Your Salesforce Lightning Experience Migration Guide

Winter ’16 is finally here, and with it comes the new Lightning Experience. Turning the key is the easy part. Getting your organization ready to adopt the new look and feel can require a little more time.

Before you move everyone to Lightning en masse, we have some recommended steps to help make your migration smoother while keeping your users happy.

      1. Plan out your migration strategy

Your strategy for migration will be determined largely by which version of Salesforce your organization is using. If you are on Enterprise edition or above, you will be able to set role permissions. This means you can enable Lightning for specific users only and create a group of test users who can dip their toes into the water before everyone else is ready to dive in.

Plan a realistic timeline with your users. You don’t want to make this a burden for anyone.

      2. Communicate with your users

Nobody likes to be surprised by a sudden change to the look and feel of a system they may be very familiar and comfortable with before the change. Share your migration plan with your users!

Creating a specific Chatter group is a great way to collaborate with your users and share the timeline for your migration. Using Chatter will also let you share blogs, training videos and other resources to prepare.

Another group tool to get your users up to speed is Trailhead. With specific modules for Lightning, it is an invaluable resource for getting your organization trained and ready.

      3. Test (Don’t skip this step)

Use your Sandbox and your test user group to pilot the Lightning Experience for your organization. You want to look for anything that isn’t working within your org (see a list of features that aren’t compatible with Lightning), but you will also want to listen to your pilot group for use cases and positive feedback to share with your users when you are ready for a full rollout.

Chatter can be useful for gathering feedback from your pilot users, but you can also use the Ideas object to help drive feedback to shape the experience to fit your users.

      4. Flip the switch!

By this point, your users will have had plenty of time to prep themselves. When you and your users are ready, set a go-live date and enable the new experience. No matter how well you prepare, there will still be plenty of questions on day one, so be prepared. If you have Enterprise edition, you may even consider making the lightning modules in Trailhead mandatory before that user can have lightning turned on.

      5. Adjust

Most Salesforce Admins understand that there are always improvements to be made. Foster a culture of collaboration and continuous feedback within your organization to ensure your development of Salesforce never falls out of sync with your users’ needs. As your organization (and Salesforce) changes, adaptability and flexibility are key.

We are excited about this long-awaited refresh to the Salesforce UI, and you should be too. Along with the tools Salesforce provides to help you along the away, managing the migration will help your organization make the switch like the well-oiled machine that it is. And as always, if you need help, give Virsys12 a call.

Winter ’16 is finally here, and with it comes the new Lightning Experience. Turning the key is the easy part. Getting your organization ready to adopt the new look and feel can require a little more time.

Before you move everyone to Lightning en masse, we have some recommended steps to help make your migration smoother while keeping your users happy.

      1. Plan out your migration strategy

Your strategy for migration will be determined largely by which version of Salesforce your organization is using. If you are on Enterprise edition or above, you will be able to set role permissions. This means you can enable Lightning for specific users only and create a group of test users who can dip their toes into the water before everyone else is ready to dive in.

Plan a realistic timeline with your users. You don’t want to make this a burden for anyone.

      2. Communicate with your users

Nobody likes to be surprised by a sudden change to the look and feel of a system they may be very familiar and comfortable with before the change. Share your migration plan with your users!

Creating a specific Chatter group is a great way to collaborate with your users and share the timeline for your migration. Using Chatter will also let you share blogs, training videos and other resources to prepare.

Another group tool to get your users up to speed is Trailhead. With specific modules for Lightning, it is an invaluable resource for getting your organization trained and ready.

      3. Test (Don’t skip this step)

Use your Sandbox and your test user group to pilot the Lightning Experience for your organization. You want to look for anything that isn’t working within your org (see a list of features that aren’t compatible with Lightninghere), but you will also want to listen to your pilot group for use cases and positive feedback to share with your users when you are ready for a full rollout.

Chatter can be useful for gathering feedback from your pilot users, but you can also use the Ideas object to help drive feedback to shape the experience to fit your users.

      4. Flip the switch!

By this point, your users will have had plenty of time to prep themselves. When you and your users are ready, set a go-live date and enable the new experience. No matter how well you prepare, there will still be plenty of questions on day one, so be prepared. If you have Enterprise edition, you may even consider making the lightning modules in Trailhead mandatory before that user can have lightning turned on.

      5. Adjust

Most Salesforce Admins understand that there are always improvements to be made. Foster a culture of collaboration and continuous feedback within your organization to ensure your development of Salesforce never falls out of sync with your users’ needs. As your organization (and Salesforce) changes, adaptability and flexibility are key.

We are excited about this long-awaited refresh to the Salesforce UI, and you should be too. Along with the tools Salesforce provides to help you along the away, managing the migration will help your organization make the switch like the well-oiled machine that it is. And as always, if you need help, give Virsys12 a call.

About the Author

About the Author

Tammy Hawes is CEO and Founder of Virsys12, a Healthcare Focused Salesforce AppExchange and Consulting Partner. Hawes launched Virsys12 in 2011, with a track record of more than 25 years of executive success.

About the Author