WalkMe Solution Planning: Getting Started Guide

Last Updated May 21, 2026

Brief Overview

Planning your WalkMe solution before you start building makes your overall build more effective. Identifying your use case helps you decide which WalkMe apps will be most valuable for your platform. Focusing on specific goals ensures all your WalkMe content works together as a cohesive solution.

The phases of a successful WalkMe project are mapped out below. Some phases are ongoing, and two are one-time only per platform. Your Customer Success Manager will guide you through each phase to make sure the best options are chosen for your needs.

πŸŽ“ Digital Adoption Institute

Pre-Build

During the pre-build phase, identify your WalkMe use case and set goals. This helps you decide what WalkMe content will best help you meet those goals.

Business value discovery

  • What business impact are you trying to achieve?
  • What's wrong with the current situation?
  • What does success look like?
  • How will you know you achieved your business objectives?
  • Is there a benchmark you can measure against?
  • What key processes should you focus on for maximum impact?
  • Is there a target go-live date?

Technical discovery

  • What platform are you building on? Is it internal (CRM, HRM) or external-facing (e-commerce)?
  • Are you using an extension or snippet to show WalkMe to users? If using an extension, can you mass deploy?
  • Are there different user roles, profiles, or locations you're targeting? How can you tell them apart (variables, jQuery)?
  • How do you access the platform (sandbox, production)? Get site credentials and post-login URLs.
  • Are there any site, privacy, or data limitations to be aware of?
    Is the platform stable and not undergoing changes?
  • Do you need WalkMe content in multiple languages?
  • What tracking level do you want? (Default, DXA, Session Playback)

Identify your use case

What are your primary reasons for using WalkMe on your platform?

Onboarding

Use WalkMe to guide new users through processes that are essential for success on your platform.

Recommended content: Smart Walk-Thrus, Onboarding Tasks, Unique User ID, Resources, ShoutOuts, and Surveys.

Support ticket deflection

Use WalkMe to help users solve issues on their own by focusing on the problems that most commonly result in support tickets.

Recommended content: Smart Walk-Thrus, SmartTips, Launchers, Resources, and Keywords.

Feature adoption

Use WalkMe to notify users of new features and guide them through adopting them.

Recommended content: Smart Walk-Thrus, ShoutOuts, Surveys, and Shuttles.

Conversion

Use WalkMe to guide and engage free-trial or demo users to increase free-to-paid conversions.

Recommended content: Smart Walk-Thrus, Onboarding Tasks, ShoutOuts, and Shuttles.

User retention

Use WalkMe to help users build good habits and get the most out of your platform.

Recommended content: Smart Walk-Thrus, SmartTips, Launchers, and Automation.

Note

The build, QA, and publish steps loop in the flow chart above. You don't need to build your entire WalkMe solution before publishing β€” build and publish one process at a time, then repeat as you add more content.

Technical Setup

Once you've decided what WalkMe content fits your needs, technical setup can begin. WalkMe Services completes this in the WalkMe Editor before any building starts, to make sure the Editor is compatible with your platform and has the tools needed for building.

Build

The build phase is where you create your WalkMe solution using the WalkMe Editor. It breaks down into five steps:

1. Build the main path

The main path is the route most users take to complete a process from start to finish in a Smart Walk-Thru.

Smart Walk-Thrus

2. Add alternative paths

The main path is the route most users take to complete a process from start to finish in a Smart Walk-Thru.

Splits: Getting Started Guide

3. Set goals

Goals let you track users' successful completion of a process, whether they use WalkMe guidance or complete it on their own.

Goals

4. Plan engagement

Engagement ensures users can find and access your WalkMe content. You can boost engagement by building ShoutOuts, Launchers, or adding Auto Play Rules to Smart Walk-Thrus.

Engagement Methods

5. Set up segmentation

Segmentation ensures each user only sees content that's relevant to them.

Segmentation

Deployment

Deployment can start as early as possible in the project and should be complete before QA begins. There are two methods: snippet and extension. Your Account Manager will help you choose the best option, and WalkMe Services will handle the deployment process.

WalkMe Deployment Overview

QA

The QA phase ensures your new WalkMe content works as expected on your platform and alongside your existing solution. You can QA using Preview mode once deployment is complete.

Run two rounds of QA on the two most common browsers and make adjustments after each round.

Quality Assurance Testing Best Practices By App Type

Publish

The publish phase involves publishing content to the test environment, testing it, then publishing to the production environment to make it available to your users.

Publishing is quick and straightforward as long as the proper setup is in place.

Publishing

Maintain

The maintain phase is where you review results β€” WalkMe Insights engagement data and progress toward the use case goals set during pre-build.

Insights data helps you optimize your solution by identifying pain points and determining which content could benefit from more engagement

Insights: Getting Started Guide

Based on the results, next steps typically include:

  1. Improving existing content β€” fix content or segmentation that isn't working as expected, add keywords to make content easier to find, add goals or funnels to track completion.
  2. Adding access points to existing content β€” make it more contextual and engaging.
  3. Creating content for new processes not yet covered.
  4. Adding features that were lower priority in the first phase, like integrations, to get more value from the implementation.

Need help? Reach out to your Customer Success Manager or contact Support.

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