When you're deploying WalkMe in your company, it's common to get resistance from your IT / Dev team. Here's the best way I've found to deal with that:
First, understand their perspective.
1. You're trying to add a UX overlay to their app. They may feel you're calling their baby ugly. "Oh, you're putting WalkMe on our application? What, are you saying it's not good enough?"
2. You're trying to be involved in every change and asking lots of questions. They may be used to a "Training / L&D" function being an afterthought. "We'll let you know when we're done."
3. You're taking a slice of the end user experience. They are used to owning that entirely. "If there's a problem, can we turn off WalkMe?"
So how do we come at this?
Ultimately, you cannot "convince" anyone.
You emphasize we're on the same team. And you show them WIIFM (What's In It For Me).
Start by clearing up some technical questions.
We are not touching the code. We can publish immediately and archive immediately if there's a problem.
(There won't be a problem).
From there, start small.
I've had clients where the first production publish was a single SmartTip.
Once this first production deployment is out of the way, everyone goes "Oh, that was easy..."
Now we can look at WalkMe Analytics, both of the SmartTip usage and general application usage with Tracked Events / Engaged Elements.
This should pique some interest as most apps I've worked with do not have a detailed feature-level understanding of usage.
Second deployment can be a ShoutOut related to whatever the next release happens to be.
From there, it becomes clear that both field level help and new feature announcement / downtime we can just take off their plate.
Once we have a few examples published an under our belt, we can communicate that this is just a new division of labor in the org.
"Let WalkMe handle the explaining layer. Dev Team, you guys work on core functionality, new feature sets, DB, APIs, etc."
Little by little, you SHOW the benefit and incrementally increase what WalkMe is responsible for.
What do you think?
If you've deployed WalkMe before, how have you addressed internal resistance?
First, understand their perspective.
1. You're trying to add a UX overlay to their app. They may feel you're calling their baby ugly. "Oh, you're putting WalkMe on our application? What, are you saying it's not good enough?"
2. You're trying to be involved in every change and asking lots of questions. They may be used to a "Training / L&D" function being an afterthought. "We'll let you know when we're done."
3. You're taking a slice of the end user experience. They are used to owning that entirely. "If there's a problem, can we turn off WalkMe?"
So how do we come at this?
Ultimately, you cannot "convince" anyone.
You emphasize we're on the same team. And you show them WIIFM (What's In It For Me).
Start by clearing up some technical questions.
We are not touching the code. We can publish immediately and archive immediately if there's a problem.
(There won't be a problem).
From there, start small.
I've had clients where the first production publish was a single SmartTip.
Once this first production deployment is out of the way, everyone goes "Oh, that was easy..."
Now we can look at WalkMe Analytics, both of the SmartTip usage and general application usage with Tracked Events / Engaged Elements.
This should pique some interest as most apps I've worked with do not have a detailed feature-level understanding of usage.
Second deployment can be a ShoutOut related to whatever the next release happens to be.
From there, it becomes clear that both field level help and new feature announcement / downtime we can just take off their plate.
Once we have a few examples published an under our belt, we can communicate that this is just a new division of labor in the org.
"Let WalkMe handle the explaining layer. Dev Team, you guys work on core functionality, new feature sets, DB, APIs, etc."
Little by little, you SHOW the benefit and incrementally increase what WalkMe is responsible for.
What do you think?
If you've deployed WalkMe before, how have you addressed internal resistance?