Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury Standardize Operations With Trainual
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., November 4, 2025 Trainual, the training, documentation, and operations platform for growing teams, today shared how the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury built a single operational system for the organization behind the teams, standardizing training and process documentation across every department as headcount grew from roughly 350 to 600 employees.
The organization runs an NBA franchise, a WNBA franchise, a new G League franchise, a $100 million training facility for the Mercury, and a members-only dining club, staffed by thousands of people spanning restaurant operations, security, sales, and player development. As new leadership invested in the infrastructure, one gap remained: a system to align and train the people running it.
"If you want to build something premium, every detail matters. You can't deliver championship-level experiences with outdated systems and guesswork," said Greg Economou, Managing Director of New Business Ventures.
Results to date
- 98% of Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury team members have completed their Trainual modules
- 80% of employees completed core training within their first week
- 100% completion on the organization's principles module, the first content built in the platform
- Headcount scaled from roughly 350 to 600 employees over the rollout period
Principles first, then process
Rather than starting with legacy policy documents, the organization built its principles into Trainual first, then layered role-specific processes on top.
"We had 100% completion rates on the module, and now you walk around here and hear people reciting them," Economou said. "There's a direct correlation between what they did in Trainual and what they know and live today."
A change champion rollout
To move quickly across a growing organization, the Suns and Mercury recruited change champions from every department, one or two people responsible for capturing their team's essential processes and driving adoption locally. Champions prioritized content by a single question: if they did not show up tomorrow, what would someone need to know?
"The folks on the team, change champions, were working on getting things accomplished within their team," said Kim, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. "They knew it was their job to take it back to their part of the organization and drive excitement further."
Training itself was rebuilt to look less like orientation and more like practice, using quizzes, gamification, video, flowcharts, and role-specific guides employees can revisit on demand.
"Now we gamify training, add quizzes, and get acknowledgement when people finish," said Kali, Head of People & Culture. "It feels more like practice than orientation."
Tracking, updates, and culture
Built-in tracking and quizzing gave leadership visibility into comprehension rather than just completion, and updates now reach the full organization without pulling hundreds of people into a room.
"You don't have to wait for somebody to train you," Kim said. "You can go into the system and get the latest information. And we can track against it in real time."
"For us, ROI isn't just numbers," Kim added. "It's seeing people act differently after training. That's when you know it's working."
The organization credits the system with reinforcing culture as much as process.
"Having a platform like Trainual builds alignment almost inherently," Economou said. "Everyone, no matter their department, learns the same vision, principles, and values. That kind of alignment multiplies scalability."
"You're seeing female players want to come to the Mercury because of the culture here," Kali added. "They see how we operate, how we invest in people, and they want to be part of it."
The full account of the rollout is available in Trainual's customer story, and Trainual's guide to change champions documents the rollout approach the organization used.
About Trainual
Trainual is a training, documentation, and operations platform that helps growing companies document how they work, onboard and train their teams, and run daily operations in one connected system, combining process documentation, onboarding and training, and a searchable knowledge base. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Trainual is used by teams across sports and entertainment, home services, healthcare, construction, professional services, franchising, and multi-location retail. Learn more at trainual.com.
