How to onboard early adopters to Microsoft Teams

Microsoft created Teams as a way for businesses and employees to use Microsoft’s social platform. It allows employees to collaborate using video content, pictures, documents and communication.

There are a number of different strategies for onboarding new early adopters to Microsoft Teams. Many small businesses and large enterprises use Teams as an important tool in their everyday business. However, if you are new to Teams then some of these strategies may be new to you.

The goal of onboarding new users to Teams is usually two-fold. Firstly, to make sure that the user understands how Teams works. Secondly, to make sure that the user gets set up with all of the tools that they need in order to use Teams effectively.

Are you ready to onboard on Teams? Read on to find out how.

Invite user to Teams

Send a welcome email to users with the names and descriptions of the teams you created and invite them to join the conversations in Teams. Be sure to include the following links in the email so they know where to get Teams clients, training, and support:

• Teams web client
• Desktop and mobile client download links
• Teams training videos
• Teams Help documentation

Engage with new users right away. Create a welcome message in Teams and begin a conversation in a channel. This sets the tone and encourages users to migrate to Teams.

Include the same links you sent in the email in the welcome message, as well as any other helpful information to get users up and running quickly. Check in with users to ensure they understand how to download, install, and sign in to Teams so they can begin chatting, sharing files, and collaborating.

Get the right Teams software

Teams has clients for desktop (Windows and Mac), web, and mobile (iOS and Android). We highly recommend users to install the desktop and mobile clients to have the best experience with Teams.

Desktop client

The Teams desktop client gives Windows and Mac users the best overall experience. To learn more, see Get clients for Teams (Desktop client) and Hardware requirements for the Microsoft Teams app.

Teams for Windows 

The easiest way to install the Windows desktop client is to:

• Download the Windows desktop client from https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads.
• Run the installer (doesn’t require admin permissions).
• Start Teams after installation completes.

Teams for Mac

The easiest way to install the Mac desktop client is to:

• Download the Mac desktop client from https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads.
• Run the installer (requires admin permissions).
• Start Teams after installation completes.

Web users

Teams provides a feature-rich web client, https://teams.microsoft.com, that supports a variety of browsers.

Teams fully supports the following Internet browsers, with noted exceptions for calling and meetings. This table applies to operating systems running on desktop computers.

Some specifications for web users to take into account:

• To give and take control of shared content during sharing, both parties must be using the Teams desktop client. Control isn’t supported when either party is running Teams in a browser. This is due to a technical limitation that we’re planning to fix.
• Blur my background isn’t available when you run Teams in a browser. This feature is only available in the Teams desktop client.
• Teams meetings on browsers are limited to a single stream; either incoming video feed of the current speaker or screen sharing.
• Edge RS2 or later doesn’t support sending real-time audio and video traffic through HTTP proxies.

Mobile users

The Teams mobile clients for iOS and Android keep users connected and productive when on-the-go. To learn more, see Get clients for Teams (Mobile clients).

Teams for iOS

Users running iOS 10.0 or later can download the Teams mobile app from the Apple App Store and get started right away.

Teams for Android

Users running Android 4.4 or later can download the Teams mobile app from the Google Play Store and get started right away.

Drive the initial adoption

It’s important to encourage your early adopters to actively use Teams to promote new collaboration experiences and develop Teams champions. We recommend using the “How do I” channel in the “Get to know Teams” team you created to share guidance with your users to help drive adoption.

For detailed guidance on driving Teams adoption for your organization, see Adopt Teams.

Conclusion

It is essential that you explain to the user exactly what Teams is. It is easy to get trapped in the habit of talking about Teams as a product rather than talking about what it is actually for.

Once you have explained what Teams is, you need to show your employees or coworkers what it can do. Firstly, show them the features. When you set up Teams, you will get access to a number of different groups. These groups can be anything from Skype through to Slack.

Once you have shown the user what features Teams has, you need to show the users how they can use them. Try to show them how to use each one of the functions. After you have shown them all of the features, you need to show them how all of that works together.

It is important to make this demonstration as clear and concise as possible. As you are showing the user how everything works, you need to be as clear as possible. Just make sure that you are showing them the features and how they work.

Need help onboarding your staff to Microsoft Teams? You can always contact EmpowerIT to learn the Microsoft Teams best practices.

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