Training Your Team

Introducing a new tool to your team can be a bit intimidating. Here's a few things that help you introduce Basecamp to your team!

Use an HQ project for training/onboarding

A screenshot of the top of the project page. The "Set up people" button and the project name are highlighted.

You can create a new project with your company name, add the "HQ" to the end, and invite everyone to join. After that, it'll be a great place to post a welcome to Basecamp message. That message can have the reasons you’re trying Basecamp along with links to our guides and classes. You can also share this introduction video with anyone new to Basecamp.

And here's a sample message you can tweak for your team.

Subject: Welcome to Basecamp!

Welcome to Basecamp — an online platform we're using to organize our team and projects. It's your one-stop hub for our work.

This initial space I’ve invited you to is our HQ. It's our place to post company-wide announcements everyone should know about, chat socially around the Campfire, and post files and other stuff everyone needs. I’ll also create other projects as we need.

A Few Basecamp Resources

The Learn Center will help you master the Basecamp basics.
The Help Guides are great for diving more into how Basecamp works.
Intro to Basecamp 3 video will walk you through setting up a project. The Basecamp team also offers weekly live Q&A classes.
The Support page will put you in contact with the Basecamp customer support team.

Questions

If you have questions about anything at all, don't hesitate to ask!

Don't add everyone to every project.

It's too many chefs in the kitchen. We recommend adding your entire company to the HQ project since it’s a great place for company wide announcements. But for individual projects, only add in the people working on that project.

You'll be able to add people to the right projects like this.

Use heartbeats to keep folks in the loop.

Since everyone isn’t on every project, you’ll want a way to regularly post project and team updates. We do that through heartbeats like this.

Set expectations with your team around chat.

Use Campfire chats at the right times. If it’s important, slow down. If it’s an important conversation, it shouldn’t happen in the chat room. Chat should be about quick, ephemeral things. Important topics need time, traction, and separation from the rest of the chatter. Here's how our team approaches it.

Start Small

The best way for people to see value in Basecamp is to try it. Start with a small group of people and projects. Then expand out to everyone else in your company.

Want to chat with our support team about rolling Basecamp out to your team? Drop us an email here.

Next up: Basecamp Pro Tips →

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