the pragmatic guide to training and onboarding salesforce users in your nonprofit v 1

7/27/2019 The Pragmatic Guide to Training and Onboarding Salesforce Users in Your Nonprofit v 1

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-pragmatic-guide-to-training-and-onboarding-salesforce-users-in-your-nonprofit 1/37

The Pragmatic Guide toTraining and Onboarding

Salesforce Users in Your

Nonprofit

www.ScreenSteps.com/Salesforce

http://www.screensteps.com/salesforce






AUTHOR

Jonathan DeVore

Jonathan (Jay) DeVore works for

Blue Mango Learning Systems,

developers of ScreenSteps.

Jonathan began his career as a CPA

in the state of Virginia, working for one

of the Big 4 Accounting firms as an

information systems consultant. Hiswork included compliance

assessments, process improvement,

training and development, and

process documentation.

He enjoys blogging about training and

onboarding best practices. Subscribe

to his new blog to learn tips and

techniques for onboarding andtraining Salesforce users in your

organization.

A Pragmatic Guide to Training and Onboarding Salesforce Users in Your Nonprofit

http://sf.screensteps.com/






Introduction: Who is this eBook for? 3Chapter 1: Show the Destinations 8

Chapter 2: Provide a Road Map 17

Chapter 3: Remove Road Blocks 29

Chapter 4: Final Thoughts 34

That’s it! 35




Introduction: Who is this eBook for?

This eBook is for the nonprofit staff member who was put in charge of

training team members how to use Salesforce.

You go by several names – the super user, the power user, the Admin, the

chosen one. Maybe you didn’t want the job of training and onboarding

Salesforce users, but you got it.

You don’t need help coming up with content for training (you know what

you need to teach) – you’re just looking for a practical way to show your

team what to do and how to do it.

You understand the importance of creating Salesforce training

documentation, and you want to build an effective resource that your team

can reference when you’re not available.

Most importantly, you want your users to be able to successfully use

Salesforce, and help your nonprofit succeed.

This eBook is for you.




How will this eBook help you?

If your nonprofit organization is using Salesforce, you need a training

program. New Salesforce users need help onboarding so they get off

on theright foot, and regular Salesforce users need refreshers so that they can

continue to use Salesforce appropriately.

But you don’t have the budget or the time for multiple instructor-led

sessions, or a fancy schmancy software program that allows you to make

cartoons that sing songs about how to use Salesforce.

And that’s just fine – those things are great, but you don’t need them. I’m

going to show you a few simple techniques and point you to some easy to

use tools you can utilize to make amazing (yet practical) training resources.

The plan is to help you put together a pragmatic training program that:

• Gets your users up and running in less than an hour

• Answers ongoing questions and improves user adoption

• Allows you to efficiently provide ongoing training

So take 30 minutes to read through this eBook, and then start making

your training program, one step at a time.




It’s time to get practical

When most people think of putting together a training program, they have

in mind the ideal situation:

• A full day/week of instructor-led courses showing users (both new and

old) how to use Salesforce

• Fancy software training programs that have learning modules and end-

of-course quizzes

• Unlimited time to sit with the team and coach them through questions

that come up about Salesforce

You don’t need ideal – you need effective

We want instructor-led courses, fancy programs, and unlimited time to sit

with our team because we think those are the most effective methods for

teaching others how to use Salesforce.

Well I’m here to tell you they are not. Sure, they would be nice to have, but

fancy does not equal effective, and watching instructors use Salesforcedoesn’t equal learning.

I mean, I’ve watched Chuck Norris fight

hundreds of bad guys. And while that

does give me a false sense of confidence,

watching him in action hasn’t made me

any good at doing a roundhouse kick.

The core of an effective training program

consists of actually using Salesforce (not

just watching somebody use it), and

having a resource to answer questions.

Image courtesy of navets


http://www.flickr.com/photos/43139855@N00/106471179/in/photolist-apGaZ-apGb1-apGb2-apGb3-apGb4-apGdY-apGdZ-apGe1-apGe2-apGe3-apGe4-apGgd-apGge-apGgf-apGgg-apGgi-apGgj-apGhg-avubD-b85TS-bkjsJ-bntuH-byxba-byxdf-byxf4-byxhi-byxiU-cHJXi-cRTqT-it393-kiQAh-kWg16-n45ob-nosrk-pEVWS-rgCm6-rgDeQ-rET5t-tqpLV-yQEqB-ADLzi-ADLPf-DkBRm-GCWHM-HZFWf-K3z4v-SadDD-3iR57L-46ZPJx-475Vtu-4dkQQy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43139855@N00/106471179/in/photolist-apGaZ-apGb1-apGb2-apGb3-apGb4-apGdY-apGdZ-apGe1-apGe2-apGe3-apGe4-apGgd-apGge-apGgf-apGgg-apGgi-apGgj-apGhg-avubD-b85TS-bkjsJ-bntuH-byxba-byxdf-byxf4-byxhi-byxiU-cHJXi-cRTqT-it393-kiQAh-kWg16-n45ob-nosrk-pEVWS-rgCm6-rgDeQ-rET5t-tqpLV-yQEqB-ADLzi-ADLPf-DkBRm-GCWHM-HZFWf-K3z4v-SadDD-3iR57L-46ZPJx-475Vtu-4dkQQy



So if your focus is effective training (instead of fancy training), then a great

training program, that is also practical, is definitely attainable.

The keys to effective learning

Your users won’t learn how to use Salesforce just because you show them

how. To quote Benjamin Franklin:

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I

learn.

If your team just watches you navigate through Salesforce, they’re not

learning – most likely they’re spacing out. They need to be in Salesforce

because it’s only when they’re in Salesforce that they really start to

formulate questions and pay attention. Harvard Business School Professor,

Clayton Christensen, has a terrific insight as to why that is so important:

When we ask a question, it is as if we put a Velcro pad in our brain

where we need the answer. When the answer is then delivered, itsticks itself to the Velcro right where it is needed.

So the keys to effective training (and learning): get your team using

Salesforce, get them asking questions, and give them answers.

Tell me and I forget,

teach me and I may

remember, involveme and I learn.”Benjamin Franklin




The Key to Pragmatic Training

In today’s world, it’s not practical to personally sit with new-hires, showthem everything they need to know, and answer all of their questions in one

sitting. Nor is it practical to regularly gather all of your Salesforce users and

personally walk them through a new workflow, feature, or task.

So the key to pragmatic training is to create a resource that can do it for

you. Something that is available 24/7, can teach new users, and remind

seasoned users – the key is good documentation.

My 3-phase approach to pragmatic training

Whenever I teach somebody how to do something new, I do it in 3 phases:

1. I show him/her the end result (i.e. show the the destination)

2. I show him/her how to get to the end result (i.e. provide a road map)

3. I answer questions that come up (i.e. remove the road blocks)

This approach works great for teaching any topic. For example, when I learn

how to cook a new meal, I use a recipe.

First, I see what the dish will look like when

I’m done (I see the destination). Second, I

follow the recipe to learn how to get there

(I follow the road map). Third, I reference

the glossary for questions like, “how do I

separate eggs?” (I get past the road blocks).

We will use the same approach for training your team how to use

Salesforce, with a focus on building resources that empower your team to

learn how to use Salesforce to do their job.




Chapter 1: Show the DestinationsWhen you’re onboarding somebody

new, Salesforce is probably a word thathe/she hasn’t heard of. So just start by

answering the initial questions –

“what?” and “why?” Show what

Salesforce is, and briefly explain why

your nonprofit uses it.

For ongoing training, you should keep

that same mindset. If you’re showing a new feature or a new function, the

questions your team has are probably “what?” and “why?”

Demonstrating the “what” and explaining some of the “why” are what I call

showing the “destinations” – i.e. The end result that they are trying to

achieve. You’ll eventually give them a roadmap that shows them how to get

the destinations, but that comes later.

What are the destinations?

Some example destinations include:

• Reports you can generate

• Email campaigns that you can send out

• Contact/donor information you use

Depending on how much your nonprofit uses Salesforce, this could be 1 or

2 destinations, or it could be 1 or 2 dozen destinations. And since your

nonprofit probably uses Salesforce differently than anybody else uses

Salesforce, those destinations may be unique to your use case.

Photo courtesy of towneplaceturningpoint.com


http://www.flickr.com/photos/34128007@N04/8335046622/in/photolist-dGxhYo-8WExDE-9AuCYM-dxFsBo-bmYrwN-94q1Tw

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34128007@N04/8335046622/in/photolist-dGxhYo-8WExDE-9AuCYM-dxFsBo-bmYrwN-94q1Tw



So go through and show them the awesome things Salesforce can do, and

explain why it’s invaluable to your nonprofit organization.

How do you show the destinations?

There are a few ways of showing the destinations:

• Do a live demo of Salesforce (in person or virtual)

• Prepare a slide presentation or a handout (in person or virtual)

• Do a combination of both (in person or virtual)




Each approach has its pros and cons.

Pros Cons

Live demo Shows Salesforce inaction – it’s exciting to

see how powerful it is

Easy to lose theirattention when things

don’t work out or it

takes more than a

couple minutes to do

Slide Presentation

and/or handout

Gives them something

they can reference later

on; standardizes your

training for consistency

Can be dry, and

people get tired of

reading slides

Combination Keeps it lively with the

demos, and the slides

help you stay focused

and consistent

Takes a bit more

preparation and

planning

A combination of both live demos and PowerPoint slides is a great way to

go. Take screen shots of the destinations for your slide presentation, and just make sure everything works for the demo. Note: If you want to avoid

demos getting out of control, record the demo portion beforehand and

then just include the recording in your presentation.

A Pragmatic Guide to Training and Onboarding Salesforce Users in Your Nonprofit 1



How much time should

this take?

Showing the destinations can take as

much time or as little time as you’d like. If

you’re showing seasoned Salesforce

users one new destination, then maybe it

only takes 3 minutes. If you’re showing

Salesforce to brand new users, you might

want it to take about 15-20 minutes.

Only show them relevant destinations

Probably 99% of your users only care about the tasks that they’ll be doing,

so just show them the destinations they will visit.

For example, if you are training users who will be creating email campaigns,

just show what a finalized email campaign looks like and explain why it’s

important. If they’ll only be entering contact/donor information, just show

them what a final contact record looks like, and explain the importance.

Tools of the trade

Here are some tools you can use to show your Salesforce destinations. I

know that some training takes place virtually, so I included a few tools to

help you do that, too.




Keynote - $19.99 (Mac only)

Prezi - $4.92/month

Word - $109

Pages - $19.99 (Mac only)

PowerPoint - $109.99

Some tools to make a slide presentation or PDF handout:

A Pragmatic Guide to Training and Onboarding Salesforce Users in Your 1

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/

http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/

http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/

http://prezi.com/

http://prezi.com/

http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote/

http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote/



Snagit - $49.95

Clarify - $29.99

Skitch - Free

Some tools to take and annotate screenshots for the presentations/handouts


http://evernote.com/skitch/

http://evernote.com/skitch/

http://www.clarify-it.com/

http://www.clarify-it.com/

http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.html




GoToMeeting - $49/month

Google Hangouts - Free

Skype - Free

Join Me - Free

SlideShare - $114/annually

Some tools to make a virtual presentation:


http://www.slideshare.net/about

http://www.slideshare.net/about

https://join.me/

https://join.me/

http://www.skype.com/en/

http://www.skype.com/en/

http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/

http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/

http://www.gotomeeting.com/online/

http://www.gotomeeting.com/online/



ScreenFlow - $99 (Mac only)

Snagit - $49

Camtasia - $99

Jing - Free

Some tools to record your screen (for demos and/or entire presentations):


http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html

http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html

http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html

http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html



http://www.telestream.net/screenflow/

http://www.telestream.net/screenflow/



Let’s review

Here are the key points for showing the destinations:

✓ When introducing Salesforce (or a Salesforce feature/function),

show users what it is and why your nonprofit uses it.

✓ Use screenshots and demos to show what Salesforce does.

✓ Make resources like a slide deck and video demos so that your

training can be consistent and repeatable.

✓ If you can, record your presentation so that users can view it

without you having to be involved every time.

✓ Explain the big picture and best practices, but do not go intothe “how” of Salesforce tasks.




Chapter 2: Provide a Road MapIn an ideal training situation, you’d be able

to drop everything and spend all your timewalking your team through the necessary

steps required to arrive at each destination.

And your team would remember

everything you showed them after only

watching you do it once. If, by chance,

somebody happened to forget a step, you

could immediately walk over and answer their questions.

But that’s like having a chauffeur available to take you everywhere – it

would be convenient, but it’s not very practical.

The practical thing is to provide your team with something like a “road map”

– a resource other than you that can walk them through the necessary

steps required to arrive at the destinations (and then remind them whichbuttons to click when they forget).

What is a road map? A road map is visual Salesforce documentation that your team can follow

when they want to know how to get to a destination (e.g. set up a custom

campaign, run a specific report, etc.). It shows them how to do every step

of a specific task.

It’s designed to teach new users everything they need to know to

accomplish a task, as well as remind seasoned users what to do.




Why create a road map? Writing documentation that has turn-by-turn directions serves

two purposes:

1. Your team will learn by doing, not watching – so let them learn by

actually going through salesforce, following a road map.

2. They can learn (and continue to learn) even when you’re not around.

They aren’t dependent on you personally being there for knowledge

transfer, which empowers them to do their job.

Your team will not learn how to do something in Salesforce by watching

you click a bunch of buttons on an overhead projector. They are the ones

who need to be in Salesforce clicking the buttons.

But going through the motions one time isn’t sufficient because we all tend

to forget how to do an on-screen process 10 minutes after we do it. So

standing over somebody’s shoulder and acting like a back seat driver (“click

here... click there...”) isn’t going to be very helpful – your team needs

something to reference later on that willhelp remind them what to do.

And if you don’t give them a resource

they can use to learn Salesforce, and

then remind them when they forget, you

limit what they can do.

How to make a road map I’m going to share how to make a road map for doing a task in Salesforce.

But before I do, I want you to think of a road map you use to drive your car.




When you type in a destination to Google Maps, you get a series of

directions:

• Turn left on Lombard Street

• Turn right on Abbey Road

• Go straight down Wall Street

These directions tell you where to turn, but they don’t tell you how,

because Google assumes that you already know how to do that. It assumes

that you already know the mechanics of turning the steering wheel,

applying the brakes, pushing the gas, etc.

Well, with your Salesforce users, you can’t assume they know themechanics – so your road map will be slightly different than a Google map.

You have to provide directions (turn left, turn right) and mechanics (here’s

how to turn left, here’s how to turn right).

Separate directions and mechanics

I used to write user guides for information security programs, but I did a

horrible job. I didn’t think I did a horrible job at the time, but looking back, Irealize that my instructions had too much detail.

Well, let me rephrase that – they had disorganized detail. I would combine

the directions and the mechanics all in one place, which resulted in a lot of

great information that was hard to read through.

What I should have done is separate the directions from the mechanics.

How to write directions

The way I look at it, directions are like a checklist of things to do. If you

successfully do A thru Z, you’ll arrive at your destination. For example, let’s

say you want somebody to “Have an Updated Salesforce Success




Profile” (which we would call a “destination”) – the checklist would look

something like this:

Have an Updated Community Profile

✓ Update profile and picture

✓ Update work and experience

✓ Update community notifications

✓ Update community chatter notifications

✓ Update answers notifications

Having this checklist is great if somebody knows the mechanics because it

provides a quick rundown of what a user needs to do to have an updatedprofile – it is very straightforward, and it is easy to scan.

In another location, I’ll provide a visual explanation of each checklist item’s

mechanics for those users who need it.

How to write the mechanics

When you write the directions, you should think of a checklist, and whenyou write the mechanics, you should think of a picture book. If you use

screenshots and images to show every step of a process, and then add

some explanatory text and image annotations, your mechanic articles will

be extremely clear and easy to follow.

Another tip is to only show how to do one checklist item per article –

otherwise it becomes difficult to read (which means nobody will).

Check out this example of a mechanic article that I made for updating a

community profile and picture, the first bullet of our road map.


https://salesforce-npo.screenstepslive.com/s/4242/m/12482/l/134461-update-your-community-profile-and-picture







Why this format works




The road map format of separating the directions from the mechanics

works well for three reasons:

1. It’s great for teaching

2. It’s great for reminding3. It’s task driven

And in your nonprofit, you need a resource other than you that can

effectively teach and remind others how to perform a task.

It’s great for teaching

Learning happens when we do, not when we watch somebody else do it.Visual mechanic documentation allows the user to perform tasks several

times on their own – all without having to get somebody else involved.

It’s great for reminding

If somebody remembers the mechanics but forgets the directions, the

checklist can quickly be scanned for a reminder. No need to go through

page after page of procedures to find them.

If your team remembers the directions but not all of the mechanics, the

same thing applies. And if you do it right, it’s very easy for somebody to find

the exact information he/she needs to do his/her job.

It’s workflow driven

Road map documentation focuses on performing tasks, not on showcasingfeatures or menus. Your team will learn how to use Salesforce in the context

of getting a job done, not 500 neat facts about the accounts screen.




How to use your road maps After spending 15 to 20 minutes showing your Salesforce users the various

destinations, have them sit at their computer and work through a road map.

If you have the time to personally be

available during training, then by all

means supplement the road maps

with coaching and some live demos

– don’t leave to go get coffee or

plow some land in Farmville.

But if it’s not practical to personally

walk through all the steps with your

team for each destination, a road map will effectively get the job done.

Road maps will help your team navigate through, and learn, Salesforce.

Don’t be unnecessary

I once sat through a 4-hour training to learn basic SharePoint (i.e. folder

libraries). We had instructors show a class of 40 people the “destinations” on

PowerPoint, and then personally walk us through each step.

It took forever to get through the material. If we had instead used road

maps, we could have knocked out a 4-hour training in less than 30 minutes.

In the end, it was a huge waste of time.

Moral of the story: Training doesn’t have to be drawn out, long, and boring.

If you can show the destinations and help them get through the road maps

in under 30 minutes, guess what – you’re done.

Just because it’s common practice to waste time in live training sessions

doesn’t mean you have to do it, too. Don’t do unnecessary things that are

impractical for your nonprofit organization.




Tools of the trade

If you’re just making PDF road maps, the tools mentioned in the previous

chapter will be suffi

cient. If, however, you’d like to make onlinedocumentation, you’ll need to add a few more.

Why make online

documentation?

Online documentation makes it easy to:

• Manage version control

• Create links to more detailed

documentation

• Put your documentation

anywhere

Manage version control

Your workflows and the Salesforce

interface are going to change over time, and your road map will have to beupdated – if everything is on a webpage then you just have to make

updates in one place and all of the links go to the right information.

Create links to more detailed documentation

Look at the road map examples in the floating blue box above – the

directions (i.e. checklist) link out to the mechanics. Easy to do and manage

online, not so much in a PDF.

Put your documentation anywhere

Send somebody a link to your documentation in Chatter, or have your

webpage show up right in a Salesforce tab. Easy to do with online

documentation.


https://salesforce-npo.screenstepslive.com/s/4242/m/12482








WordPress - Free

Google Sites - Free

Drupal - Free

Zoho Wiki - Free

ScreenSteps - $29/month

Some tools to put your training documentation online:


http://connect.screensteps.com/salesforce-nonprofit-demo






https://www.zoho.com/wiki/

https://www.zoho.com/wiki/

https://drupal.org/

https://drupal.org/

https://www.google.com/sites/overview.html

https://www.google.com/sites/overview.html

http://wordpress.com/

http://wordpress.com/



Tips

Use pictures, not video

Videos are great for explaining high level ideas because there aren’t really“how to” instructions involved. So for showing off the destinations, video

can be great.

But for making road maps, video kind of stinks:

• Doing voice overs and editing is a pain

• New users have to rewind to see which buttons were clicked

• When workflow or interface changes are made, updates to thevideo can take forever

Besides, pictures accomplish the same goal of showing the “how-

to” (actually a little bit better for scanning and skimming) and are easier to

work with.

Keep mechanic articles short

When you’re writing a mechanic article, make them short and specific.

Anything more than 5-10 steps is too long.

Leave out any caveats – just link out to another article that explains the

caveat (e.g. “if this is your situation, click here to learn what to do”).

Leave out any conceptual ideas – If you want to explain a concept, just link

to another article that explains the concept. You want your mechanicarticles to be focused on one thing and one thing only. Anything extra

makes an article difficult to read.




Be ready to update

Your road map is not static – it is always improving and changing. If your

users get lost somewhere along the way, it could be that your

documentation isn’t very clear or it’s outdated.

If that’s the case, fix it! Your goal is to create a resource that can be used

and reused over and over again.

If you make your documentation awesome, then you can just bring in new

staff, show them the applicable destinations, give them road maps, and they

will be successful with little to no involvement from you.

Check out Nonprofit 101 to get started

If your nonprofit is just getting started with Salesforce, check out Nonprofits

101 from the App exchange. It’s a knowledge-base made specifically for

nonprofit and educational organizations who are unfamiliar with Salesforce,

and need some help navigating through and learning the ropes. It was

created by Cloud for Good.

Don’t want to create online road maps

If you don’t want to make online road maps, that’s fine. Just make a bulleted

list of your directions at the top of a Word document, and then have a

heading for each bulleted item below with step-by-step, visual mechanic

articles. Not as easy to navigate as online road maps, but it will do the trick.


https://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N3000000B39t7EAB


http://cloud4good.com/

http://cloud4good.com/







Let’s review

Here are the key points for making a road map:

✓ Break out the directions from the mechanics so that your new

users have a place to learn and your seasoned users have a place

to be reminded.

✓ Use pictures instead of text to explain an on-screen action;

visual is always better, especially for new users.

✓ Have your users go through road map articles during training

and be there to answer questions and coach them.

✓ Try to avoid using videos in your road map documentation –

they are time consuming to make and difficult to watch whenlearning how to do an on-screen task.

✓ Keep mechanic articles short.

✓ Put your articles online so that you have better version control,

can reference other articles with a link, and share your articles

easily within Salesforce.




Chapter 3: Remove Road Blocks In an ideal training environment, you

would be available 24/7 to answerquestions that weren’t covered in your

road map documentation.

But that’s not very practical. The fact is

that your Salesforce users are going to

have questions that prevent them from

accomplishing their task – something I call a “road block.” And when they

run into a road block, they can’t move forward until it’s removed. So the

practical thing to do is to create a resource that can remove it for them

when you’re not around.

What is a road block? Users run into road blocks when they know what they want to do and

where they want to go, but they get stuck along the way because they don’tknow how to do something.

They have a question that needs an answer before they can move on.

An example of a road block is a question like, “How do I remove

duplicates?” Maybe you have a road map for creating and updating records,

but that road map probably won’t show somebody how to remove a

duplicate because it’s not part of that workflow.

So even if your users know how to do an overall task, if they don’t know

how to remove a duplicate record (and the duplicate needs to get resolved),

your users are stuck until it gets sorted out.




How do you remove roadblocks? Easy – answer the questions and make the answers available when your

users have them, where they have them.

So, how do you make answers available 24/7? Hmmm... if only there were a

way... oh wait! There is – documentation. And where do you put the

documentation? Right where your users have questions – in Salesforce.

It’s tempting to skip documenting road block removers because it’s usually

just a little thing – a simple question you can quickly provide an answer for.

But if you don’t document the answer, you’re making a mistake. You are

making everybody rely on you to be available instead of creating a reusable

resource that can be referenced when you’re not around.

Document the answer, make the answer easily accessible (and searchable)for your users, and you only have to answer it once. (FYI, ScreenSteps also

makes it really easy to create answers that are searchable from right within

Salesforce.)

If people run into

roadblocks in Salesforce

and can’t find an answer,often times they’ll give up

searching and just do it

wrong (or not at all).”– Me... I said that.

“






Tips for writing a great road block article

Create a great titleThe title of your roadblock article is simply the question that was asked.

With that context, your article will

practically write itself. And the more

specific the title, the better.

Use picturesAnswer the question in the title by

capturing a screenshot of each step of

the answer. That can result in a lot of

pictures, but that’s okay! Do it right and

you only do it once.

Add textAdd a header for each image and include

instructional text when necessary.

Publish and sendSend over the PDF, Word document, or

link to your online knowledge base – and

you’re done! Your answer can now be

reused when the question comes up

again.

Stevemo is probably

the best road block

remover in the history

of Salesforce. As of

March 31st, he has

answered over 21,000

questions in the

Salesforce Answers

community. That’s a lot

of beers.Source: ButtonClick Admin, March 31, 2013


http://buttonclickadmin.com/steve-molis-on-the-answers-community/

http://buttonclickadmin.com/steve-molis-on-the-answers-community/



Create a reusable resource

You will be tempted to go around and answer questions without writing it

down in a road block removing article.

Don’t.

If you just respond to questions as they come in with an email explanation,

Chatter response, or pointing over a shoulder, you will end up answering

the same question again and again. And your team will only get answers

when you’re available.

Instead, do the practical thing and spend 3 minutes writing down the

answer in a road block removing article. Create a reusable resource so that

in the future, when that same question gets asked again, a user can just

perform a quick search and find your documented answer.

Empower your team to get by without you.

Just in time documentation You don’t need to sit down and think of all the questions that might be

asked – just answer the questions that are currently being asked.

I call this just-in-time documentation. You create it in response to your

team’s needs, and then make it available so that they can get to it when

they need it in the future.

This approach is much less overwhelming; however, the downside is that

you’re never quite done writing answers because the questions will just

keep on coming (sorry).




Let’s review

Here are the key points for removing roadblocks:

✓ Document your answers to common questions so that you

can reuse your answers.

✓ Use the question as the title of your road block removing

article.

✓ Use pictures for each step of your answer.

✓ Create your answers on an as-needed basis.

✓ When somebody has a question, answer it with your

documented answer via link or attachment.




Chapter 4: Final Thoughts

You don’t need an ideal training situation to

have a valuable training program. Just spend

some time creating resources that show the

destinations, provide road maps, and remove

the road blocks, and you’ll have a pragmatic

training program that effectively gets the job

done.

And remember – if people seem resistant to Salesforce, they’re probablynot. They’re just resistant to change in general. But if you can provide great

onboarding, and offer continual training resources, using Salesforce won’t

be as difficult of a change.

And I acknowledge that great documentation isn’t a silver bullet to user

adoption or poor performance, but when your staff can clearly see what

you want them to do, and you give them a road map to get there, the

change will be much easier.

So start showing your users the destinations, give them the road maps, and

remove their road blocks so that they can begin successfully using

Salesforce to help your nonprofit’s mission succeed.

Photo source: Brian Hille as


http://www.flickr.com/photos/62747771@N00/502255276/in/photolist-LobZJ-Loo62-MM2Jj-PoyWp-S4ve7-2rv2Fp-2rv3Ax-2s4Feg-2s93Tu-2E6M6j-33ugns-35Gv8m-35Gvad-3bNwZu-3eNSc3-3gLN6Z-3gRc6u-3DUVH5-4bGzB3-4kBaqG-4nopi5-4sNeb3-4y1DVM-4By1nZ-4BChV7-4FX3wx-4Hcw6T-4KH2Pt-4PuYES-4Ug4wE-4UYArc-51axUy-55SQ2J-58JcNq-58JcTs-5b49S5-5b49TW-5ngF2F-5o5GCp-5rtHeC-5tqPJp-5xvXeB-5yYFPG-5AypkG-5H9pDa-5Mjpj4-5MHnZm-5QSfhG-5QSgmu-5QShpw-5SfT6B






That’s it!

I hope you enjoyed the material in this eBook. Check out the

ScreenSteps blog and subscribe so you can continue to learn tips andtechniques for onboarding and training Salesforce users in your

nonprofit organization.

Questions or comments, email me: [email protected].

How can ScreenSteps help?

Power users, Admins, and trainers love ScreenSteps because of howfast they can create training, onboarding, and help documentation for

their users.

End users love ScreenSteps because the training material is easy to

read and easy to find (it’s available and searchable right within

Salesforce).


www.ScreenSteps.com/Salesforce








mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]







If you’re interested in improving your Salesforce training and

onboarding documentation:

Be sure to mention that you are a nonprofit organization so that youcan get our special pricing.


• Request a demo of ScreenSteps >

• Try it out for a free 14 day trial >

https://screenstepslive.com/accounts/new

https://screenstepslive.com/accounts/new



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