The Importance of User Personas
Planning for Successful Technology Deployments
On-boarding new users with a new technology requires a comprehensive training and change management program. A mistake I see often with new tech deployments is to much focus on end user training exclusively based on end user roles/titles. The problem with looking at someone’s role alone is that it’s not enough to understand how they will react to/receive the new technology. For example: two executive assistants have the same role however they may have different approaches to working and different tech personas. The differing approaches (of the EA’s) may be a result of age, personality, experience, comfort with technology or a number of other factors. Role-based training and on-boarding misses the mark in understanding what support and guidance your users require to be successful with new technology.
Persona-based analysis addresses this gap by analyzing personality attributes. Examples of personality attributes are willingness to change, comfort level with technology, cultural differences and past experiences that influence current behavior.
When it comes time to build an end user change management & training plan for new technology deployments, it’s important to do both role and persona analysis. There’s a good chance a group people in the same role will have varying personas. This insight will ensure you have the targeted content and approach required for varying end user personas to ensure a smooth transition with strong adoption of the new tools and services.
Persona Planning Tips & Tricks:
- Deploy in waves and make sure users in Wave 1 represent a mix of roles and personas
- Develop change champions with different varying personas
- Run messaging and approach past change champions for feedback prior to going live
- Consider dividing users into streams based on personas (e.g. grouping similar personas together in training sessions and specific content)
Getting Started
Microsoft has solid content to support a DIY approach. Check out the Microsoft Teams site as a example: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/enduser-training. If you prefer to engage a partner to assist, Microsoft has an awesome network of global enablement partners to consult, plan, deploy and support end user change projects. Please reach out to start the discussion.
Best,
Zach Katsof
Global Account Executive — Microsoft
+1 (905) 330–6301
