Part 4: Change Management
Rolling out an insights engine may require changes to existing processes, team structures, and behaviors, as well as the introduction of new technology. In other words, it involves a whole lot of change. And while change can lead to innovation, increased productivity, and business growth, it can also come with uncertainty.
As you prepare to introduce your insights engine to your stakeholders, it’s important to think about potential roadblocks and reasons why certain stakeholders might resist change. Anticipating and addressing these concerns ahead of the rollout will help you ensure your stakeholders are excited rather than wary.
Stakeholders need to experience the platform for themselves. Solely describing it to them makes it hard for them to distinguish it from Sharepoint or Microsoft Teams. A small, limited pilot or an extensive demo site helps stakeholders understand the possibilities, beyond what they think they know about knowledge management.
Get Your Executive Champion Involved
Your leadership team, or an executive sponsor from your leadership team, should play an active role in promoting your insights engine to drive change from the top down. Consider asking an executive champion to record a short video or send an email explaining the insights engine, the goals associated with it, and how it will benefit the organization.
Brand Your Insights Engine
Start getting your stakeholders invested in (and familiar with) your insights engine by giving it a brand that aligns with your organization’s culture. If you’re rolling out a new insights management platform that allows for customization, consider using your brand’s colors in the layout and creating a logo and name specific to the platform.
Make the Rollout an Event
Start driving adoption and engagement as soon as you launch your insights engine by making the rollout a big deal. Tailor your launch event to your company’s culture. For example, if you and your stakeholders work together in the same office and have a culture that often involves in-office events, consider holding a launch party with snacks, branded swag, a brief introduction to the insights engine, and demos of any new technology. If you and your stakeholders work remotely or in different offices, you could hold a virtual event over Zoom or another video platform and use activities such as a virtual scavenger hunt to keep people engaged.
Support Continual Training
Change management isn’t a one-time event, and hosting ongoing training sessions can help your stakeholders continue to maximize the value of your insights engine (and help get new hires up to speed). Use these training sessions to review best practices and introduce any changes to your insights engine, such as a new content type or methodology your team is using or a product update to your insights management platform.
Share Insights Engine Successes
Celebrate your wins–loudly. Share (in writing and verbally) stories of stakeholders using your insights engine to make a decision that positively impacts your business and its customers, and encourage your stakeholders to share these testimonials as well. You may also want to share any notable engagement metrics that come out of your insights management platform. This will help keep the insights engine top of mind and show stakeholders your progress towards the vision you presented.
When preparing for your rollout, it can be helpful to have an elevator pitch to concisely communicate your insights engine’s value to your stakeholders.
One source for all market research and insights. That was our goal when we created [Insight Engine’s Name]. The process for finding answers to your research questions is now as simple as a Google search. The days of hunting through multiple shared folders and email threads are gone for good!