With our new Customer Success Organization, our main focus is to drive enhancements to both our product and the way we support our customers. As the leader of our Customer Success team, I speak to countless customers around the world to learn how they engage with our product. I look for the successes customers have, as well as the challenges, so that we can improve the overall customer experience.

The hardest part of acquiring new project management software is the change management involved with adoption. But there are teams out there that do this really well, and so can you!

Based on advice directly from our customers, here are the top three actions you can take to have the most successful adoption of LP:

1. Have a strong champion.

The champion is the person on your team who knows LiquidPlanner inside and out; who is a point of contact for the team; someone who can adopt the philosophy of train the trainer (and train the team), and someone who is the team’s product expert and advocate. Organizations that identify and assign a champion from the very beginning have a smoother adoption and the greatest success over time.

2. Set clear business expectations.

It’s essential that you clearly define how your users should engage with LiquidPlanner. Once you get executive buy-in, set a directive. Such as: Everyone has to track time in LP or update their tasks once a week, or share their plan report information at monthly status meetings. When it’s imperative to use LiquidPlanner to do everyday job tasks, people will be motivated to learn how to use it.

3. Bring LiquidPlanner up in meetings.

• Your first month: Have weekly meetings about LiquidPlanner and discuss questions that come up. Team members will get comfortable with the interface and understand that LP is the one unified place for everyone to go to and update projects, communicate with others and stay current on project status.
• Ongoing: Bring your project plan up in team meetings to discuss the schedule and items that need updating. This not only drives accountability, but it gives the team real-time visibility into everything that’s going on within a project. As an added bonus, having the team update their work regularly will drive accurate reporting.

Again, rolling out a new application in really a project in itself. I encourage you to think about the tips above, and know that the LP support team is here to assist you along the way!

You can also learn more by reading, The LP Kickoff: Introducing LiquidPlanner to Your Team.

Tell us, what onboarding tips have worked well for your team?