By Mehdi HassanHow should a team be trained on a new CMS?
Train a team on a new CMS by having each person complete the tasks they'll actually do, in the real CMS, with their own login, while someone who built the site watches. Then give them a written index of those tasks and short videos to come back to. People remember what they did, not what they were shown.
Training is the last step of a CMS setup and the one most often rushed. A beautifully modeled CMS still fails if the team is afraid to touch it after launch. It belongs in every CMS setup for a marketing website, and in every website handover checklist.
What should CMS training cover?
CMS training should cover the jobs each role does weekly and monthly, plus how to recover from mistakes. Start by listing tasks, then group them by who does them.
Task | Who | How often |
|---|---|---|
Write, preview and publish a blog post | Editors, contributors | Weekly |
Edit copy and images on an existing page | Editors | Weekly |
Build a new landing page from blocks | Editors | Monthly |
Add a customer logo, testimonial or team member | Editors | Monthly |
Restore an older version of a page | Editors | Rarely, but must know how |
Add or remove a user and set their role | Admins | When people join or leave |
Update pricing, navigation or site settings | Admins | Rarely |
Leave out what nobody will do. Developers don't need a session on publishing posts, and writers don't need to see the webhook settings. The roles you set up in CMS roles and permissions should shape who attends which part.
How do you run a CMS training session?
Run a live session of about an hour per group, on a call with screens shared, where the trainer explains each task once and then each person does it. Use the production CMS with drafts, or a staging copy if your setup has one.
Set up accounts first
Every attendee signs in with their own account and the right role before the session. No shared logins.
Explain the model in five minutes
Show what's a page, what's a collection, what's a global setting, and where images live. One diagram is enough.
Do one task together
Walk through publishing a draft post, including preview, so everyone sees the full loop once.
Hand over the keyboard
Each person makes a real change: a draft post, a copy edit, a new landing page from blocks. The trainer watches and doesn't touch the mouse.
Break something on purpose
Have someone delete a block and restore the previous version, so recovery feels safe.
Collect questions
Note every question asked. Each one is either a gap in the docs or a field that needs better help text.
What goes in a website handover document?
A website handover document is a one-page index of tasks and where to find things, with each task linking to a short video or a few written steps. Keep it short enough that people open it; a 40-page manual gets read once.
- Logins and owners. Where the CMS lives, who the admins are, and who to ask for access.
- How the site is organized. Page types, collections, global settings, and what each is for.
- Task index. Each common task as one line with a link: Publish a post, Add a page, Change the pricing table.
- Rules of the road. Image sizes, headline lengths, alt text, and when to ask a designer.
- Recovering from mistakes. How to preview, unpublish and restore a version.
- What not to touch. Settings and integrations that only admins should change, and why.
- Support. Who fixes what, and how to report a bug with a link and a screenshot.
Include a short note on accessibility: alt text on every meaningful image, real headings instead of bold text, and descriptive link text. Editors keep a site accessible or break it one post at a time, as our guide to website accessibility compliance explains.
How do you script a CMS training video?
Script each video around one task, two to five minutes long, with a clear start state and end state. Short task videos are easier to watch at the moment someone needs them, and easier to re-record when one part of the CMS changes.
Template: a screen-recording script for one task
Title: How to publish a blog post.
1. Start state (10 seconds): I'm signed in as an editor on the dashboard. By the end, we'll have a new post live on the blog.
2. Create (60 seconds): Open Posts, click Create new. Fill the title; the slug fills itself. Write the excerpt, which is what shows in Google and on blog cards. Choose one topic and the author.
3. Write (60 seconds): Add the body. Use headings from the menu, not bold text. Add an image and write alt text that describes it.
4. Preview (30 seconds): Save the draft and click Preview. Check the page on a phone width.
5. Publish (20 seconds): Publish now or schedule a date. Open the live page to confirm.
6. Undo (20 seconds): If something's wrong, open Versions and restore the previous one.
End: Link to the next video, How to add a page from blocks.
Record in the real CMS with realistic content, and say why as well as what: the excerpt is what shows in search results is more useful than type your excerpt here. Name videos exactly like the tasks in the handover doc so they're easy to find.
What should happen after CMS training?
Book a follow-up call two to four weeks after launch. By then people have tried real work, hit real questions and found the fields that confuse them. That session usually produces a short list of fixes: clearer help text, a missing block, or a permission that's too tight.
Feed those fixes back into the CMS, not just the docs. If three people asked what a field is for, rename it. If editors keep hacking a block to fit a layout, add a proper one, as described in page builder blocks marketers can use. The best training is a CMS that needs less of it.
