Change = People + Process + Tools: nail the people side of change for a successful cloud rollout!

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If you're preparing for an upcoming migration to cloud, or taking on a different kind of change management project, you're in for a treat! We’ve put together a full guide that will walk you through the essential steps to ensure a smooth and successful transition. Here’s a preview!

If you’ve already started your migration or change journey and are actively exploring plans to roll out this change to users, skip ahead to check out our Cloud Adoption Toolkit for tips and resources related to communications, onboarding, training, and more.

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Step 1: Set your vision 

Every great project begins with a vision – a clear understanding of what you want to accomplish and why. This step allows you to set the stage for success by establishing a foundation for a smooth adoption and change management journey. While your initial goal may be to unlock greater productivity and collaboration in cloud, you’ll likely discover more problems you can address and improvements you can make as you engage with teams prior to and during your migration.

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Step 2: Define success 🏆

Once you have a clear vision and plan, you'll also need to define what success will look like by choosing key metrics to track. In this step, you’ll need to align with stakeholders to get the job done. Key questions to ask and answer are:

• What metrics will we track?

• What ongoing business value can we deliver?

• How might we tackle difficulties or barriers to achieving our goal?

ℹ️ Consider metrics like CSAT, tool usage, ROI, and savings when planning for how to measure success.

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Step 3: Assemble your team 👥

You're not in this alone! Building your dream team is essential for a successful adoption and change management journey, and you’ll need helping hands along the way! Consider these essential roles:

• Executive Sponsor(s): Their endorsement is a game-changer. Look for those with influence and authority.

• Project Owner: This is your Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) for project success.

• Technical Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): These IT or power users understand the technical aspects.

• Business Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): These are team members from affected departments who can offer critical business insights.

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Step 4: Scope the rollout 🛼

When it comes to introducing any kind of organizational change, you have a couple of options for how you accomplish it:

• Big Bang: This bold approach launches change across your entire organization simultaneously. It's often chosen for significant transformations but requires careful preparation and coordination.

• Phased: This more gradual approach introduces changes department-by-department, team-by-team, or use case-by-use case, allowing for learning and adaptability. It's the most popular choice and typically starts with pilot teams. In this scenario, you’ll want to prioritize teams that collaborate frequently or are open to change. This paves the way for smoother transitions across the broader organization.

And since you’re likely completing a migration to Atlassian cloud, you have additional considerations about how you want to move your data from A to B. Check out our cloud migration guide to learn more about these options.

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Step 5: Identify key use cases 🔑

Here, we dive into the heart of the change – understanding the challenges your teams face and how Atlassian products can help. It's not just about the tools, it's about the people and processes.

Start by identifying the current challenges your teams encounter, then determine how you can use Atlassian products to help solve these challenges – we call these use cases. For example, HR teams might face the challenge of onboarding new employees in a consistent way. With Jira, teams can automate onboarding workflows to ensure timely and consistent experiences for new hires.

When migrating from Atlassian Server or Data Center, you may already know what your use cases are, but it’s critical to reevaluate them as Cloud covers new functionality. This means that your existing challenges may be solved in different ways in Cloud. As you make the move, you may also want to add on new use cases to solve additional challenges that aren’t currently being addressed.

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Step 6: Build your training and support plan 🛟

This step is about creating a training and support plan so teams are well-equipped for the change and can begin using new tools and following any new procedures on day 1 of your launch. Some organizations tend to wait until after data has been migrated to train their users, but we recommend developing a training and support plan early in your migration. Doing so will allow ample time for adjustment, should you find certain aspects of your plan need to be tweaked.

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Step 7: Build your communications plan 📩

Now that you have a vetted plan in place, you also want to think about how you’ll spread the word. Consider the following:

• Frequency: Repetition is key. Plan for multiple communications across different channels to give teams the time they need to adjust comfortably. Our customizable email and announcement banner templates for introducing Atlassian cloud can help!

• Senders: Messages from trusted sources are more effective. Enlist your Executive Sponsors (Step 3) and champions (Step 8) to amplify the message. Communication should not only convey facts but also engage and clarify the need for change and everyone's role in it.

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Step 8: Identify champions and build your network 👩🏾‍💻

Champions are your change cheerleaders, embedded in teams where change occurs. They build trust and spread positivity. Identify champions across your organization to amplify your message and gain momentum. To get started, view our guidance on how to build, train, and nurture an internal champions community.

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Step 9: Ship it! 🚢

Congrats on making it through Steps 1 through 8! Armed with your plan, it’s time to execute and launch across your organization. Preparing your adoption and change management plan is a huge milestone of your cloud migration journey. Take time to celebrate and then ensure your plan is integrated in to your broader migration runbook.

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Step 10: Monitor & engage 📈

Even after launch day has come and gone, your work is not done yet! Ongoing engagement is crucial for lasting change and deep adoption. Ensure your adoption team is tuned into the following:

• Success metrics: Remember the goals you set in Step 2? Assess if you’ve reached them, or if your rollout plan needs to be adjusted.

• Celebrate success: Share team-wide and org-wide achievements to maintain momentum. Teams may be inspired by others to use tools in ways they never before considered.

• What’s next: After your teams are operational, take the time to reassess any productivity issues and product use cases. Consider how your existing toolset can address upcoming challenges. This review might reveal opportunities for consolidating tools or introducing them to new departments as needed.

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To get started with your adoption and change management plan, download our Change management plan template.

This brand-new template is a step-by-step guide through the change management process which you can use alongside our guide to adoption and change management to get tactical, and think through each step of a successful rollout.

:slack-bullhorn-psa-announce: If you’re interested in accelerating change management for your migration, or need an experienced solutions advisor for your cloud transformation, we have plenty of support for you!

ℹ️ Curious to explore what an ill-fated cloud rollout looks like? Delve into our tongue-in-cheek rendition of a rollout plan: 10 steps for lasting cloud adoption (wrong answers only). In this humorous take, we'll walk you through the very opposite of what you should do for a successful transition to cloud. Remember, it's all in good fun, but you might pick up a few pointers on what to avoid along the way!

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