A scalable model that should save you hours of training prep. while making you look like the genius you are.
What training other team members does for your work profile
My first 'Employee of the Month' Award came four months into my new job after I had trained a different team on how to use Flodesk, the email marketing and newsletter platform. Training the programs team on how to use it was not part of my day-to-day tasks as a product manager but it was something I was so delighted to do that I lean into such opportunities now. The team I trained was able to activate around 30,000 new users within 3-5 days and keep them engaged on a consistent basis.
As a P.M, you'll get opportunities from time to time to plug the rest of the team in new tech, either one that your team has built, or one that it has integrated into what you're building. Leaning into opportunities like this helps strengthen your relationships with the rest of the team, keeps you visible (great for your career), and sharpens your communication skills.
Remember the number one rule of PM-ing? Build something folks want. In this case, focus your training on something folks will use.
How to approach training your teammates on new tech tools:
As with everything excellent in life, sharpening your axe is 80% of the work in chopping down the training task. Hence, delivering a brilliant training session is heavily dependent on how much you prepared for it.
In an ideal world, you're winning at training if you're able to achieve these three key outcomes:
Your trainees feel like they're the right target audience for your content; they know how the new tech applies to their day-to-day- and how it helps them achieve overarching organization goals,
Your trainees feel excited to get started and engage in the tech you've just trained them on
The end-goals you set are getting achieved thanks to this new tool being enthusiastically implemented by your trainees.
Training Prep Steps:
1. Begin with some critical housekeeping/logistics.
Identify who will be trained, when they'll be trained, who will be doing the training and what tool they'll be getting trained on.
This exercise helps you, and any other stakeholder interested in this exercise to identify with a single glance, the training, the target and the goals.
2. What are your objectives, success metrics and assumptions?
You want to be specific about what you're trying to achieve with this exercise. A good way to do this is to also work out key success indicators so you're able to track whether or not the tool or the training contributes to your org's OKRs.
Remember to list out any assumptions you're also making regarding the tool, the trainees and the technical abilities of your team.
3. Create your task list:
A to-do list complete with due dates and task ownership keeps you posted on what's pending and what's done.
Remember that good preperation is your friend and you want to put your best foot forward. Working through your list well in advance helps you approach the exercise with confidence because you know that everything is under control and you're ready to take the show on the road.
Here's some tasks that you want to add to your check list:
Communicate with the trainee(s) or trainee team: You want to ensure you create buy-in from the team members so it’s not another tool that nobody will use.
Create a tasks-to-be-performed list: You want to empathize with the tasks the team performs on a daily basis so you can tailor make the training focus to what’s relevant for them. Do NOT focus on the tech, focus on the tasks the team would like to do and how the tech can help them achieve it. It should not be a presentation of all the cool features, rather the workflow benefits the team gets to unlock with the help of the new tech.
If 3rd Party, non in-house software, read the existing onboarding material available in their company’s website: Most SaaS tools have blogs and explainer videos, start there and pick what’s relevant so you can save your trainees the time it would take to do it themselves.
Create summarised content from the publicly available material, targeting the tasks-to-be performed: Tailor-make the content gathered to different teams, again dependent on the task list shared earlier.
If the tech was developed in-house or custom made for your company, liaise with devs and team leaders to summarise key user journeys based on the tasks-to-be-performed list: Same as above. Key idea is to ensure the right information gets to the right people to avoid being overwhelmed by unnecessary information.
Build out the creatives for the training session: This could include a combination of power point presentations, videos, practical exercises that can be done in-session.
Specify training dates and communicate with the trainees. Make sure calendars are blocked as appropriate: Last thing you want is a calendar clash where only two out of twenty people are available.
Collect Feedback: You want to be able to improve your training game.
Observe post-training usage: Are people using the tool and are they using it well? Find out and decide what next after that.
Here's a scalable template you can use for all your internal training planning sessions:
The advantages of training colleagues on new technology tools are numerous. For one, it can help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and using the same tool in the same way. This can save a lot of time and confusion down the line. Additionally, it can help colleagues feel more comfortable using the new tool, and increase their confidence in using it for work tasks. Finally, it can help colleagues feel appreciated and valued, as they know that their employer is taking the time to invest in their development.
For you as a Product Manager, the added benefit of giving you visibility and closer access to your colleagues could be just what you need to be the intuitive, connected collaborative product person you are.
Go forth and make me proud?
P.Q.