Prepare a user readiness plan

• Applies to:

  Microsoft Teams

This article is part of the User Readiness stage of your upgrade journey, an activity you complete in parallel with the Technical Readiness stage. Before proceeding, confirm that you've completed these activities from previous stages:

• Enlisted your project stakeholders
• Defined your project scope
• Understood coexistence and interoperability of Skype for Business and Teams
• Chosen your upgrade journey

An optimal user readiness plan incorporates how you'll communicate with, train, and support your users as you pilot, onboard, and upgrade to Teams. As you discovered in Assess organizational change readiness, readiness is not one-size-fits-all. To ensure optimal receptiveness to the new technology, use a combination of broad-reach messaging (incorporating the vision/value messaging and universal use cases) and messaging, training, and support tailored to the personas and cohorts you've defined and also to your laggards, as appropriate. This personalized plan will help facilitate user adoption by enabling users to more quickly relate to Teams, while demonstrating that you understand their needs.

Tip

Download the Upgrade Success Kit for template user readiness materials, such as communications and user surveys, in addition to a sample upgrade project plan and pilot test plan.

Category	Things to consider
Decision points	How can you create a readiness plan to facilitate and accelerate user adoption of the new solution? Do you have the right awareness, training, and support resources that align with your users' ability to deal with change and the user personas you've defined?
Next step	Use the list below to generate ideas for your readiness plan. Select the most relevant activities—or add your own—to design a readiness plan optimized for your organization. Remember to use a combination of broad-reach (for your whole organization) and targeted (for laggards or specific personas) campaigns for maximum results.

What communication channels will you leverage?	What training channels will you leverage?	What support channels will you use?
Email: Use our sample pilot, coexistence, and upgrade emails to customize your email campaign. Posters and digital signage Launch events Department managers Champions Teams/channels Gamification	Instructor-led training for Microsoft Teams Microsoft-published online articles and videos: Switch to Teams from Skype for Business and Teams Video Training In-product assistance (Help) In-house training team Partner training team	In-house helpdesk Outsourced support desk Self-service (intranet site) Online help and how-to Floor-walkers and champions Feedback loop (surveys, ratings)

After you've created your user readiness plan and associated resources, and your technical readiness is in place, proceed to pilot Teams in your organization.