Teams and user adoption

[AaHoltklimpen]

Hi guys,

This is not a question, more of a request for feedback :)
I'm working as a senior consultant with other companies to get them started with Microsoft Teams. I've had 2 months of overwhelming request from people who need help, and its been stressful and fun and very interesting work! What a world we live in!
What I would like, is feedback from you on what topics/questions you receive the most regarding Teams and user adoption/training. Mostly because I wonder if Norway has the same type of issues with this as other countries have, and I would like to collaborate with others on the topic of user adoption and Teams

Thanks :)

[#2]

@AaHoltklimpen Hello Åsne, maybe not the answer you're looking for but I would say that the Teams UserVoice is a suitable channel that reflects user requests as well as product behavior, way of working and functionality worldwide. From my own experience I believe almost all questions I hear from users are already there in some form, and just by following the status and comments you get a proper sense of the procedures people are using and what they are missing in their line of work. I assume you've been there but you never know who's reading the posts https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/

'Tools for Driving Adoption'

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/adopt-tools-and-downloads

[#3]

Thank you @ChristianBergstrom, I use uservoice almost everyday! I find like you say, that people ask a lot of questions there, mostly of features they are missing though, and not to much of the user adoption part.  I have the user-adoption-kit and I also have Microsoft Service Adoption Specialist certification. 
I'm mostly curious of what other people encounter, and how to set up my courses the best way possible :)

[#4]

@AaHoltklimpen Are you looking for questions from end-users (eg why should I use Teams)? Or from BDMs/Mgmt (why aren't people using Teams)?  I've worked with companies around the world and there are some common themes I've experienced from end-users which really focus around the value (WIIFM), relatable scenarios and learning options, how change is approached (push vs pull). Training is only one piece of the adoption puzzle and comes much later into the adoption planning and implementation cycle. It sounds like you are already getting a significant amount of feedback/questions from users. Are you noticing trends? What kind of help are they requesting? There is a difference between driving adoption and delivering training so curious as to where you are in the adoption cycle. Happy to help and offer any insights if I could better understand your scenario. 

[#5]

Thanks @DebbieArbeeny !
I work with the entire user adoption circle, both driving the adoption with the mgmt and champions, and end user training.
As for questions I get, its from both the user end and mgmt view, but the mgmt is always the tricky bit. 
I wanted to get a feeling of the trends in both user adoption and end user training, what are people asking the most, what seems to be the most difficult part to understand. Both in Teams and on the UA road. 

This is a sidetrack, but somehow related; 
The question why should we use it are often asked, but its more a question of why should we adopt the user adoption road. Lately I've had customers that states that they just need a set of rules from my company, that they can enforce on the different middle level managers, and that should sort it all! 
Even when you show them a set of questionnaires you have sent the end users, they still don't believe there is a problem. I have stated that if they dont want to work on it, I cant help them and said they have to find other partners, and somehow they have gradually ended up listening. 

I usually state that a sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and then to expect a different result - And then i ask if they are ready to try a different approach to it.

[#6]

@AaHoltklimpen That response is all too common. I've been doing this for over 19 years and there is still the question from IT and from management about why do they even need user adoption - they feel that changing is not an option and if they just enable a certain set of rules then people will just follow them. I can tell you from experience, this is not the case. Users always have an option: 1 - there is the risk of ShadowIT; people will and do just bring their own collaboration tools into the workplace. There are a lot of solutions that do not require Admin rights to install and that users use everyday in their personal lives. Over 80% of users surveyed admit to bringing their own apps. This can pose security risks and network latency. 2 - User dissatisfaction is underrated. People who are unhappy and push back on the change cause lots of disruption, time and money for management who needs to deal with this, not to mention lost productivity. Further, younger generations want to feel valued in the workplace and are more likely to find an organization who they feel really values their input. So pushing users to adopt can also result in employee churn...meaning the company now needs to replace that user, costing time, money and productivity. Research shows that replacing an employee can cost upwards of 200% of that user's salary. Those are just a few reasons I try to instill in customers and note that, in the end, they will end up paying one way or another for user adoption - whether they do it right upfront, or spend the extra time, money and resources to course correct later on. 

So, I do not think your circumstance is limited to your country, I've seen in here in the US and with almost every customer I've worked with around the world. I have also been able to show that customers who have the right, focused strategy can reap 44x the amount of adoption/ROI than customers who didn't. SO the question shouldn't be why would you focus on  user adoption, it should be why wouldn't you?  :)

Happy to chat and share tips or other insights if you'd like as well. Have a great day
Deb