Onboarding Guide for Core Admins

Overview

We hear this question all the time:

“How have your other customers been successful in their implementation?”

The (not-so-secret) answer:

We see the most successful implementation when there is a dedicated team on the Customer’s side that is equally engaged with us. We don’t just want to show you where to click around in the tool; we want you to be strategic, and to feel confident in your plans for rolling out an organized Content Library and a streamlined Project Workflow. The best way to achieve this, is to make your implementation a priority within your organization.

We developed this Onboarding Guide to help you, the Core Admin Team, expedite your learning and plan a strategic implementation. Use this guide to supplement your Train-the-Trainer Sessions.

Onboarding Guide for Core Admins

Documents

The following supporting documents are available for download at the end of this article.

• Onboarding Task Tracker (Excel)
  This will be helpful to track your recommended Learning and Onboarding tasks.
• Content Organization - Worksheet (Excel) 
  This will be helpful during your Answer Library training.
• Project Workflow - Worksheet (Excel)
  This will be helpful during your Projects Training. 
• Standard Onboarding Overview (PDF)
  Offers an outline of our standard onboarding process.
• New User Checklist (PDF)
  You can share this checklist with any of your new users to help them navigate your instance and begin learning.

Top 10 Onboarding Tips - Shared by Other Customers

1. Meet with stakeholders. Define your initiative and why it’s important.
2. Set realistic expectations within your team, and agree on your goals for Implementation. Share your goals with your Onboarding Consultant and Customer Success Manager.
3. Setting up the application in a strategic way - just like anything else that’s important - takes time and a lot of thought. It was crucial for us to have the support from Executive Sponsors and Managers, who encouraged making it a priority.
4. Hold periodic meetings to talk about the application internally; have open Q&A time for team members, (i.e. monthly application Office Hours blocked on team calendars).
5. Expend effort upfront to develop a Content Organization Strategy (see Worksheet provided below for download); set up your Library for success EARLY ON.
6. For larger organizations, break out your Implementation into phases, run test pilots within a small group, (i.e. start with Content, then Projects, etc.)
7. Create a set of rules/guidelines based on user roles and their responsibilities.
8. Create an internal application “Start Guide” - great for new users, new hires, and guidelines for existing users. Leverage Professional Services if you lack bandwidth or resources to conduct your user training.
9. Be thoughtful in your strategy planning, work together, and turn best practices into your internal SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).
10. Collect tips from your users, and share them with each other.