🌟 Community Discussion: Building Habits for Wrike Usage 🌟

Hi everyone 👋

We all know that integrating a new tool into our daily workflows can sometimes be a challenge. We're curious to hear from you: How do you encourage and build a habit for users in your organization to regularly use Wrike for their work?

Whether you’re just starting to implement Wrike or have been using it for years, your experiences and strategies can be incredibly valuable to others in our Community.

Here are a few prompts to get you started:

🛠 Onboarding Tips: What are some effective methods you’ve used to ensure new users are comfortable with Wrike from the get-go?

🚀 Daily Integration: How have you integrated Wrike into your team’s daily routine to make it a go-to resource?

🎯 Goal Setting: Can you share some ways you’ve highlighted Wrike’s benefits and aligned them with your team’s goals?

🤝 Collaboration Boosts: How has Wrike helped facilitate better teamwork, and how do you keep that momentum going?

🏆 Incentives & Rewards: Have you used any incentives to encourage consistent use? What’s been successful?

😰 Challenges: Have you tried something that didn't work?

Feel free to share any additional thoughts, tips, or success stories that might inspire others!

We're looking forward to learning from you and seeing how your proactive approaches have helped make Wrike an indispensable tool in your workflows ✨

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Comments

Florian Gascho

For us we had controlling and the higher ups declare Wrike as the tool of choice.

After that we just slowly started migrating all project relevant work.

In the past year we even started to migrate different processes to Wrike.

By doing so we are increasing the personell being confronted with Wrike.

We have faced challenges with the resistance of picking up Wrike, as its an ever changing System. Many of the colleagues would prefer to learn a tool once and not multiple times a year.

Claire Findlay

I encourage the use of the Teams app integration so that you get pinged in Teams for some Wrike notifications like any other Teams chat.

Emily Bressler

I've been doing monthly check-ins with each of my team members. This allows me to go over all the tasks that they currently have in wrike, identify tasks that should be added, and adjust tasks due dates. It's been super helpful for myself and my team members because they know that everything that they have in wrike is up to date.

David Simmington

I successfully integrated Wrike into my team's workflow, establishing it as a central resource by developing comprehensive dashboards and reports that provide seamless access to critical information with just a single click. Key metrics such as project statuses, time tracking, and profitability are readily available for enhanced visibility. Additionally, our collaborative effort in building and customizing the workspace has fostered collective buy-in, ensuring alignment and engagement with our processes.

Eric Fiero

For new hires on our team I have been training them on Wrike and the expectations around it from day one and this has helped them to be more active than longstanding team members. I strongly encourage a Dashboard and I plan on creating one of the new orientation type dashboards soon for new hires at our organization.

I highlight how Wrike helps to break down silos between teams and the collaboration between myself and the other PMs has helped to really strengthen this.

I'm very curious if anyone has had success with incentives.

John Egleston

One of our organization's practices undergirds the categories @Elizaveta Bogdanova listed above: Like the rest of our core technology products, Wrike has an any-staff product channel in our collaboration platform. Pinned tabs and posts there introduce users to the basics, encourage use of Wrike's great documentation, and invite collaboration on how we use Wrike in our various teams. I'll be listening here for ways to enhance that engagement. (We also have a private channel about Wrike for internal discussions with our Technology and Support & Solutions teams.)

Sherrie Besecker

Here are a few of our tips

Have a centralized Wrike Knowledge base and share with users across several tools - servers, MS Teams Channel, Public space in Wrike, etc.
Encourage teams to install the MS teams Wrike app - so they don't miss critical updates
Standardize how training is done, what you are training on (like for new users or refresher training) and how it is accessed
Build a request form to standardize how you support your team!

Kelsey Rudolph

When I onboard new team members, I encourage them to bookmark their Wrike to-do list instead of the homepage when using the web browser. I notice most users that don't "live in Wrike" use their inbox as their to-do vs their actual to-do list and this ensures that they are acting on things that need to be completed vs working out of a reactive state.

I also am in the process of incorporating an onboarding project blueprint in Wrike to get new team members some initial hands-on experience when they join so that they can quickly get comfortable using Wrike they way our team uses it. One thing I've experienced with new team members that have a history of Wrike is they carry habits over from the team they came from that doesn't align with our processes. This gets that experience out from the get-go and will have step by steps on our teams "how-To's"

Christy Flater

Our onboarding process has been streamlined in Wrike. We have several different blueprints for each of the different teams in our department that new hires start on day one to get introduced to Wrike. The tasks also give them prompts to interact with Wrike and start using the features while they are doing the video training from Wrike also. We have also implemented a 10-15 minute Wrike Discover segment during our monthly all team meeting that highlights one feature in Wrike and where individuals can share how they are being creative and using Wrike.

Ali Moses

Our leadership has been supportive in making Wrike the single source of truth and communications for most production tasks. This has really helped with adoption. We also are in the middle of a push to add all departmental knowledge bases and SOPs to a Wrike space. I think this will also serve to familiarize our employees with Wrike and its capabilities.

Jeffrey Bond

We initiated our project by meticulously identifying and defining the necessary data points. Subsequently, we constructed our operational framework. To validate our approach, we conducted parallel testing on a small scale alongside our legacy system, ensuring the adequacy of our preparations for a successful launch. This phase included the development of comprehensive dashboards and reporting mechanisms.

Following this, we engaged with leadership to secure their confidence in our product prior to its official launch. Throughout the process, we strategically released teasers via our collaboration tools to generate enthusiasm among stakeholders. Upon receiving leadership approval, we crafted a detailed training script and facilitated multiple meetings with staff. These sessions aimed to elucidate the operational intricacies and rationale behind the new tool, while also gathering feedback to enhance the user experience.

For our onboarding process, we not only created a detailed blueprint for Wrike but also utilized it to communicate essential information about company websites, key personnel, and other critical resources necessary for a successful onboarding experience.

Turns out we were too successful, and everyone wants Wrike, but we are holding the door and are requiring business use cases with VP approval and 1:1 discussion, as not everyone needs a robust portfolio and project tool.

Brian Bulthuis

At my organization, we are less than a year into our Wrike migration from another work management platform. As part of the implementation team, I quickly learned everything I could about the Wrike environment. I took classes in Wrike's discovery portal and eventually completed the Wrike Certified Professional certification.

Through this process, I created blueprints, dashboards, and reports for my department's day-to-day operations. These also serve as templates for others throughout our enterprise. I have also developed a quick Wrike training course to teach my coworkers how to quickly get started using Wrike. For meetings, we utilize the dashboards we have built within Wrike as agendas, where project statuses and task assignments are perfectly captured and displayed.

By providing reliable training, templates for reports, and dashboards, team members have the necessary resources they need to be successful and are encouraged to remain engaged in Wrike.

Sarah Dungey

Our Wrike Champions lead new user trainings when a new person is onboarded, so each person gets a customized introduction to Wrike and their team's use case for the tool.

Our project managers heavily leverage Wrike and keep project artifacts and meeting notes stored together, encouraging our team members to also reference and leverage Wrike.

Laura Lysaght

I set up a digital signage monitor with a slideshow of live views of our dashboards. It was the visual reminder many people needed to go make updates.

Jessica Kvanvig

Earlier this year, I created onboarding blueprints for our collaborator vendors and regular users. I update these monthly with the latest Wrike video tutorials and share them with our global team via Wrike and Teams. For regular users, onboarding includes a meeting with me to optimize their dashboards for their specific roles.

I'd also love to hear more from others about success with incentives.

And, @Sherrie Besecker, can you tell me more on how you built a request form to standardize how you support your team? What did you include?

Hitesh Karkal

We use Wrike to create temporary spaces for new users practice, & monitor their usage & training plans through dashboards to check for any blockers & assist based on the sections where assistance is needed

Pietro Poli

When a new colleague starts at Yourbiz we are aware that Wrike can be a hurdle to overcome.

The first step is to show the basic use they need:
- Dashboard with daily activities (the same for everyone)
- How to use timelogs (create, edit, delete)
- Overview of useful forms (permissions, sick leave, opening projects, etc.)

After that we ask that the new person follow the first video courses on discover.wrike The Beginner, The Individual, The Leader, The Champion and Remote Work (to be able to become familiar with the terminology and make some changes) + a guide to read, which shows, step by step, how we structured Wrike for our company.

We then have a channel in Chat and a form in Wrike for requests for help (I don't know how to do it, I need help on...).

Heather Hernandez

For Daily Integration I try to teach new users how to tag the appropriate projects and use the appropriate workflow.

Therese Forsyth

Monthly meetings with team members have been quite valuable. We aren't able to meet with all users, so we focus on the project owners and executive sponsors.We made a standard dashboard for these meetings, and have been augmenting them to match what each person prefers/needs to see. The meetings have helped some users become more comfortable, they have demystified Wrike, and we always come away with ideas to make further improvements.

Our entire PM team is also shifting all of our work, not just project related, into Wrike. This includes everything from meetings, to-do items, emails that need extra attention. We each have our own dashboard to help us manage ALL the things.

Ben Thomas

We have created a dashboard for each team member to see their tasks and work through like a checklist to stay on top of projects.

Andrei Shkvarok

Whenever we receive requests in Outlook, we politely remind our colleagues that there is a request form in Wrike that they can fill out. We emphasize that it is more efficient because their request goes to the corresponding team's dashboard and we always have visibility of who is working on what, statuses, etc.

Additionally, we do quarterly user trainings to showcase new features, remind users of best practices, and address their questions and pain points.

Kendra Ciszczon

We have revived our Wrike "governance team" and are sharing success stories each time we meet. The spotlight speaker is sharing how Wrike is helping their team with daily work, how leadership is keeping track of projects with reports, and how easy it is for their team to work in Wrike!

Anthony Sciarrillo

Something I did to help onboard new employees was create a training project blueprint that covers all things Wrike. It includes steps, pictures, and extensive instructions to help you through each item. In addition, this training blueprint includes steps to create a personal dashboard where the new employee can begin tracking all their tasks and projects. I also lead a Wrike Governance Committee where we meet monthly to discuss all the release notes, active issues, or new ideas that benefit our division.

Kendra Ciszczon

@Anthony Sciarrillo Hello! Would you be able to share the steps for creating a personal dashboard? I have a team asking me to create a document for them with the steps and it would be awesome if I did not have to recreate the wheel.

Steve Mruskovic

I think our biggest stumbling block is with teams that aren't in Wrike regularly. Adoption has increased over the past year+, including departments that showed resistance. But we still have some teams that do not interact with us outside of submitting a request for a project. They then try to communicate through other channels where they are most comfortable(we're a Google house, so GChat mostly, and Mail).

To combat this gently, I always share the link to the proper place for them to ask the question and get answers and tell them to drop their questions in the project/task. For more senior members. I'll share the link and tell them that I'll ask their question for them and they can find the answers there. I also ensure them that I'm doing this for their benefit, to help them keep all their info together, and to keep the info stream up to date.

There are just some org members who, even if you made the prettiest dashboard with all info at their fingertips, would still rely on Gchat because of their misplaced feeling that it is the quickest route to a solution for them.

Chris Falgiani

We were able to do this by:

- Naming a point person (me) for Wrike within our organization. I prepared onboarding materials that I use for all new users, which includes instructions, tips, and screenshots.

- I had buy-in from my manager and the managers of other teams on our workflow and processes. I regularly solicit feedback from our creative team members about how Wrike is working for them and we changed our workflow in direct response to this feedback.

- We have a rule that all work done must be in Wrike but it all is submitted to me as it is my role to put it in Wrike.

- We use Wrike's features to be transparent with everyone and encourage collaboration within Wrike.

- The managers of the people who actually perform the work have been champions and encourage their staff to use Wrike and to ask me if they have any questions.

- I regularly have trainings and "office hours" where users can drop in and have me demo a feature.

Florian Kislich

We use Wrike for managing internal issues with a ticket system. So if a colleague tells me of an issue he has faced, I ask him to fill out our Wrike ticket request forms. In some cases I'll fill out the form by myself and tag the affected colleagues, so that every issue is tracked in wrike and everyone can see the progress. This is one way to get people more used to Wrike, and it's quite successful.

Fabio Bartolini

Wrike was introduced to us a few months ago as a platform to work in collaboration with the core team. Prior to its implementation, we had been facing several pain points that were not being solved, but thanks to Wrike we not only solved them, but it allowed us to introduce new ways of working that are now also shown to new team members as an indispensable tool for managing the daily workflow.

Kevin Thalacker

Onboarding and utilizing Wrike:

Invite email explaining why we are using Wrike and what will come next after gaining access.
Assigning learning tasks to help better understand why we and how to use Wrike
Emphasizing that Wrike is our central source of truth. If it is not in Wrike, it does not exist.
Bi-weekly program reviews that is only done by displaying Wrike
Use New Dashboards with Public links to help share what we are accomplishing

Anna Giacobbe

We have created a Teams channel to communicate things like tips, changes, and resources! We use that channel to let others know when there are new process that we created, major changes we have made, or big goals that Marketing Operations are working towards. This helps keeps users aware of what's happening in our account and ultimately help them know how to navigate our ever-changing processes!