Migration is a community change program supported by technology. Use these stages to avoid treating it as a bulk import.
Stage 1: purpose and sponsorship
Document why change is needed, member benefits, trade-offs, accountable sponsor and success outcomes. State which current channels remain.
Stage 2: community research
Interview active, quiet and former members. Observe tasks. Include accessibility, language, device and connectivity needs. Identify informal leaders and existing support practices.
Stage 3: information inventory
Classify maintained content, formal records, useful history, duplicates, sensitive material and items that cannot move. Assign owners and review dates. Approve deletion rather than copying clutter.
Stage 4: governance
Confirm charter, membership, roles, standards, moderation, privacy, retention, support and service-exit responsibilities before configuring access.
Stage 5: technical trial
Run a protected sample export and import. Check authorship, dates, relationships, files, groups, permissions and search. Delete temporary copies after approved validation.
Stage 6: representative pilot
Test complete journeys across member and administrator roles. Include invitation, sign-in, mobile, assistive technology, notifications, error recovery, reporting and departure.
Stage 7: onboarding
Explain purpose, channel changes, privacy, standards and help. Focus the first visit on a useful task. Train administrators and moderators with scenarios.
Stage 8: managed overlap
Set a clear period when old and new channels coexist. Direct maintained information and new community activity to the portal without duplicating everything indefinitely.
Stage 9: closure
Complete records capture and final export. Communicate access changes. Revoke privileged accounts and integrations. Apply approved archive and deletion decisions.
Stage 10: learning
Review search gaps, recurring support, accessibility barriers, unused privileged access and member outcomes. Fix governance and content as well as product issues.
Read the full article on migrating an established community for the reasoning behind each stage.