1. Build an internal team of ServiceNow experts and train users
Success Pillar: Create excitement, drive adoption

2. Success Pillars – Structure
State and measure your business goals
Actively lead the transformation
Get your ServiceNow foundations right
Create excitement, drive adoption 1
State your transformation vision and outcomes 1
Engage an executive sponsor to drive change and remove roadblocks 1
Manage to
out of the box 1
Design an engaging self-service employee and customer experience 2
Build your business case 2
Find, manage, and coordinate capable, certified partners 2
Discover and map your service assets 2
Design an optimal agent and rep experience 3
Build a phased
program plan, identify quick wins 3
Build a dedicated, dynamic governance process, policies, and team 3
Plan your architecture, instances, integrations, and data flows 3
Create a change management plan 4
Baseline and track performance, usage KPIs, and metrics 4
Reimagine how you want work processes to flow 4
Plan for upgrades at least once a year 4
Build an internal team of ServiceNow experts and train users 5
Define and map out your business services 5
Build a community of champions 6
Manage platform demand

3. Build an internal team of ServiceNow experts and train users
Training and skill development should not just be “one and done” for meeting initial implementation requirements. Rather, training and skill development for your ServiceNow® team, process users, and customer base should be ongoing, and it should build a comprehensive set of skills and knowledge to help make your transformation happen.
To take a holistic view of training, organizations must understand the skills required to manage ServiceNow as a program of action and transformation. This improves your talent pipeline for ServiceNow roles (like your platform team and process users) and increases organizational engagement around the value of service delivery.
Insight: Build an internal team of ServiceNow experts and train users
Building and training an internal team of ServiceNow experts involves targeting three populations:
The ServiceNow platform team – This team needs training to design, support, and maintain the Now Platform®.
Process users – These primary users of the platform fulfill employee requests, and they need to be fully trained to support the services you offer.
Users – Your users need to be aware of how service management can help them, and they need to be trained to be comfortable with the tools and services you offer through ServiceNow so they’re sure to adopt those tools and services.
Key implementation steps
Start
Improve
Optimize
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

4. Step 1a: Determine your needs for internal ServiceNow expertise
Begin implementing ServiceNow by thoroughly assessing and identifying the expert roles you need to support the platform.
Understand the roles and knowledge you need on the ServiceNow platform team to provide platform design, support, configuration, and maintenance
Define the roles and expertise you need to comprise your ServiceNow platform team.
Now Platform owner – A senior leader who leads the decision-making for the platform with expertise in governance, business, and platform strategy
Now Platform architect – A senior technical leader who creates and maintains a detailed view of the existing platform and who has expertise in consultative leadership, business strategy, and governance, along with strong technical abilities
ServiceNow application developer – A senior technical resource who is able to design, build, and customize applications and services and who has expertise in advanced system administration, systems design, requirements gathering, and scripting
ServiceNow system administrator – Assures stability and performance of the Now Platform and has expertise in application maintenance, user management, and managing support incidents, along with strong technical abilities
ServiceNow quality assurance engineer – Ensures the quality of the platform and has expertise in reviewing requirements and technical designs and in software quality assurance methodology
ServiceNow business analyst – Has expertise in working with key project stakeholders to capture business and user requirements and in communicating those requirements to the platform team
ServiceNow trainer – Has expertise in creating materials and delivering user training that ensures effective and efficient application use
ServiceNow project manager/scrum master – Has expertise in planning, managing, and delivering software releases
Practitioner insight: The size of your ServiceNow team and the expertise it requires will vary based on the scope of your ServiceNow deployment. For example, your team construction depends on whether you’re supporting multiple products or need to build custom apps. Initially, you may only have a few resources, and those resources will take on multiple roles. Typically, there are two to three members on the team, and they wear multiple hats. For example, the platform owner and system administrator (maybe the same person), and application developer are roles mentioned, and they may not even be fully dedicated to the role. You can borrow project management from your program management team.
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

5. 1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
Step 1a: Determine your needs for internal ServiceNow expertise (Continued)
Understand the roles and knowledge you need on the ServiceNow platform team to provide platform design, support, configuration, and maintenance (Continued)
Create a chart that documents each roles’ responsibilities and accountabilities (a RACI) to ensure your platform needs are addressed.
Assess the number of expert staff you need on your ServiceNow platform team.
Review your implementation roadmap to determine which products you’re implementing and when and how they’re phased out. This will help you gain insight into the level of expertise your team will need to provide and when.
Work with your implementation partner to determine if they can handle the initial support for some of this expertise and then transition it back over time.
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

6. Step 1b: Document the needed training, certifications, and skills
Training needs to be a key component of enterprise service transformation and fully funded across the program lifecycle. To support this, the training budget needs to be owned by a senior executive who can protect funding as organizational priorities and needs evolve.
Research the ServiceNow technical product training course and certification options and calculate the training costs needed to train your ServiceNow platform team
Research local or online providers of ITIL training and certifications.
Review the ServiceNow training and certification guide for available paths by role and by product.
Review the training paths applicable to the ServiceNow products your company is implementing, such as ITSM, ITOM, ITBM, CSM, HR, Security, or Now Platform.
Estimate the costs for training and certifications.
Review the ServiceNow training and certification courses and the ServiceNow training catalog to obtain costs.
Incorporate other training opportunities such as industry and ServiceNow events like Knowledge and NowForum/NowSummit.
Partner with your finance team to build out a model of the associated costs to use to determine the overall budget you need for compensation, training, and certifications.
Work with your executive sponsor to get budget approval.
Assemble a mission critical skill list and a wish list of skills your ServiceNow platform team should possess or develop 
Top skills should include:
Technical skills, especially with cloud-based products 
Communication and collaboration skills 
People skills
Some top capabilities would include:
An understanding of what outcomes you want to achieve and how to measure the value realized
An understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics 
A focus on innovation for better business outcomes 
Practitioner insight: Training needs to be integrated with the organization’s overall skills and training roadmap for transformation, ensuring that soft skills such as collaboration, negotiation, and influence are included as well as more structured service management and operational skills.
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

7. Step 2: Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
ServiceNow and service management training should include formalized training activities and on-the-job learning opportunities to build key skills. Training needs to be integrated with the organization’s overall skills and training roadmap for transformation, ensuring that soft skills such as collaboration, negotiation, and influence are included as well as more structured service management and operational expertise.
Document training requirements for the ServiceNow platform team by role, (see Step 1) which will be used to help build training plans for your team
Create a matrix of training requirements that will include a row for each role and a column for key learning opportunities, including:
ServiceNow-related training
ServiceNow certifications
Service management concepts
Other related certifications (like ITIL or PMP)
Industry-related expertise
Product area expertise (like HR, Customer Service, Security, etc.)
Skill development (technical, soft, etc.)
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

8. 2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
Step 2: Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise (Continued)
Create training plans for each member of the ServiceNow platform team
Perform a training needs assessment with each member of the team using the training matrix to determine where expertise gaps exist for each person in each role.
Assign training plans for each member of the team and address any gaps from the training needs assessment.
Define training and certification paths for team members based on the ServiceNow products you’re implementing and your role-based needs assessment.
Set training deadlines to finish before implementation starts.
If you’re using a partner for implementation, use the partner to train your ServiceNow platform team in new skills
Work with you partner to determine opportunities for group and individual training.
Ensure your partner is supporting ServiceNow implementation knowledge transfer by providing technical and development materials.
Practitioner insight: ServiceNow provides access to tools and resources on the Customer Success Center site, including best practice guidance and templates. Incorporate these resources into your training plan.
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

9. Step 3a: Identify who will train your process users
Process user training is critical. Process users (like your service desk agents, change managers, HR analysts, field service agents, project managers, security team support agents, customer service representatives, etc.) are the front line for most services offered on your Now Platform—they interface with your users and make sure users get the services they need. To be successful, you need to make sure these process users understand what they need to do in ServiceNow and how. Remember—not all training is created equally. It’s worth it to seriously consider how to best train your process users, and to make sure that your trainers completely understand your specific ServiceNow implementation so they can apply that knowledge in their work.
Determine what resources you will use to provide training to your process users—through ServiceNow, your partner, internally through your Now Platform team, or a combination
Assess where ServiceNow can develop and deliver customized training to your process users according to your specific implementation. Training packages scale from a small group of process users or trainers to thousands of process users.
Consider a train-the-trainer approach by having ServiceNow train selected process user trainers who will learn from the ServiceNow trainer and then pass that knowledge along to train the rest of your team.
Work with your partner to determine what types of process user training they offer.
Develop training through your team.
If you filled a ServiceNow trainer role on your platform team (defined in Step 1), investigate what that person can support in terms of training development and delivery. However, you will still likely need assistance from the team (and your partner) for curriculum development.
If you didn’t hire a ServiceNow trainer yet, identify and assign trainers from the ServiceNow platform team or from your learning and development team who will build and conduct training for process users.
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

10. Step 3b: Create a training curriculum plan for process users
The key in creating a services-led organization is empowering process users. It’s essential to identify and train the staff who will be the initial process users. This will ensure they understand and feel empowered with the tools to drive adoption.
Create a curriculum plan to determine the learning activities process users need to know about ServiceNow to deliver world-class services
Work with process user management (the service desk manager, for example) to determine the training goals you would like to achieve.
Define entry-level courses for first-time users.
Define advanced-level training to provide more in-depth knowledge for advanced users (that is, your power users who handle a high number of service transactions).
Define train-the-trainer classes to enable process user leaders to provide training to their extended teams.
Define skill development training to promote performance-specific goals such as increasing NPS through soft skill training.
Based on your training goals, develop a list of courses to be developed and delivered.
Consider using levels for courses that have a lot of content and presenting them by level of advancement, such as level 1 – basic; level 2 – medium, and level 3 – advanced.
Determine the methods you’ll use to deliver training.
LMS – Connect with your HR or learning and development team to determine if your company has a learning management system (LMS) you can use to deliver training.
Virtual, instructor-led training
Instructor-led training in person
Self-paced virtual training available through on-demand training opportunities
Practitioner insight: Ensure training materials are multi-modal. Classroom training for key staff can be augmented by videos, quizzes, and social media and gamification campaigns.
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

11. 3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
Step 3b: Create a training curriculum plan for process users (Continued)
Create a curriculum plan to determine the learning activities process users need to know about ServiceNow to deliver world-class services (Continued)
Assign trainers to develop materials for each training course they’ll offer.
Build out course descriptions, instructor and student workbooks, slides to deliver content, step-by-step product demonstrations, labs, etc.
Develop post-training quizzes to validate that users retained and understood the learning content.
Develop a post-training survey to gain feedback on the training content and the instructor.
Create a calendar that lists upcoming and future training opportunities including enrollment deadlines
Create a calendar with courses, dates courses will be delivered, the delivery method, and student size limits.
Select a subset of process users to complete training before the pilot so they can test the solution.
Set training deadlines to finish before your go-live. Start training two to three months before go-live to ensure timely completion.
Select the delivery method for each of your courses, such as LMS or other tools.
Work with process user team leaders to determine the method to communicate the availability of training.
If training will be delivered by a partner or ServiceNow, use their method of enrollment.
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

12. Step 3c: Build ongoing support for training and measure outcomes
The organization needs to ensure that line managers are aware of their coaching responsibilities so training is not a one-time event.
Meet with senior management to build ongoing support for training and service adoption by end users
Meet with senior leaders of process user teams (service desk leaders, for example) to educate, gain buy-in, and stress the importance of training.
Develop a training scorecard that tracks process user training performance and completion for managers to review
Determine how training has impacted employee and team job performance by tracking before and after metrics like satisfaction survey scores, first call resolution, and time to resolution.
Practitioner insight: The biggest cause for failure to learn is insufficient managerial support for changing work activities after training. Senior management must make sure that line managers understand the need for training, and that they support the staff who are trying out new ways of working as they apply new concepts and ideas to the organization. To promote training opportunities, managers should reward those who take training seriously.
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

13. Step 4: Extend service management training to the broader organization
Extend your training beyond the immediate service process users and ServiceNow platform team so you can familiarize the entire organization with what ServiceNow offers. Make users aware of how they can get value by adopting ServiceNow services and working with process users.
Introduce the Now Platform to the broader community
Conduct sessions targeted at users (in other words, the employees submitting service requests to process users) and the greater community of your organization to educate and promote awareness of service management, increase adoption of the Now Platform, and build a community of champions.
Schedule webinars or lunch and learns, or talk about service management at company or team meetings.
Promote sessions through various methods such as internal social tools or posters in the breakrooms, elevators, etc. (Partner with your internal communications and marketing teams to assist.)
Provide a baseline education of what service management is and the benefits of using it to provide a context for why the organization adopted ServiceNow.
Perform short product demos to demonstrate use cases applicable to the audience, such as examples of the service requests they’ll be using.
Work with your ServiceNow account team to help prepare content and help prepare or perform product demonstrations.
Provide examples of the business units in your organization that are already using ServiceNow along with any success stories with metrics, such as time and money saved, increased automation, higher NPS, etc. If your implementation is new, work with your ServiceNow account team to get examples of similar organizations and their results. 
Make user training and tools available to users to promote adoption and reduce the ambiguity felt by non-IT employees
Create and provide access to short videos, infographics, and other tools to provide insight into the service and process being offered.
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

14. Step 5a: Connect the Now Platform to career development
To reliably deliver value and support enterprise transformation goals using the Now Platform over time, it’s important to deepen your ServiceNow “talent bench.” Don’t stop expanding ServiceNow expertise in your organization once you have a core team in place. Consider this: If one of your experts leaves the team, how will you quickly backfill their role without having developed similar expertise in others?
Create career development paths for your Now Platform and process user team
Develop your ServiceNow platform team.
Document and communicate career opportunities within the ServiceNow platform team and in other areas of the organization, like IT, Security, etc.
Incorporate training requirements into team goals, individual performance reviews, and as components to merit raises.
Consider paying out bonuses and/or level promotions—like associate, senior, or principal—based on training and certification attainment and maintenance.
Encourage process user managers to link ServiceNow and service management training to process user performance and growth opportunities.
Include training as part of team goals and career development.
Build a talent pool for the ServiceNow platform team 
Use process users as an expanded resource to support the platform team. This is also a way to evaluate and expose process users to potential careers paths on the platform team. Here are some of those opportunities:
Involve process users in development, design, and testing opportunities. This will not only benefit the team as extended resources, but it also allows access and insight into potential future candidates for the platform team.
Identify heavy process users who are high performers and get feedback on design, enhancements, and innovation opportunities.
Allow top-performing process users to shadow the ServiceNow platform team.
Use top-performing process users to test upgrades and new applications.
Extend certification opportunities to process users.
As use of the Now Platform expands, so will the pool of potential platform team candidates, including external employee referrals.
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

15. Step 5b: Refresh and enhance training ongoing
As the services journey develops, training, and development needs will shift rapidly. It’s important that the organization actively tracks new developments in service delivery and in ServiceNow functionality. Continually evaluate training based on what’s required to make new approaches work across the enterprise.
Provide ongoing training opportunities
Consider browsing the ServiceNow Training options, which includes courses and certifications.
Incorporate other training and networking opportunities including industry and ServiceNow events, like Knowledge, NOW Forums, SNUGs, and CreatorCon.
Other ServiceNow learning resources include ServiceNow Developers and Demo Center.
Align your training plan with your ServiceNow roadmap.
Review updated roadmaps that come out of governance meetings.
Prior to ServiceNow upgrades, enroll your ServiceNow platform team into release-focused training webinars.
Refresh ServiceNow training and certifications for the team at least once a year. ServiceNow updates training courses and certifications every other release.
Create non-classroom training activities such as:
Working with mentors across the enterprise on soft skills
Contributing to the ServiceNow Community by monitoring Q&A and contributing answers to other customers
Joining the ServiceNow Developer Program, which provides resources to learn, build, and deploy applications on the Now Platform, and offers resources (for example, the technical library, developer community, online training, etc.) to ensure a successful application-building experience
Populating your knowledge base to grow organizational knowledge
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

16. Step 5b: Refresh and enhance training ongoing (Continued)
Provide training to the ServiceNow platform team on topics beyond standard product and skills training
Incorporate education on your organization’s vision, strategy, and goals so the team can understand and deliver better business outcomes. Include topics on:
The importance of digital transformation
Ways to reimagine workflow processes 
The next generation of innovation tools, such as artificial intelligence
Incorporate training on human-centered design (HCM) to arm the team with enhanced skills to provide better employee and customer experiences.
Create a feedback loop to extract lessons learned from training and then incorporate them into enhanced training and product design
Review post-training satisfaction surveys and follow up on opportunities for improvement.
Incorporate training feedback into the development of enhanced user support with the product, baked in FAQs, guided messaging for the user, etc.
Steps
1. Determine the expert resources needed on a ServiceNow team
2. Develop a training plan to build up ServiceNow expertise
3. Develop a product training plan for ServiceNow process users
4. Extend service management training to the broader organization
5. Build career development and learning

17. KPIs and stakeholders Key performance indicators Essential KPIs
# of certified staff for key ServiceNow roles
# of staff that completed soft skills training
Impact of training on job performance
Availability and scope of the training budget
Nice-to-have KPIs
Pipeline of potential internal candidates for service management positions
% of users who have completed training
Stakeholder map
Responsible/accountable
Now Platform owner
Learning and development
Service owners
Human resources
Senior management
Consulted/informed
IT developers
Process owners
Service process users
Case agents
Adoption champions