In my previous blog, Tales From the Tech Rust Belt, I illustrated how organizations should strive to keep moving forward, so they don’t get oxidized. Readers would conclude that I place value on products and services that are on the cutting edge of innovation. That being said, sometimes a product that's tried and true hits the spot. A little rust from a product we’re familiar with isn’t such a bad thing.

This brings me to my BlackBerry, my beloved smartphone with a physical keyboard. I’ve been on the ‘crackberry’ for over seven years now. I remember when phones called Bold, Pearl, and Curve ruled the world. These models dominated the industry with their powerful ability to quickly manage and send emails/text messages, search the web away from your computer (albeit in a very slow and painful manner), take photos, and even play Brickbreaker! I have fond memories of a backpack trip through Europe a number of years ago where I planned and booked half the trip through my BlackBerry—très magnifique! Sadly, it seems like BlackBerry’s glory days have long since passed, and iPhone and Android have left RIM in the dust.

A few weeks ago my Blackberry Bold 9650 was on its last legs and I was in the market for a new smartphone. While mulling over my options, I found a Wall Street Journal review of the BlackBerry Q10, describing the new phone as, “The BlackBerry of BlackBerry Users' Dreams.” I waited patiently for a couple months until it was released and rushed to Verizon to pick one up.

Based on what I read, I knew there would be some adjusting to a new phone that included a novel feature—A TOUCH SCREEN—a magical surface that responds to your finger movements. I haven’t been totally living in a cave, so I knew the touch basics. When I got home that night, I was committed to getting the phone set up to organize the things I care about most: emails/texts/BBMs synched up, contacts, maps, train schedule, basic setting preferences, weather, browser links, and that’s about it. Productivity at its finest!

But even configuring those basic items proved incredibly frustrating. BlackBerry took away the lifesaver ‘back,’ ‘end,’ and mouse buttons! How was I going to survive without those?! That night turned into nearly two painful days as I struggled to navigate the phone. I needed a guide made for previous power users, one that gets right to it—something like, “Here are the five or 10 most important things you need to learn right now, Mr. BlackBerry-power-user. All you need are these simple gestures to master navigation and jump to the delightful hub that organizes all your emails, texts, missed calls, LinkedIn updates, etc in one place.”

As I reflected on my experience with the BlackBerry Q10, I realized that organizations that roll out products like Salesforce could see their users getting frustrated every day, even if they’re already power users! For instance, every Salesforce training should contain tips on how to organize your home page to order key objects you use all the time so you don’t have to scroll down. This training should also contain instructions on how to setup / link to the most common Reports and Dashboards that will quickly get you the key information you need.

That’s why, at Bluewolf, we stress the importance of Change Management and Learning (CM&L) to all of our clients. We encourage the CM&L team to engage throughout our projects in order to drive awareness and excitement for the upcoming rollouts, as well as tailoring training to the different users based on function and experience. I’ve seen our world class CM&L team in action with our clients and I know of the transformative results that can be achieved when one of their well-thought out plans is executed.

I just wish Kate Hagemann and her team were tapped to lead the Blackberry Q10 rollout. If so, I would have zipped through the power user guide and still had time to see how my Apple stock was doing!