23rd February 2024

Sam Dougan

Navigating the implementation of anything is challenging, it questions the norm of what people are comfortable with, what they are used to and often what they love or hate.

It requires a certain type of person or group of people, those who aren’t scared to make mistakes or upset people by questioning and changing the norm. At a time when content is the most valuable asset you need as little downtime and as little upset as possible when implementing something new. Let’s understand what it takes to put an implementation plan together…

Step 1. Define your needs, and objectives and set expectations - often this includes involving a small group of users and assessing what is needed first. Ask lots of questions, what do you hope the achieve?

Step 2. Conduct Research, in two main areas - The Data & The Solutions - Data that you can capture about what is going well/poorly will be critical further down the line, it will help shape most of your decisions. At this time also try and identify key stakeholders and decide what their roles will be. The Solution - decide what you like/don’t like and what features you might think you need, be selective and research software based on the data you have gathered already.

Step 3. Risk register & mitigation time - Map out all the risks you can foresee, there will be those that you miss, and that’s okay. But try and understand the risks which will help you prepare accordingly if and when you do hit them. Can you prevent any? Do you need to adjust something in your timeline of events?

Step 4. Scheduling - Use this step to plan out the entire project. Gantt charts, project management tools, visual charts or even whiteboards, anything to get key milestones down on paper. Gantt charts are particularly helpful in looking at a project from up in the clouds, they allow you to see roadblocks and put in dependencies. This task is also important as it allows you to give yourself time, time to position, plan and decide how long elements of the project will take. Always allow extra time, no one will scold you if you deliver earlier than planned but they might if you’re 2 months late…

Step 5. Resource - By this point, you should have a fairly robust project plan, roadmap or timeline. If you’re using a Gantt chart style you’re able to assign roles and responsibilities which can be essential for task management. You can start to assign resources to tasks, this can involve many aspects but is an essential part of the project, allowing you again to pivot or request more time if the current resource does not allow for the project to be completed by X date.

Step 6. Comms, training and support plan - Make sure you establish a clear and defined Comms plan (internally and externally if required).

A support plan encompasses both the comms and training guides as users may wish to refer back to previous emails to understand at what point they can expect the next feature or event to be released so make sure you include these. Having a robust support network of physical and or digital personnel can help hugely and take a lot of work off the project owner's plate.

If you can design and distribute clear and effective training manuals, videos etc then this will help you reinforce what you’ve learnt in putting together the project plan but also highlight anything you may have forgotten to include which you’re now referencing in the training guides.

Putting these resources together will form part of the comms plan and help consolidate it in your head & those working on the project. If you can clearly explain in a comms plan what is going to/has happened and what users should expect next, you’ve got a clear implementation plan.

Step 7. Monitoring & testing into release - Let it fly - Have a good understanding of what your success looks like for you and your team. Is it how many users sign on in one day? How many assets are shared? How much chatter is happening in the Slack channel? What is defined as success will be different for all parties.

Track your milestones and monitor each aspect of the journey you’ve been on and where you’re going as it isn’t finished yet. Make any adjustments you see fit and necessary.

Check-in with users and administration of the product. Ask for feedback and ensure users have a way to get feedback easily, preferably via a smart form or shared inbox with your team.

Step 8. Evaluate - Compare what you knew at the start to your finished product now, is it where you planned to finish? Does it match up? or is it completely different? Evaluate performance, refer back to step 7 and analyse what has been happening throughout, what you aimed for and hit, and what you aimed for and missed. Depending on software type and capability, will there be a v2? Does it need more or further features?

Again, understand what success looks like for you, it’s different for everyone

A robust implementation strategy can be used for a variety of different reasons, on a project-by-project basis or in this case specifically for an implementation scenario.

Most of all it’s important to communicate clearly with all involved, including the key stakeholders across every team and department. Get them copies or access to your overall project plan which will help get them onside early!

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