10 steps for lasting cloud adoption (wrong answers only)

[#1]

Real talk, we know migrating to the cloud is a big undertaking. We’re here to help you navigate the people part of your migration journey.

Not in the mood for sarcasm? Okay, okay, we'll spare you. Skip the bad advice and get a more serious take – or dig right into the Cloud Adoption Toolkit!

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If you're migrating to the cloud soon, you’re in luck! We’ve outlined exactly what you need to do to make sure absolutely nothing goes according to plan.

Step 1: Just wing it 🪽 Why have a clear vision when you can just cross your fingers and hope for the best? Ignore best practices like identifying not only the benefits of cloud for your organization, but also the key messages to champion this change with your users. Strategy, schmategy! 🤷‍♂️

Step 2: Keep success a mystery 🕵️‍♀️ Be sure to leave your definition of success as vague as possible. Ignore expert advice to set measurable outcomes or consider factors like cost, productivity, and time. Phrases like "We'll know when we get there" and "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey" work wonders here. Remember, if you don't have a target, you can't possibly miss! 🎯

Step 3: DIY-bother assembling an adoption team? 🛠️ Executive sponsors and SMEs? Oh please. Sounds like a lot of meetings! You don’t need an adoption team when you can handle it all – everything from getting leadership buy-in across the business and overcoming resistance to change to configuring your workflows and training users on cloud products. Just skip all that collaboration and support and hope you don’t paint yourself into a corner. 🖌️

Step 4: Keep the rollout scope as hazy as possible 😶‍🌫️ Specifics are overrated. When scoping your rollout, be as vague as possible. Don't bother with key steps like identifying whether to launch all at once or in phases, outlining a timeline, or understanding the impact on business processes. If people ask about when their team will migrate, just shrug. Stay mysterious! 😎

Step 5: Be a mind reader 🧠 Ignore our advice to evaluate how your team uses your current solution or to identify the critical workflows they need in cloud. Who cares about asking for opinions or understanding their needs? Just go with your gut feeling!

Step 6: Throw your people into the deep end 🌊 Don't even think about providing training and support to ensure user readiness. Nah, just throw everyone into the deep end. Sink or swim, folks! 🏊

Step 7: Leave it up to word of mouth 🤐 Who needs a clear communications plan when you've got ambiguous whispers and cryptic emails? Don’t bother letting people know their tooling will change – ensure confusion leading up to launch day by keeping folks in the dark. And certainly don't reassure your team members or answer their questions. Let the rumor mill do the job for you!

Step 8: Just hope that the change sticks 🤸 Forget about building a network of champions and using their influence to drive user adoption. Just leave it up to chance and hope that teams across your organization will change years of behavior and habits organically. After all, the saying goes, “Change is super easy”, right?

Step 9: Ship it? Forget it. 🚢 Why make a big fuss with a big, day-of announcement? Definitely don't share quick-start guides or tell people where to go for help. Make sure your users have to work hard to even find where to log in. Who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt?

Step 10: Ghost 'em 👻 Once you've launched – go radio silent. So what if it’s best practice to monitor user adoption, address issues, and gather feedback? Just put your feet up and enjoy the show. 🍿

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Feedback? Questions? Requests for other cloud adoption content? Leave a comment below. Despite the facetious advice from step 10, very real people behind very real devices are eagerly waiting to hear from you. 👀

[Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM]

I'm a big fan of "Step 1".