How to educate end user ?

[profilejamesbond]

Hi,

How do you educate end user ? I mean, how do you educate that it is Qlik Sense not MS Excel?

How to get rid of that mentality ? because the Business is in the hand of MS Excel Users not in the technical people.

Thanks

[howdash]

That’s an interesting question!

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I think you’ll have to first find why the users like MS Excel. What is it about it that appeals to them?

It could be simply that they’re used to it. If a human is used to something, we tend to try to translate a new thing to what we are used to, to what we’re familiar with.

Example: Learning New Language

It’s like learning a new language. If that’s the case, you’re essentially asking “how do I get a person who spoke English all their life to start speaking this cool, new, totally different language that is Japanese? They keep translating everything to English!” They do that, because English is all they know and it will take some time, years maybe before they get to know and get used to Japanese.

Same thing with Qlik Sense and Excel. They may just be super familiar with the simple and very intuitive row and column layout that Excel offers and it will take them some time before they will get used to using filters and keeping the data in Qlik Sense instead of exporting it to Excel.

Recommendation: Teach in Stages

Stage 1: Gain Familiarity

If that’s the case, let them take their time to get used to Qlik Sense. They might just need to go through this period of translating Qlik Sense into Excel to gain familiarity with Qlik Sense.

Stage 2: Expand Expertise

Then, once they’ve done with that, work with them to expand their knowledge of Qlik Sense by introducing all the other cool and powerful things that Qlik Sense can do for them that Excel can’t. A problem comes up for them, show them how it can be solved with Qlik Sense. Another challenge comes up, again show them how it can be solved with Qlik Sense. A new report is needed, get it built for them in Qlik Sense.

Over time, you keep solving business user problems with Qlik Sense will get users to start associating Qlik Sense with a reliable and an amazing tool that solves their problems, a tool that they’re familiar with. And that will likely shift their perception of Qlik Sense and get them to see Qlik Sense as it really is.

Summary

It’s not necessarily bad that they’re thinking of Qlik Sense as Excel. They may just be trying to understand Qlik Sense by translating it into something that they already know - into Excel. They may be learning on their own. Just give them time.

[marcus_sommer · Accepted solution]

They won't move. At least not voluntary. Therefore take away the toy. It's not mainly a question of a technically education in regard to use any tool - else to learn to think in data and information. Helpful might be a bit brainwashing ...

Without an appropriate support from the superiors you give them another toy which they will presumingly using to export larger amounts of data - just giving them a further data-source. It's sad ... and some day they are replaced by any AI ...

[QFabian]

Hi @profilejamesbond , if you havent use it yet, you can try showing the Learn area to some users, it help a lot to self introduce to Qlik Cloud concepts and benefi

In Spanish says Info, in english says Learn, there are a lot of information, videos and guides! I find this kind of thingd make Qlik so special and differenced

[F_B]

Good question. Let us know if you find a solution...

[savioricardog]

This is a very interesting question, @profilejamesbond .

I see a strong cultural aspect in the corporate environment influencing the adoption of new tools, because the “we’ve always done it in Excel” mindset is still quite common at work (speaking from my own experience, since Excel was one of the first tools I learned on the job).

So, I would try something based on time and adaptation, gradually educating end users (almost like training them, haha) to use Qlik to solve their problems. At first, I would try to handle every possible request (that makes sense) in Qlik, encouraging users to rely on it instead of Excel. This way, they would develop a routine of using the tool.

Maybe you could also consider something like an internal course in your company (weekly or monthly) for users — a space to answer questions, share more functions and tricks, and explore the possibilities Qlik offers. Over time, this rotation and consistency will do the rest of the work.