For any sports team to be successful, they need to involve all the right team members. These team members each have a certain job to do, as well as the necessary skills and timing of when to play their part. Even Michael Jordan and Tom Brady could not succeed without the right team on their side. Whatever the technology, having the perfect implementation team promotes smooth adoption and lasting benefits. Asking the following questions will help in building your team with the right people, and the right skills, at the right time.
What makes a successful team?
While it helps to have experience with past implementations, it is most important that your team members have a unified vision of how the newly implemented technology will improve the business. Consistent communication and accountability are also qualities of a successful implementation team.
What resources/roles should be involved?
There are various types of team members you’ll want to include for a successful implementation. Just like in sports, each team member has their own job to do, and should be accountable for carrying out their specific tasks. The 4 key roles and responsibilities within implementation teams are:
Champion – The main person in charge and responsible for the implementation overall. They communicate often with key stakeholders and assign tasks to the implementation team. Having one main person take ownership minimizes communication gaps, promotes accountability, and keeps everyone on task and on budget.
Key stakeholders – Key leaders in the implementation and decision-making process. Oftentimes stakeholders have a broader vision of the organization and an understanding of how the new technology will contribute to its growth. They offer support, insights, justification for the implementation, and complete some tasks throughout the process (especially towards the beginning).
Technical Team – Resources that do the legwork of the technology implementation. They communicate with the champion, key stakeholders, and members, providing training when needed. They are involved from planning to post-implementation to facilitate maximum change and adoption.
Members (End Users) – Brandon Gorton, CRM Team Director at JourneyTEAM, shares “The implementation team should include end users as they will be the ones managing and using the system on a day-to-day basis.” These resources will have good insights into current processes, and what’s needed for effective adoption. They are involved throughout the implementation, especially with testing near go-live.
How many people should be involved?
Most successful implementation teams have 10-20 (or more) resources involved. That being said, the number of resources to make up an implementation team can vary depending on the complexity of the technology, and how many will be impacted by it. As long as you include team members from each of the four roles, your team size can vary.
How much time should resources expect to dedicate?
Resources on an implementation team should have a significant amount of bandwidth to dedicate to the implementation. Time commitments vary by role and implementation stage.
Champion - 10-20 hours a week throughout the entire implementation
Technical Team - 10-20 hours a week throughout the entire implementation
Key Stakeholders – Involved for around 10 hours a week in the beginning stages, but can decrease to 3-5 hours for most of the implementation
Members (End-Users) - In beginning implementation stages, 3-5 are all that is required to share process knowledge. As the implementation go-live approaches, members can be involved up to 20+ hours a week.
How often should there be meetings/communication?
Any winning team will testify that one of their contributing factors was communication. So too, an attribute of a successful implementation team is how often, and what avenues team members communicate. Most experts recommend once a week, or bi-weekly at the very least. Kevin Zollinger, a SharePoint and Collaboration consultant at JourneyTEAM, captures it well by saying, “Every project and implementation team are unique, but in most cases, it is good for the technical team to update Key Stakeholders with results and next steps every other week.” In addition to these weekly meetings with most of the implementation team, the technical team can have quick internal stand-ups each day to go over daily tasks and project timelines.
Who should be on your team?
If you have any implementation questions or are looking to expand your technical team, reach out to JourneyTEAM today.