How long does it take to implement ScreenSteps? And what type of work will I need to put in?
When you decide to use ScreenSteps as your knowledge ops solution, you use a four-phase process that follows the Find & Follow Framework to implement it.
Watch this 3-minute video for an overview of the implementation process with ScreenSteps. Then keep reading for more details on how the implementation process works.
How long does implementation take?
First, what does “successfully implemented,” mean?
It means that your employees are now finding and following digital guides in ScreenSteps instead of relying on faulty memories or tribal knowledge.
It can take anywhere from five weeks to six months to successfully apply the Find & Follow Framework and launch ScreenSteps.
Ultimately, the amount of time implementation takes is dependent on a few factors:
- The number of articles (i.e. policies and procedures) you need to import/create
- The number of people creating content
- How much support you want from ScreenSteps (see the 3 implementation package options)
Below, is an estimated timeline for what will be covered and when each task will be handled during implementation. I’ll go into more detail about each of the four phases in the next section of this blog.
Who will be involved?
Your implementation team is made up of your Knowledge Champion, knowledge managers, content creators, and trainers. Some teams can assign somebody to devote 40 hours per week, while others may only be able to spend 4-10 hours per week. It depends on their role and what you are able to prioritize.
See the chart above for a more detailed estimate of how your implementation team will spend their time.
4 phases of implementation
The ScreenSteps implementation process includes four phases. These phases are meant to help break up and organize the work so that you can launch faster and more efficiently.
Below, I’ll explain what happens in each of these phases and approximately how long each phase takes.
Note: The amount of time each task takes varies depending on your company’s situation.
1. Align + Define
How long it takes: 1 week
The first phase is Align + Define. The purpose of this phase is to align your Training and Operations teams on what employees need to know and what they need to be able to do. Three things happen during the Align + Define Phase.
A. Kick-off Meeting
30 minutes
Everything starts with the kick-off meeting. This is an opportunity for everyone to get on the same page for implementation.
During the kick-off meeting, your team and the ScreenSteps experts will work together to lay the groundwork for the project. Together we will:
- Establish objectives
- Align our vision
- Identify a timeline
- Set expectations
- Clarify roles and communication
- Identify admins and contributors
B. Find & Follow Workshop
1.5 – 4 hours
After we’ve identified the timeline and aligned on objectives, the first task is the Find & Follow Workshop.
In the Find & Follow Workshop, a ScreenSteps expert will lead your team through a discussion where you will:
- Define a role (i.e. the position for whom we will discuss their responsibilities)
- Identify the activities this role is responsible for
- Questions they must respond to
- Requests they must address
- Tasks they must perform
(Note: You will need to complete a Find & Follow Workshop for each role that will implement ScreenSteps.)
The role is usually for a position that your company frequently trains new hires for. For example, tellers for credit unions, phone agents for contact centers, etc.
The Find & Follow Workshop yields the Find & Follow Report. You’ll use the report to create digital guides and training materials.
C. Prioritize Activities
4–8 hours
The final task in the Align + Define Phase is to prioritize the activities you discovered during the Find & Follow Workshop. This part of the phase is all about organizing your content and delegating who is in charge of completing it.
- Update Knowledge Planner (2–4 hours) – Import the Report into the Knowledge Planner and update the activity titles to accurately reflect the question/request/task.
- Prioritize activities (30 minutes) – Determine which policies and procedures need to be documented first, keeping in mind the 80% Launch rule.
- Perform gap analysis (1–3 hours) – Determine which content already exists (i.e. PDF, Word doc, PowerPoint, etc.) and which content you will need to create from scratch.
- Assign activities to SMEs (30 – 60 minutes) – Delegate the articles in your Knowledge Planner to subject matter experts (SMEs) so that they can write the digital guides.
2. Define + Refine
How long it takes: 1 – 7+ weeks
The second phase of implementation involves preparing your employee support and training resources. This means taking what you’ve identified in the first phase and defining and refining those procedures for use.
A. Train Contributors
4 hours + 1-hour weekly calls
The SMEs you’ve assigned to create different digital guides go through a short training. During the training, your content contributors complete the self-paced courses where they learn how create digital guides using the ScreenSteps knowledge ops platform.
You will also establish a schedule for weekly calls with the ScreenSteps team for coaching. Your ScreenSteps coach will help teach your team Find & Follow best practices for building findable, followable, and scannable digital guides.
B. Interview end-users
2 – 4 hours
Gather the expert advice and information you need to create your digital guides. To do this, members of the ScreenSteps team will either shadow or interview the person in the target role.
The purpose of this step is to gather information around how and when your end-users would use the resources.
C. Import, Create, & Optimize Content
3 – 6 weeks
Once you have direction from your experts, you can start building your digital guides. The team creates digital guides that employees can find, follow, and use in the moment of need.
There are two ways you could do this depending on if you have existing content or you are starting from scratch.
If you have existing content, you provide content to the ScreenSteps team to upload to your knowledge ops platform. Together, both the ScreenSteps team and your team optimize those digital guides.
If you are starting from scratch, your team explains the transaction via audio recording. You or the ScreenSteps team runs that recording through AI to outline the digital guides. Then your team reviews the guides for accuracy. Finally, the ScreenSteps team coaches your team on how to optimize the digital guides for your end-users.
Note: You are preparing for an 80% Launch, which means you’ll want to complete the digital guides that account for 80% of the work your employees handle. You’ll continue to build out the remaining 20% of your resources after launch. Using the 80% Launch method, you launch faster and start seeing ROI faster.
D. User Acceptance Testing
6 hours
Perform user acceptance testing. You do this by:
- Identifying users: Select users to test your digital guides. It’s good to choose a mix of experienced & inexperienced users.
- Selecting practice scenarios: Choose realistic scenarios to run with the users.
- Running test: Observe how testers use your guides to handle the scenarios. Take notes on where they get stuck.
- Incorporating feedback: Use the notes you took while observing as well as user feedback to refine the digital guides.
3. Train
How long it takes: 1 week
After you’ve completed your content for the 80% Launch, it is time to train your employees.
The goal during training is for employees to learn how to find and follow digital guides every time they perform a task or solve a problem.
A. Soft Launch (3 hours)
3 hours
Before launching to your entire company, you’ll want to run training with a control group. Identify a group, determine a soft launch date, and set up the users’ accounts for end-users in that group. Then run the training with that group.
B. Synthesize Feedback
3 – 6 hours
After completing the soft launch, it’s time to evaluate how it went. Discuss how the training went. What were your strengths? Where were there knowledge gaps and shortcomings?
Take into consideration any feedback from your end-users. You’ll then use all of that information to modify the content, training, and rollout strategy as needed.
4. Empower + Adapt
How long it takes: 1 week for initial launch (then it is a continuous habit)
Now that preparations are over, it is officially time to launch! The final step for launch is to empower your team to adapt and succeed with your knowledge ops solution.
A. Full Launch
3 – 4 hours
Select a group for launching ScreenSteps. On the determined launch date, you roll out your knowledge ops solution to the team. During training, you’ll make updates to your guides as necessary.
The training is meant to help employees learn how to use the ScreenSteps software as well as build a habit of turning to your knowledge ops platform for answers.
How long does it take with new hires?
This will take longer if we are launching to a group of new hires. New hire training would expect several days or weeks depending on the role and breadth of knowledge they need to know.
B. Incorporate Feedback & Iterate
3 – 6 months
After you’ve launched ScreenSteps in your first group, you once again evaluate how things went. You will need to:
- Address your end-user feedback, including comments and requests.
- Refine your digital guides according to that feedback
- Continue building out the medium and lower priority content (i.e. the remaining 20%)
Launch ScreenSteps with confidence
While it takes preparation and work to launch ScreenSteps, the results are worth it. Your employees will learn to be more independent and confident workers. It will free up your supervisors’ time. Supervisors won’t need to spend as much time answering questions or fixing mistakes.
Companies who work with ScreenSteps experts for implementation and coaching launch their ScreenSteps sites faster.
Learn more about our implementation and coaching services by talking to a ScreenSteps expert. Our experts can help you discern the best implementation plan and timeline for your business. Schedule a time to talk to a ScreenSteps expert here.
