips would you add?
Love this overview! I would agree with all of what you say. We keep our training groups small and train the “champions” and give them the tools to train their office. We have a great training group at our company who has created some excellent training materials and facilitator/participant guides. WIIFM is so important!!