Follow-up from the forum on 17 March: Challenge yourself to communicate about Anaplan to your users!

MagaliP

Hi all,

 

Thank you so much for joining yesterday - we had great discussions about the latest features and especially the end-user pivot and filter. How do you communicate to your users about this feature?

 

Here are a couple of ideas that I implemented myself in my previous role and at Anaplan

 

Idea 1: Communicate to your end users

Create a monthly newsletter for your end-users or main stakeholders if you have lots of users (the content can also be posted on your intranet for extra visibility, including by all end users - because I am assuming you have an intranet section about Anaplan, right? This is another great idea, maybe for another day), which highlights:

• What has been delivered in Anaplan this month (what you've built: a new model, a new UX page, simplified a process, improved something...)

 

• Tip of the month (a good way to teach your users about functionalities like end-user pivot in bit size) - short paragraph about a new (or existing) awesome functionality, with a link to the intranet (again!) where they can watch a short video of it in action (and access all previous tips!)

 

• Recognition of the month - it's always nice to say thank you to people in your company who have helped you or has done the right thing with Anaplan (for example solving a data issue, reporting something, giving you feedback...). If you have an internal appraisal system (Lattice or other), you may want to put a link so that the recipients are encouraged to say thank you to your team too (it works both ways!)
• Coming soon: are you going to provide new documentation (in the intranet 😉 ), move to the NUX (finally! 😁 ), create a new model, improve a process next month or in the future? let your users know to get them excited, and they may even reach out to help you out or give their input

Idea 2: Communicate to your power users

This newsletter is targeted to model builders, administrators or more senior people involved in Anaplan depending on how your company is structured. These people are likely not on Anaplan Community, and even if they are, it may be good to avoid duplication of work by sending a summary. I used to compile:

• Releases: what's new and what's coming soon in Anaplan (highlight the key features from the Anaplan release blog, with a link to it)

• Disruption and maintenance: to let them know of anything on the Anaplan side

• Community & events: to invite people to join community events and user groups, but also user feedback sessions

• Recognition - again, but a different audience
• Admin tips & tricks: another way to educate people about Anaplan, but a bit more technical

• Model builder corner: specific for model builders

 

You can see I have re-used those ideas now at Anaplan in my Extensions Bulletin.

Ooh, and one last thing: once you have an intranet section dedicated to Anaplan sorted, the good thing is you can then create an email signature that links to it!

 

 

Now, it's your turn. I challenge you to create:

• A newsletter for your end users or your power users
• A space dedicated to Anaplan on your intranet with useful content (get inspired from Community, Anapedia, the Extensions page - yes, I again applied the same idea 😉 )
• A personalised signature

Let's go!

 

Joanne

I love this idea, Magali.  Thanks for sharing.