Roll out your strategic home: a 30-day launchpad
Use this guide to learn how to roll out Adobe Workfront Planning to design a strategy that prioritizes psychological safety, minimizes disruption, and delivers quick wins.
This guide is intended for Workfront administrators who are implementing Workfront Planning.
Overview of how to start fast and scale smart
The most common obstacle to a successful rollout isn’t technology. It’s “technology-blame”. When teams encounter the challenge of working with new people, new processes, and new tools at once, the tool becomes a target for frustration.
The 30-day launchpad is built on the “team-first” adoption model. Instead of attempting an enterprise-wide rollout that usually requires months of coordination, we focus on a decentralized, team-led approach that delivers immediate ROI within a specific functional unit.
Use guided autonomy to achieve a phased transition
To successfully roll out a product it’s smart to use guided autonomy. This means that as an administrator you define how teams should work in a structured system of governed defaults and templates.
You define the lanes on the road (or the governed defaults and templates), while you allow teams the flexibility to choose their own work path within them.
Most importantly, guided autonomy should be evolutionary. Instead of enforcing a complete enterprise taxonomy on the first day, you can start with minimal global definitions based on the needs of the first pilot team.
As more teams are onboarded, you can observe common patterns and iterate on the global standards.
As an administrator, you are not surrendering control, but instead you are scaling it intelligently based on what actually works.
To activate this evolutionary shift, do the following:
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Choose a pilot team that is ready and willing to innovate.
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Use the first 15 days of your launch to prove the model through one of two high-momentum paths:
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The parallel path (or a dual-tracking approach): The team maintains their current workflow while simultaneously modeling their next planning cycle in Workfront Planning.
This builds muscle memory and confidence without the risk of a single point of failure.
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The clean break: After an initial design exercise using sample data to validate the model, the team moves their live starting point directly into Workfront Planning for their next cycle.
In both paths, the goal is to move beyond theory and into real-world application as quickly as possible, ensuring the tool is used for actual strategic work rather than remaining just a sandbox exercise.
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Overview of a 30‑day path to your breakthrough moment
A successful rollout is powered by momentum. This 30-day schedule moves you from configuration to your first automated win.
Days 1-10: The team foundation
Build a strategic foundation by establishing a centralized structure from the beginning.
While a complex enterprise-wide taxonomy is not required yet, you should immediately create two environments. For example, when you adopt a hub-and-spoke architecture approach, you can create the following:
- A Global classification workspace (the hub): This should be your system’s general structure and nomenclature.
- A first Team workspace (the spoke): This should match an individual team’s approach to work.
For information, see Create workspaces.
With this team-first architecture you can:
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Design the hub to support the spoke: You can focus the global classification workspace specifically on the objects that matter most to your pilot team (their specific Brands or Products). This firms up the collaborative handshake between enterprise governance and team autonomy while keeping the design effort manageable.
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Act as an enabler, not a guardian: Shift your role from rule-setting to capability-building. Partner with the team to structure their planning environment.
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Collaborate on design: Work directly with your pilot team to define the record types and fields that reflect their real-world needs, not an abstract corporate ideal.
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Connect strategy to work: Enable the link between your planning records and the Workfront objects.
For information, see Connected record types overview.
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Mirror current data: Use the team’s existing tools (for example, Excel or other core applications) to populate Workfront Planning, ensuring the data feels familiar and relevant.
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Built for flexibility: Remember that Workfront Planning is designed to evolve. You can start with team-level processes and easily elevate or migrate them to enterprise-level governance when the business is ready.
Day 15: The first breakthrough moment
We recommend that you should aim for your first major win by Day 15. This should be the automated project creation.
To achieve this, you must implement the following:
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Configure a native automation that identifies a “Ready to execute” status.
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Trigger the creation of a linked project in Workfront.
For information, see Configure Adobe Workfront Planning automations.
This ensures that your team sees their strategic intent automatically trigger execution work. This breakthrough moment proves the value of the bridge between strategy and work, and builds buy-in.
Days 16-30: Gradual transition toward enterprise scale
With your lightning moment achieved, you can move the team’s starting point into Workfront Planning.
As this team-first model succeeds, you begin the path toward enterprise scaling by identifying patterns that work.
To move from team-first to enterprise scale, consider the following:
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Introduce the intake form: Use a request form as the new gateway for strategic requests to ensure data integrity.
For information, see Create and manage a request form in Adobe Workfront Planning.
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Observe and standardize: Use the Global classification workspace to observe how the pilot team uses the tool. These real-world examples will shape your eventual enterprise design.
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Decommission legacy spreadsheets: Move fully into Workfront Planning as the process matures.
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Shift power users: Use the record table view for direct, high-velocity plan management.
For information, see Manage the table view.
Overview of success metrics for the launchpad
We recommend that you constantly look for markers of success and adjust based on your findings.
Look for these early indicators of health:
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Adoption: The first 5-10 strategic records successfully link to execution projects and the process of creating records and automating the creation of linked projects is seamless and easily repeatable.
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Advocacy: The pilot team begins evangelizing the tool to adjacent teams.
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Efficiency: Automation reduces the time from strategic approval to project start.
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Trust: Stakeholders use Workfront Planning timelines rather than manual status decks for reviews.
Best practices and tips
The success of your implementation hinges on the approach you use and on the expectations you set from the beginning.
The following are a few recommendations on how you can lead a successful implementation.
Dos:
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Start with an excited pilot team: Acknowledge that a global rollout is a significant lift. Focus on a proof-of-concept with a team that is eager to innovate and can provide a blueprint for others.
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Define lanes, not walls: Use guided autonomy to provide structure without killing exploration.
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Prioritize psychological safety: Let teams know that legacy tools stay in place until they are comfortable with the new workflow.
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Celebrate quick wins: Highlight the first automated project creation to the entire team.
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Establish a champion: Identify a power user in each team to lead the transition.
Don’ts:
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Don’t mandate large-scale changes: Forcing everyone to switch on the first day causes technology-blame.
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Don’t ignore the why: Ensure every team member understands how the strategic thread makes their work more visible.
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Don’t wait for perfection: Your taxonomy will evolve. Start with your best guess and refine as you go.