Yep! A common issue when your system was running Sierra Vs High Sierra which carries two needed updates, the first is an updated firmware to support 3rd party SSD's (and even Apples newer drives) as well as the newer file system migrating from HPF+ to APFS.
With your old drive create a bootable USB thumb drive (32GB) by downloading from Apples servers Catalina (10.15.x) running the installer aimed at the USB drive then after rebooting copy the installer to it, swap your drives again and using the USB thumb drive boot up and prep the new drive.