“Complex and feature-rich tools…”
It’s a phrase I saw in a LinkedIn article not long ago that resonated with me as a concise way to convey two connected issues that we see users and organizations facing with enterprise software these days.
- Product complexity – Leads to users not finding functionality they want intuitively in the interface.
- Knowledge gaps – The larger the feature portfolio, the tougher it is for users to master the skills needed for their role or specific activities.
Now, complex and feature-rich tools are a good thing, right? They’re filled with so much promise. As new features are added and software grows, at some point these products can get more difficult for users to use – and more challenging to meet those ROI expectations. Not to mention the added twist we have now with cloud-based applications and the speed at which they change. It’s a moving target to get up to speed and stay up to date with features and our ability to leverage them.
While the article linked above talked about both business value and usage with HubSpot, the issues absolutely apply to Microsoft’s M365, Power Platform, and other enterprise platforms like Workday, ServiceNow, etc. as well. In-house custom applications aren’t immune either. In fact, custom solutions might be more challenged because they don’t have a level of support, documentation, or training that commercial products (should) have.
To make the problem worse, the biggest group of users are typically business users whose main priority isn’t learning software but is actually running the business.
“Does the product do this?”
The problems listed above are obviously related. As features are added, removed, or changed – training materials and resources need to keep up and users need time to consume them. But the changes keep coming, so it’s a never-ending effort. You end up with users at all levels and roles not aware of capabilities that could be impactful for them.
How do you address a large and complex set of features?
Maintain, or subscribe to, a definitive list of platform features, activities, skills, and capabilities. Sounds like it should be easy, but it’s usually not. Between the size and complexity of platforms these days and the rate of change, it’s difficult for folks to know what’s available, what’s not, what’s changing, etc.
How do you address knowledge gaps? How do users know what they don’t know?
- Use assessments – *not* exams – to figure out where the gaps are. It’s not a pass/fail situation. It’s a non-punitive metric of what you have awareness of and what you don’t so you can put focus on the gaps when and if you need to.
- Provide resources, training, champions, examples, and all the traditional materials for users to skill up when, where, and how they prefer to learn.
So, we do our best. If we have a platform team (or whatever it’s called in your organization) they can be responsible – as their job – for knowing the tool inside and out and understanding how the organization leverages the tool. They either create or work with a training department to create or source training and reference material. We utilize change management policies to deliver timely communication about changes coming, and the people/roles that are affected.
If you don’t have a platform team, there might be an IT generalist on the tech side or user “champions” on the business side that do their best to keep up with features and capabilities.
Prevention – Governance
Training, resources, change management… you name it. Get ahead of knowledge gaps by preparing materials and training sessions before introducing tools – when you can. But there’s still work to do after deployment.
Build and maintain training and other resources so you can leverage them throughout the lifecycle of the product or application. Maintaining resources is key for new users to an organization and folks that skill-up over time.
No plan, implementation, or organization is perfect though. There will always be gaps. There will always be new folks coming to the organization or to new roles and positions. The best we can do is set the environment and systems up as best we can with the staff, tools, and funding we have available.
3rd party tools and services might also be part of the mix. That list of features, skills, etc. mentioned above? Let someone else manage the definitive list. Focus your organization on the training materials needed for your situation. There are also tools like VisualSP that enable in-app, just in time learning for users. There are options. Find what works for your users.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is certainly going to help with issues like this as well. As product owners add AI chat interfaces, users will have more ways to search or ask for what they are looking for and have better results than previous “help” interfaces were able to support.
Set users up for success
This is the same message product owners, consultants, trainers, etc. have been preaching for years. Establish a location for users (not just “end users” but all roles) can come to find the info they need within your org. It might be called a “Center of Excellence”. It might be something you build, or a collection of tools, services, etc. you cobble together. You can start with common community-built knowledge, links, etc. and then curate or build organizational-specific knowledge, experiences, learning links, and more.
Finally, build momentum. With more folks using the software and platforms successfully, there will be more opportunities to share what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. Raise that collective awareness and skill level.
