What I Learned in the Transition to Lightning Experience Bootcamp

The Transition to Lightning Experience Bootcamp is one of the many resources available to Salesforce.org customers to help them make the move from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Experience. This free, 6-week course guides customers through a basic Lightning Experience transition in a supportive setting.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with one of our Bootcamp “graduates,” Amy Henson, the Marketing & Communications Director at Greenbelt Alliance. I asked Amy a few questions to get her perspective on how the Bootcamp aided in her organization’s transition to Lightning Experience.

An Interview with a Transition to Lightning Experience Bootcamp Attendee

Last summer you were working as the Marketing & Communications Director AND Interim Advancement Director at Greenbelt Alliance. Why, and how, did you make the time to participate in a Salesforce.org Transition to Lightning Experience Bootcamp?
Directing both marketing and fundraising gave me a unique perspective on how well those two teams could collaborate if we dedicated time to transition to Lightning Experience. With central hubs for events, donor cultivation, and communication data, I could see how Lightning Experience would make it easier to manage our relationships and raise more money for our organization.

It was an easy decision to make the Lightning Experience transition a top priority. Finding the time was not as easy. We made it happen by smart scheduling and staying dedicated to our weekly Salesforce Bootcamp team meetings. The Bootcamp structure and recordings made it easy to stay on track.

During the Bootcamp, we go over how to use a number of the tools available to users during the transition to Lightning Experience. Can you talk about which of the tools was the most helpful?
Magic Mover turned out to be very helpful for us. We had a large group of legacy notes and attachments that needed to be converted into new Notes and Files. It was a fairly easy process; the install was smooth, and once I completed the conversion I was able to help others through the Chatter group. The Chatter group is where Bootcamp collaboration really shines. As one member works through a process they are able to share any tips or lessons learned with the rest of the group, saving each other time.

After a few weeks in the Bootcamp, most attendees start to feel more comfortable in Lightning Experience and start to get excited about the possibilities. Do you have an example of any cool new Lightning Experience features you built out for your users?
Absolutely! My favorite new functions are ones that help users help themselves. We used the new App Manager to add a Rich Text Field component to our Utility Bar with links to how-to notes, Chatter groups, and FAQs specific to our instance. It’s on every screen so users can quickly get the help they need.

We also created Lightning App Pages that make it easy for our staff to manage our fundraising and marketing programs. The Lightning App Builder allows you to create pages similar to dashboards but they’re more actionable. They are a hub for all activities, list views, tasks, reports (and more) needed to manage a program. Creating these program hubs was a huge efficiency win for us.

What was it like leading up to turning on Lightning Experience for your users? What steps did you take to prepare them?
We have a small team of users, so turning on Lightning Experience was pretty painless. Most of us are visual learners, so the potential benefits of an improved interface far outweighed any fear of learning the new system. I kept my team involved in creating new page layouts and asked them for feedback along the way.

I provided them with screenshots for reference and set up open AMA (Ask Me Anything) hours for the first month after rollout. We also created the utility bar help section so users could get to the FAQs easily from any page, a Chatter group so we could share and document issues, and if anyone needed to switch back to Salesforce Classic to complete a task, we set up a one question survey – “why are you switching back” – to flag any usability issues and get them onto our QA task list. It was pretty seamless!

What was the reaction from your users once you flipped the switch?
Relief and excitement. For people who don’t navigate CRM platforms often, like our CEO, this interface was a lot more intuitive. For those who live in it every day, they felt more empowered to tailor their experience.

Do you have any additional advice for nonprofit Salesforce customers about making the move to Lightning Experience?
I have a few tips based on my experience:

1. Do a thorough scan of your integrated apps and make sure they have a Lightning-ready version. If they don’t, decide if you need to change to another app or if you’re okay switching back to Salesforce Classic to use that app.
2. This is a chance to streamline and spring clean any old baggage like unused apps, old layouts, unused record types, and unused fields. If you’re like us, you probably have more than you need.
3. Don’t take on too much at once. Start with Lightning Experience features that will help your users be more efficient and help them work seamlessly. You’ll have plenty of time to build fancy program hubs later. Focus on 1-3 big efficiency improvements, show their value, help users adopt them, then build out from there.

With resources like the Transition to Lightning Experience Bootcamp at your disposal, you shouldn’t fear the transition to Lightning Experience. Sign-up today for the next Lightning Experience Bootcamp beginning in August 2019!