If You Build It, They Will Come: Driving End User Adoption

Presenter: Scott Jamison – Managing Partner – Jornata

The Challenge of Adoption

Scott started with the analogy of VHS vs. Beta and how VHS was adopted over Beta and achieved the critical mass.

SharePoint Adoption can be hard…even Steve Ballmer indicated in his keynote address that he still gets asked “What is SharePoint?”…the problem is, it is EVERYTHING.  Another reason that the adoption of SharePoint can be difficult is that users do not necessarily “have” to use SharePoint (i.e. they can use file shares and email instead).

Some of the new functionality in SharePoint 2010 (for example Social Computing) will most likely take 18-36 months, as it is something new to the organization.  The Adoption Curve of Awareness, Trial and Adoption was discussed.

User Enlightenment Stages  - Based on Perceived Value and Conquered Skills and Confidence

• Clueless
• Skeptic
• Aware
• Productive
• Advocate – These users are required to tell everyone else in the organization how great SharePoint is.  Advocates must be identified and “championed” to speak to the organization.
• Inventor

What Users Want

• The ability to Connect and Understand SharePoint’s ability to Solve Business Goals – Outcomes not requirements
• Elegant Solution Design – Don’t make users go through five screens to do one task
• WIIFM – What’s in it for me? – Users need to understand how they benefit from what they are entering into the system (e.g. metadata entry, records, document management, etc.)

Must-Have Elements in Your Adoption Strategy

The following items MUST be on your Project Plan for implementing SharePoint

• Communication Plan
  • Identify and Leverage Experts and Champions – Perform a Pilot, spread the word via peers
  • CEO Memos – Someone in the organization understands and agrees with the vision
  • Town Hall Meetings
  • Break Room Posters – One example of a company was mentioned that put the posters on the back of doors in the bathroom…your results may vary
  • Online Scavenger Hunts
  • “Birth” Announcements
  • Launch Parties

NOTE: Make sure you have an ongoing plan for continuous communication (it’s not a one-time event).  Especially since most organizations roll-out separate pieces of functionality over time.

• Training Plan
  • Not just for Developers and IT
  • Power Users / Site Owners – Maybe even establish an internal “certification” program where the developers walk the end users on what to DO and what NOT to do.  This could also be a video to save time.  Also, there is a Microsoft “Buzz” kit that can be accessed and downloaded online.
  • Visitors
  • Members
  • Web Content Contributors
  • Workflow Approvers
  • Remember: “Just-in-time and just enough”

• Content Conversion Plan
  • It’s critical that important information gets moved to the new system, there are basically three options:
  • 1. Clean and Migrate everything
  • 2. Migrate nothing; Index the old content – New content only in the new system
  • 3. Clean and migrate recent content only
  • Remember: Don’t Migrate without Cleaning!

• User Support Plan
  • Have a “Contact Person” for every page
  • Establish Internal Site Owner User Groups – empower users to help each other
  • Get the IT Help Desk on board
  • End-User Feedback Loop – Metrics Based (number of users, rating scale, etc.) or Anecdotes Evidence (gather good/bad experiences and get quotes and self promote the site)
  • Provide End-User Resources (guides, training tools, help, etc.)
    
• Incentives and Reward Plan
  • Answer the WIIFM question – show (with their real data) why something will work
  • Make it fun!
  • Provide Recognition for Content Contribution – Money Talks; so do Titles & Certificates
  • Have a Fantastic User Experience – Invest in an Information Architecture