The Salesforce IT admins followed 7 key steps to roll out Lightning Experience: 1. Early and frequent communication through multiple channels to update employees on the plan, timeline, and changes. 2. Analysis of users and features to determine readiness and plan the rollout. 3. Creation of an early adopter group representing different user profiles to test Lightning Experience. 4. Executive participation in communicating with employees to drive adoption. 5. Transparency by notifying users ahead of changes and answering questions. 6. Providing flexibility by enabling switching between Lightning Experience and Classic. 7. Generating feedback through an active Chatter group assigned to Lightning experts.

2. Admins on Salesforce’s IT team
followed these 7 steps to roll out
Lightning Experience.
FEEDBACK
EXECUTIVE
PARTICIPATION
TRANSPARENCY
FLEXIBILITY
7
6
4
5
This way to Lightning
COMMUNICATION ANALYSIS
EARLY
ADOPTERS
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3
admins

3. Early and often, the admins at Salesforce used many communication channels to keep everyone up to date on the Lightning
migration. Prior to the rollout, they communicated about the plan, its objective, and the timeline. The communications occurred
months in advance of any changes.
Chatter Group: Early in the process, the team set up a Chatter group so that any employee could ask questions and communicate
with the team. The group also allowed the Admin team to post links to key documents, walk-throughs, and timelines.
Email Updates: The Admin team also regularly dropped status updates in users’ inboxes. This ensured that everyone would receive
updates on the project even if they weren’t a member of the Chatter group.
Communication1
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admins

4. Tips for Communicating
Publish communications in at least three channels (email, Chatter, company newsletter) to
ensure that the information is read by everyone at least once.
In addition to these channels, look at other forms of communication that are unique to your
organization, such as:
• Internal posting site
• Company town halls or all-hands meetings
If your organization has an internal communications person, work with him or her on
messaging.
Over-communicate everything so no one is left out!
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Get Hands-on
Earn the
Lightning Experience Rollout
badge
admins

5. admins
Before making any decision, our system administrators looked at the population of users, features they
were using, and features that were Lightning ready.
By looking at users based on their level of Salesforce usage, the admins were able to assess which users
would benefit right away from having the new Lightning Experience. Light and intermediate users who
interact with standard objects could be moved early on, while heavy users who engage with highly
customized features could be moved to the new interface toward the end of the rollout.
In addition to analyzing users, the Admin team looked at the number of lines of code in our org, such as
triggers, Visualforce pages, etc. to determine how best to move the features over considering the new
functionality available in Lightning Experience.
Analysis2
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6. 1 32 4 5 6 7
Taking a step back and looking at users by profile helps you determine who to invite into an early
adopter group. Think about how you can group your users in addition to profile. For example,
you can group them by light (users who use Salesforce to post on Chatter and look up data),
intermediate (individuals who use Chatter, plus update records periodically), and heavy (users
who create and edit records regularly and interact with many custom objects and apps).
Use the Lightning Readiness Check tool to understand the specifics of what you need to change
to get your org ready for Lightning.
Tips for Analyzing
admins
“Evaluating your org's readiness for Lightning Experience
is a great excuse to go through and clean up any old,
obsolete, or unused customizations.”
Evelyn Kruskopf
Associate Systems Specialist, Salesforce
Get Hands-on
Run the
Readiness Check
bit.ly/runthereadinesscheck

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Salesforce’s team of administrators created a small group with various profiles and
levels of Salesforce usage to be early adopters. This group was cross-functional —
representing many different departments within Salesforce — and included a mix
of light, intermediate, and heavy users who all had one thing in common: a
passion to learn Lightning and help implement it in the best way possible.
At the time of the companywide launch, the early adopter group was key to
driving adoption, answering questions, and helping to mitigate change for users
companywide.
Early Adopters3
admins

8. Get Hands-on
Create a
Permission set for your pilot
Watch this how-to video:
bit.ly/enablinglightningdemo
Tips for Early Adopters
After identifying key users, extend an exclusive invite for
those users to participate in the rollout of Lightning.
As part of this program, these key users are the first to have
Lightning Experience enabled for them. They will have
the opportunity to participate in meetings with key
executives and the Salesforce Admin team to provide
feedback, a win-win for everyone.
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admins

9. Executive participation in the rollout helped to drive adoption by aligning the
rollout to the company’s core values and principles.
In addition to the admin team communicating with users, the executive team
also communicated frequently with users about the rollout.
The executive team set public goals and timelines for the rollout. This
executive participation and transparency helped to get all employees on
board and aligned the adoption with other company initiatives.
Executive Participation4
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admins

10. Tips for Executive Participation
To get executive participation, schedule 1:1 demos with key executives and influencers.
Prior to meeting with key executives, gather information about the top features they are
using and what they want to see. Then construct a demo of the new Lightning Experience
highlighting those features.
Get Hands-on
Compare features in
Lightning Experience
and Salesforce Classic
bit.ly/lightningvsclassic
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admins
"We stack ranked the most important features to
optimize for Lightning Experience, which really paid off.
Key stakeholders in sales, customer service, and
marketing stepped up to test and validate the new
functionalities offered.”
Jordan Mangini
Sr. Systems Specialist, Salesforce

11. The feedback that our early adopters provided helped us to target our
communication throughout rollout. Using the feedback, we were able to notify users
ahead of time about changes to process, current workflows, where to find everyday
features and fields, etc.
Notifying users about these changes ahead of time meant the Salesforce team had
to answer fewer questions at rollout. Targeting communication to users based on
their specific role within the organization also left users reassured that the Salesforce
Admin team had carefully and thoroughly planned the rollout with them in mind.
Transparency5
admins
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Tips for Creating Transparency
Don’t scare people! Make sure all changes are communicated clearly and well in
advance. Include the timeline for changes in all your communications so users
feel they are along for the ride.
Share goals, progress, and changes as the rollout moves forward.
Last but not least, let everyone know where to go to get questions answered.
Get Hands-on
Download the
Enablement Pack
for templates and resources:
bit.ly/lightningenablementpack
admins

13. Prior to rollout and during launch, all communication provided clear
instructions for switching back to the Classic interface. Providing this
information avoided an all-or-nothing feel during the rollout. Users
were made aware that they could jump back to an interface they were
familiar with, which is key for high-volume users and users who need to
access apps that aren’t yet ready in Lightning Experience.
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Flexibility6
admins

14. Get Hands-on
Download the
Adoption Tracker App:
bit.ly/lightningadoptiontracker
Your early adopters can help with flexibility by showing their peers how easy it is to
switch back and forth from Classic to Lightning Experience.
Use the Adoption Tracker App from AppExchange to track how your users interact
with Lightning Experience and whether they are switching back and forth.
Tips for Flexibility
admins
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15. At rollout, a specific Chatter group was created so that users could post questions, offer
tips, and provide feedback.
The admin team made sure this feedback group was active and helpful by assigning
Lightning experts to offer their skills and answer questions posted in the group.
This Chatter group continues to drive Lightning Experience adoption at Salesforce and
gives users more ownership of the rollout plan.
admins
Feedback7
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16. Make sure you assign an owner to the Chatter group who actively responds to
users’ comments. Also encourage or incentivize your early adopter group, for
example your Lightning experts, to actively participate.
Tips for Generating Feedback
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“Listen to your users and do what you
do best — deliver solutions that help
them and your organization succeed.”
Eric Lopez
Sr. System Administrator, Salesforce
Get Hands-on
Capture user feedback by
Creating a Lightning
Chatter Group
admins

17. admins
Join the Lightning Now! group in the Success Community to
continue learning together.
Develop your own path to Lightning Experience.
Earn the Lightning badges in Trailhead to get ready.
Now it’s Your Turn!