Brainstorm

Before easing your team on to Asana, come up with a brief list of arguments for why your team needs to work more efficiently. Maybe you're spending 5 hours per week in meetings, or maybe it's become too complicated to have discussions about projects over lengthy email chains. Point out how much time it takes to get everyone on the same page. Whatever your reasons might be, give your team an example for why Asana will help streamline processes and help everyone get things done faster. If you make a compelling argument for using Asana, your team is more likely to notice the benefits right away. 

Start small

It might be extremely difficult to get 10 people (or even 5 people) to start using a new product all at once. Look at the way your team is structured, and select a few core people that you think would be most open to trying Asana. These people might be the ones who are most influential within your team - the dedicated project manager or the person who takes all of the meeting notes. Identify the evangelists who are willing to try new products and invite them to start using Asana. Give them some background information about why you're interested in using it as a team. 

Deploy slowly

Before you send invites to your core team members, set up some Project templates so that your coworkers have something to click through when they open Asana. Then, send out invites, taking the time to remind each of them what Asana is and why the team is using it. When you are ready to invite a few more people to your Workspace, it might be a good idea to call a team meeting to do a walkthrough of the Asana Workspace and Projects you have set up. While Asana will eventually help your team reduce meetings, it’s important to talk through setting up your Workspace so that everyone is on the same page.

In the meeting, project your monitor on a screen so that the entire team can follow along while you show them how to create Tasks, assign followers, add tags, write comments, etc. You can even watch a few of the Best Practice Videos and go over a few of the Knowledge Base Articles together. Task out one small Project together, going through the basic steps. Your team might not be using all of the features in the beginning -- just start by showing them the basics, and build from there. Talking through your Workspace and showing your team simple step-by-step best practices is the best way to get everyone on board.

Integrate team processes and behavior

Think about your team’s process and structure before you start. A little bit of planning can go a long way. For example, who will be creating Tasks, and who will be prioritizing them? Sometimes it’s helpful to specify a person who’s responsible for each Asana Project.

It’s going to take some legwork to make sure your Asana Workspace is set up in a way that feels natural to your team’s workflow. It’s important to understand your coworkers’ habits and recognize that it will take a little effort to change the way they work --  you probably won’t change anyone’s behavior in one day.

Our suggestion is to stick with current processes at first, but encourage everyone to make an effort to use Asana as well. For example, if your team creates a Google Doc with a meeting agenda and circulates it via email, create a Task that says “Look over Google Doc for meeting agenda” and add your team members as followers. Before the next meeting, create the Task “Put meeting agenda in Asana instead of Google Doc” and assign it to the person who creates the agenda. It might take some time to figure out how to best incorporate Asana into your team’s workflow, but your efforts will pay off in the end.

Also, make sure to build best practices for using Asana into your team’s training materials so that new team members can get up to speed quickly.

Be persistent

It will take even longer for everyone to adopt Asana if you aren’t consistent about using it. This is the time to over-communicate with your teammates.

Don’t fall back on old habits -- make sure you (and your core team members) are setting an example. It might even make sense to set basic ground rules for your team, such as what requires email and what should be done exclusively in Asana.

Check in with your team every day to see if anyone has questions. In some situations, it might even be helpful to assign daily Tasks about using Asana to team members who are slow to adopt. For example, set up the Project “Explore Asana’s Features” and list a few Tasks like “Create a new Project,” “Set a due date,” “Add comments to a Task,” or even “Invite someone to join Asana.” Assign those tasks to the most stubborn teammates, and give them incentive for completing them.

If your team continues to use email for all team communications, there are a few ways you can help move them onto Asana. Instead of responding to their emails, forward the emails to x@mail.asana.com to create new Tasks, add your team members as followers (or assign specific Tasks), and only use the comments section of those Tasks to discuss details. If coworkers are still having trouble creating Tasks in Asana, try creating a template with placeholders for where specific information should go within the Task or Project. For example, put “New customer name here” or “First task of the day goes here” as Task names. In the comments section, you can get the conversation going by writing the first comment: “This is where we’ll have discussions about the Task. Please comment here to let me know you’ve seen this message!”

Also, make sure your team members are aware that they can use email integration with Asana.

Listen to your team

Be mindful of insight. Ask questions, collect feedback, and listen to your team members to figure out what’s working and what isn’t working. You might even want to create a “Suggestions” Project in your Workspace for initial feedback. Each Task could be a suggestion, and you could keep track of whether or not you incorporate the feedback in the comments section of each Task.

Watch this video for more tips: Getting Your Team on Asana