Lightning Training For End Users, Do We Need To Start From Scratch?

Blog:

So, you’re working on your migration from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Experience. This is a large undertaking that includes many parts, especially for your Salesforce administrative and development team. But what about training end users when you are ready to launch a pilot group and then again when the migration is complete and ready for a full company launch? Do you need to start from scratch and train users on how to do everything in Salesforce again? This is a common question, and the answer is no.  

When launching Lightning Experience to a pilot group, and then to all users, you need to provide training, but not in the exact way you trained your users to first start using Salesforce. Lightning Experience is a different user interface. It looks different than Classic, but it is mostly based on the same background setup of Classic. For example, your profiles, roles, permissions sets, fields, page layouts, and object access all work the same way. But where you find things and how they display are different. So, when entering a lead in Lightning, it’s the same as in Classic; you go to the leads tab, click new, enter the information, and save the record. Users will just need to be shown how getting to the page to add the information looks in Lightning.  

When you’re training Classic users on Lightning, you want to train them on things specific to Lightning and how they differ from Classic. They need to know what Lightning is and how it can improve their efficiency. They need to know how to navigate through Lightning and the many navigation benefits that Lightning has over Classic. For example, they’ll likely be excited when they see some of the drag-and-drop functionality in Lightning and how they can create favorites or add specific records as tabs in their navigation bar. In addition to the navigational differences, it’s important to point out things that are only available in Lightning. Some examples of this are News, Path, Assistant, Activity Timeline, and Kanban views. Users need to be shown these features so they can better understand why they are moving to Lightning and take advantage of what it offers. 

Although Lightning adds many benefits, some of the functionality that was available in Classic may not be available in Lightning. In those cases, there could be alternatives available in Lightning or your users may need to switch back to Classic to complete something and then go back into Lightning when they’re done. It’s important to train your users on any features they used in Classic that are not available in Lightning or what the alternatives are. This will help reduce frustration with the change. It’s much more frustrating to try and do something and get an error than if you know ahead of time that something won’t work and you either have another option or you know to switch back to Classic. The following link provides some of the highlights on how Lightning compares to Classic: https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=lex_aloha_comparison.htm&type=5 

That brings me to my next point. If you are allowing your users to switch back to Classic when they need to, they need to be trained on how to switch back and forth. They should also be trained on what the Lightning use expectation is. For instance, if your company plans to allow users to go back to Classic for something but they should quickly return to Lightning and spend most of their time in Lightning, that should be communicated during the training. Also, if there is a cutoff date for when the ability to switch back and forth will stop, they need to know that as soon as possible.  

This is all fine for existing users, but if you have a new user, you will need to train them on complete use of Salesforce, such as all the steps to create a lead and so on. The important thing is that you prepare for both migration end-user training and training for new users. Good luck.