Committed leaders who know how to get things done through their local government can use the steps as an outline. Drawing on their detailed local knowledge, champions can follow the steps to set a project's scope, identify the individuals and groups who need to be involved, and decide what outcomes to drive toward at different points in the process. The Steps can serve as a roadmap to help a champion manage a resilience-building process.

Practitioners are those who evaluate climate-related risk and develop resilience strategies; they commonly work as consultants in preparing a climate resilience plan. Practitioners may focus on nuances and methods used within the steps, in contrast to champions who use the steps as an organizational tool. For instance, practitioners will discern actions that can increase adaptive capacity or reduce exposure and sensitivity whereas champions and other stakeholders are mostly concerned with meeting resilience objectives while balancing other values.

People who could be affected by climate-related hazards or projects designed to address them may contribute expertise within specific aspects of the steps. For instance, they may provide feedback about how a resilience-building project could affect the community.

Most communities across the United States have some awareness of the extreme weather or climate-related hazards they could experience. If you're already aware of a hazard that could result in damages or loss in your community, you'll make a list of the people, places, and services that are exposed to that hazard. Later, you'll explore additional hazards that could affect those assets.

People often form communities around an asset they want to protect. For example, dozens of business owners might join a "Downtown Association" to promote and protect their shops. Outdoor recreation enthusiasts, wildlife conservationists, and sportsmen might join together to form a "Friends of the River" group. Asset-centered groups can further their common goals by exploring the weather and climate-related hazards that could impact the asset they care about.

In order to be eligible for federal and state programs, municipalities, counties, and states are required to prepare and submit regular updates to official planning documents such as Hazard Mitigation Plans. Leveraging community engagements required for these updates to add climate considerations to planning documents is an efficient way to move plans forward and integrate climate resilience into future plans.