This post is Part 5 in our series of different ways to get started in Growth Panel. In previous posts we’ve covered: 

• Tackling an immediate business challenge
• Managing an existing marketing project
• Expanding marketing expertise in a specific subject 
• Moving your entire marketing management to Growth Panel

Today I’ll show you how to train your team on a task using Library exercises and the Projects section.

The first question to ask is What am I training my team to do? Do you want to focus on a single task, such as preparing a campaign ROI projection? Or do you want to cover an entire subject, like Brand Strategy?

Either way, you’ll start by using exercises from the Library and the Projects section. Let’s take the latter example from above - training your team to develop brand strategies.

Review and Customize the Brand Strategy Exercises

Step 1 is to review the content and add any custom steps, description or instructions to the content.

From Library>Brand Strategy, download each exercise:

• Audit Your Current Brand
• Choose Your Brand Type
• Confirm Your Value Proposition
• Develop Your Brand Architecture
• Define Your Brand Strategy
• Develop Your Brand Story
• Define Your Visual Requirements
• Define Your Operational Requirements

You may want to create a folder on your desktop/network called “Growth Panel Exercises” and save them there for easy access. Open each exercise, review it and customize it as you wish. Then, set it as your new default (see instructions in this article).  Continue doing this until you’ve covered all the content your team will need.

Apply the Exercises to a Task 

Since the exercises are written to help users complete a task, the best way to train your team is to have them apply it to a real task. From Projects, create a new project titled Brand Strategy Training. (Note: Be sure that you’ve added your team members as users from the My Account section).

After saving the project, click on the Brand Strategy Training link from the main Projects view to enter the project details. Manually add a milestone (call it something like Brand Strategy Proficiency), and enter your target date for completion.

Then, click into the Library>Brand Strategy section and download the first exercise you’d like your team to complete.  Before you download the exercise, a new window will give you the option of attaching it to your project. Select your Brand Strategy Training project, and, since you don’t need to work on the exercise yourself, select Cancel when Word prompts you to open it.  This will attach the exercise as a task to your project so you don’t have to manually do it yourself.

After you’ve completed this for each exercise you want your team to complete, move back into your project area and you’ll see each exercise set as a task. Click on the task name to open the details, assign it to a team member and add the rest of the details. Be sure to attach it to your milestone to keep everything organized.

When you’re done, select the Comments icon and send a message to your team members notifying them they have new tasks. Have them complete each branding exercise using your own company as the target.  They should then load the completed exercises to each corresponding task.

Give Feedback and Repeat

Review your team’s completed work, and discuss the results. Some managers prefer to add comments directly in Word and upload the revised files; others prefer to meet face-to-face. It’s your call.

Have your team apply the same exercises to different targets/scenarios for repetition, comprehension and varying perspective. After completing a task/subject a few times, your team will start to feel comfortable applying it to any target.

Tags: getting started, Training

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 11:20 am and is filed under Product Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.