 Hey, everybody. This is Christian Buckley and another we're doing another collab talk tweet jam follow-up So the the discussion this week was about building an employee experience platform of course following on the heels of Microsoft's announcement about Microsoft Viva and I have a fellow MVP here We're going to talk about who participated in the tweet jam and get her thoughts. So Heather. Hello Hello, Kristen. So why don't you introduce yourself who you are where you are what you do all those details? Sure I'm Heather Severino. I'm a Microsoft MVP for office apps and services with a strong focus for Microsoft teams one note and one drive I'm also a Microsoft certified trainer and a Microsoft certified trainer regional lead What that means is that I help a lot of organizations and companies Learn about all of these technologies like Viva and everything that's coming out with that and how they can adopt those and be More productive and efficient with those and I'm coming to you from a little chilly and sunshine Central, Florida today. I'm near Daytona Beach Little little chilly. So what it's in the low 70s It's actually in the 50s. It's gonna get down into the low 40s tonight. Okay. All right. So we won't uh, I know I saw a bunch of the You with the with the uh, the polar vortex that's hitting the rest of the country And then you saw it down in southern florida like mid 80s and yeah Yeah, I'm just gonna complain or anything. We're very fortunate. I feel bad for everyone in texas and other parts of the us Well, uh, so getting into this it's interesting and having conversations with the product team And I know it's mvps and sometimes we get access in and hear about things in advance But you know some of the feedback, you know people say well, we don't know enough about it And it's like look the announcements just came out And so it's natural that in the forthcoming the weeks and months ahead We're going to get like an adoption dot microsoft.com resource page for viva and and more details around each one of those And I know that there's info that's coming out on each of the individual the four components Inside there, but I think that the and my my goal of the tweet jam was to talk about Not just the individual aspects of the four pieces that make up viva But talk about the broader the idea of building that employee experience that truly that platform And and so that's kind of what the focus was a little bit more And so let's just jump in with question one I asked you what aspects of microsoft viva are you most interested in using within your own organization? Yeah, well, of course my answer is everything that has to do with learning, right? I mean anything that we can do to skill up a workforce and make it easier for them to get to those resources To help them in that moment of I need to know how to do this or this isn't working right for me That's a big win and so bringing in learning management systems and bringing in Things like linkedin learning right into microsoft teams again We're kind of building on that central hub of saying This is like the one place where you can not only get your teamwork done your personal work done But you can also learn right so you've got all the resources you need right there without having to do that App to app switching and the context switching that goes along with it Yeah, and it's and again you have people that are excited about I mean there's a lot of SharePoint people that are kind of records management and knowledge management background that are very interested in The topics of the project syntax related things you have people that are very community related or Excited about the kind of the yammer integration pieces with connections And you know but the across the board You know the the ability to better surface information in each of these areas That's kind of the key to this Yeah, and for each industry and for each role that's going to vary right so having the capabilities to kind of Focus on these things. They're going to really help someone that works in financial or You know these things are going to help with the higher education space. So yeah, I think I think having the capability to kind of bring what Well question two um, it's something that I was very interested in knowing because Because a common question that happens microsoft makes an announcement about something And if it's not yet available and obviously there are pieces of uh, you know most of viva is available Some preview. There's some things that are out there. They're they're currently selling licensing around Um, people are saying well, what else could I do to get ready for it? What what's kind of the pathway to To going it's not just like it's a set of features that I just go flip a switch and turn on There's some pre-work that needs to be done. So question two is what can or should customers do to prepare for using microsoft viva Yeah, so if you think about it like any microsoft technology, you know, if you're bringing microsoft teams in there's a lot of things You need to go and get the settings just right and the security just right right share point same thing So we have to think of viva that way too of what do we need to do to make sure that we've got all the permissions And policy setup correctly that we're turning things on and off that are needed But even bigger than that I think is the adoption campaign. So you really need to focus on What is relevant to our workforce and what do we want to focus on adopting first as we roll this out And how are we going to approach that to make sure that they're getting the training that they are going to adopt and use it As much as possible. Uh, so there are a couple resources. I has shared which is like an ebook Headed in the tweets and have to go back and look at what it was called But I think it had something to do with workforce There was an ebook and then tech community has some great resources on that too There's a lot of stuff that you know people are sharing around that It's uh, you have to remember this is it's funny that we have to say this out loud, but um deploying a new technology a new feature Doesn't suddenly magically make people Adopt or get more engaged within a platform And so it's the the amount of work that you put into something It has a a very direct effect on the value that you see back out of it And that's certainly the case case here. I mean my thoughts too or that Especially again, we'll look at like topics as an example or in learning. It's not like you You have this new capability You still need to go through and do kind of a like what's an assessment of what's a catalog of all the content that we have All the training that we have the training plans and by roles and all those kinds of things That you can start mapping those things out before you have the technology in place And so it'll make it easier to go and kind of build those things out know What you want to do and what your plans are for when you deploy the technology Similarly for the topic cards, uh, like you you need to go through and organize your data and the various the content types around You know, what are the kind of the templates that we're going to build around that we want these topics to be able to go and Pick up and and utilize so a lot of that curation can start even before you deploy the technology Yeah, you definitely don't want to overwhelm them So being able to kind of turn on which courses or which learning paths do you want? Can can be a different way to make sure that they're seeing what they need to focus on or what's relevant to them that day right Question three in your opinion. What is the target customer profile from microsoft viva? Well, yeah, we had a lot of a lot of discussion around this one Yeah, we did I remember seeing some of the tweets on I don't know so much that maybe A contractor, you know a consultant or a small business may adopt it so much as maybe the larger enterprise businesses or corporate environments Uh, but I really see that it applies so many different places that we may not think of from construction Right, you might have project managers that are managing a lot of different construction jobs And so having all of these things in one place to be able to use topics to find information That's relevant for maybe another project that can help them with that one That's key and then other spaces like legal and financial and education and health care so I think it's really role-based and industry-based that it It's going to cover so much so many people that can benefit from it And we're going to get more of those uh those those vertical based those industry-based examples As companies start deploying that I think that'll when you start hearing those real world stories And this is I I think the the lesson here because you saw some people respond and say wow It's really just like giant enterprises. I'm like no what one thing we've learned about knowledge management and collaboration technology Is that size of an organization? Doesn't necessarily identify like the complexity of knowledge management information management You could have small you could have a 25 to 50 percent organized a 50 person organization That could have very complex information management needs and that could be a great fit for so just depends on what you're doing Yeah, when you think about the time that might be wasted too looking for that information Especially a smaller workforce The time that they're getting back to be able to work on those more productive things or higher value things That's really key. So yeah, I think it doesn't really matter for size Well, I think and this may come up again later, but you know another another thought too is I made a comment about the You know for all the money that that Given the pandemic that we're experiencing globally the amount of money that's being sold is saved on On our location. So a lot of companies that have said, hey, we're either in partner and whole Going to remain remote And you know, and I know that depends on role and industry But there's a lot of companies that are thinking we can really cut down on On the spend for office space For this kind of this new normal, whatever that is If you're spending less of for a smaller organization is part of my value prop pitch here But for a smaller organization if you're spending less On the physical locations You need to spend more on the digital locations. You need to make it so more more useful more, you know Tied into how people are working. So yeah, you can't just uh Think the out of the box whatever the technology is, you know out of the box is rarely going to meet the ongoing long-term needs you need to then fit it within the culture of your organization So spend less on office space spend more on your digital spaces Completely agree Um, all right. So question four. What are your thoughts on microsoft viva as a brand or viva love microsoft I was just saying should we say together? Uh, and how does it fit with the office 365 and microsoft 365 brands? And I was wondering too, I think somebody brought up offline says, how does microsoft viva translate into other You know because there's the word for viva Uh, you know in other languages that's not viva, of course, it's a brand name So it would be microsoft viva in every language But again, there's a when you're using common words and the way that it translates and is used and looked at But what do you think of it as a brand and how does it fit? I like the name I out of the gate Almost think that it does need to be and maybe eventually the name will kind of morph a little bit But something that does tell us that this is more about employee engagement Um In some capacity, right? The there was an offline well not an offline but a little side conversation that a couple of us were having In the tweet jam about there are other things that are named viva So there is a platform a biotech platform that's veeva And then I think there's like insurance medicare kind of companies that also have the word viva and the papers out Yeah, but industry and it could be a little confusing, but but I do like the name. I like that it's short. I like that it's simple But how does it mesh in though? I mean when you talk about like you don't go in now and say well, we're not deploying office 365 We're not deploying microsoft 365. We're deploying microsoft viva like no microsoft viva is subset of microsoft 365 of the overall platform Office 365 still exists So Like so that's more on like that side where it could be confusing Of you know, what do we have in place? What are we actually doing? Yeah, I kind of see it like a delve or Yammer or office graph like some of those things where there might be some apps or might be some services What is it really? How does it plug into the whole microsoft 365 ecosystem? I mean I get it We work in technology. We probably both kind of get what it is But for that end user, I could see where there might be a little bit more Of an explanation or a way that you'd need to to introduce it right so it's uh, yeah, so I mean look Microsoft has done this before and there were there are some brands that kind of merge delve is a great example Like delve while it's still out there. I mean it's there's not the hype around it Sorry product team members that are like, oh, yeah, delve. We're still out there working on stuff But the majority of the delve functionality of what it is It's more of a native experience that's being built into the multiple workloads And so it's still it was more of like an initiative That it was a product You know location and so I look at viva that way whether viva a year from now or two years from now We're talking about viva When I hear viva, I look at that as that is a layer of capabilities that it's extending You know the out of the box microsoft 365 experience so that the You know the the logos and stuff which are great Out there, but you know and the the branding the name of it of that itself Is less relevant because it's still about Microsoft 365 Yeah, I agree. I mean if you approach it that it's all of the things You might already be familiar with or you may have been Exposed to at some point like my analytics or insights or different things that indulge that you are able to kind of Find people that work on common projects with you. It's all those things that you already have It's just that it's being packaged and brought into That hub that space that you can work with it in teams and elsewhere right none It's uh, well, we'll get into it a little bit more with some of these but I mean it's a Again anything that helps surface the the things that we're already doing and Helps us to better understand from a cultural standpoint like how we're working and how we can improve how we're working together That's all a good thing. It's it's a You know, it's a it's a way to be more reflective about the way that we're working together Not just a matter of uploading documents Following a threaded conversation get back out But how does this in the in the long play of us working together? you know What can we do to improve and and and how can we get other people more involved because I think it's the I just I just said this in Another meeting and I just got out of you know the more we understand this intuitively that The more people in your company that are collaborating and the more active how engaged they are The better the output period. We understand that and so if we can You know help organizations to be more reflective And to better connect and work together and thereby get more people In their collaborative together working together That will do more will do, you know, it'd be more accurate. There'll be more IP created kind of all those good things that we get out of collaboration And still and still feeling healthy about it, right? Like well being is a big part of it too So, right, you know five hours of meetings might be a bit much But if you could see that some analytics in a row, they're spread out over the case of course of a day But when it's you know back to back to back to back to back Let's see question number five So how much of a role does an employee experience play within your current modern workplace strategy? So for yourself or for your your customers, right? Yeah, so it's big You know, I don't have a lot of people working for me with my company. It's it's pretty much me I might have some contractors depending on the project that I have So I'm working remotely most of the time, especially now not traveling anywhere So it really is key for me to be able to be able to communicate with them and collaborate in real time on things And not have to wait for that email to come back, especially if we're Different parts of the world, um, you know different time zones. It really it's really helpful to me So I think this is going to be a nice shift for me You know already a lot of those good habits in play But I think this is going to help me be aware of where I have those inefficiencies and be able to build More good habits to work with others. I know that with with the companies that I've worked for in the past I'm sure you've had similar experience where they you know, they have a very You know prescriptive flow of of work of way that you need to go to work And you have to be like now I've got a log back in so I can update my status in this one location And so it was very restrictive and what happens in those restrictive collaborative environments Um, is that you know people tend to go and get their work done Around this system and they go into the minimums they need and go around that and so When I think of the this topic of you know employee experience and how how it affects my approach to it I do think of the like you need to be flexible like the end of the day you want more people involved Well, you can't go out there and dictate one way of doing things and then expect you get everybody involved By offering different modes of collaboration Um, but you you want at the end of the day, we're driving towards common goals But you want to be able to support the different styles than this the subcultures of Collaboration styles within your organization And support those things so even as an independent, you know You probably you know that you have some clients that want to do everything via email Others that they want to do real-time meetings others that they want to Um, you know send record video examples of here's what I went through and walk through and provide And you have all these different styles. You want to be able to support all of those things But you want to then have that global view of here's all my projects Here's all the work that i'm doing Here's here's how they i'm balancing my time in between each of those things Where I feel i'm being more effective and and learn from those experiences So support the different styles, but then you know, um Figure out a better way of you know bring new ways of working to Some of those people that are all email all the time Yeah, I've got a great example for you christian a friend of mine who happens to work for a company that I've also done some work for She's in the healthcare field Um, you know, I got together with her recently She told me that she logs into teams every morning because that's the way that they kind of do the time clock Clock in and then she logs out of it Um because she doesn't want to be bothered with it and I said, oh, there's so many great things so about teams We had a great conversation about it. I'm like that awareness if you're not aware of What's possible there and how you can chat with other Colleagues and the types of work that you can get done there instead of being in your digging out of your inbox all the time So it's that awareness that training the adoption You know everything that I think beva is going to bring to that and with the announcement of this shortly after it It came to mind. I'm like, oh she needs to they need to have beva within the organization And really teach her what she can do with that. So and I went how many people are doing things like that They just they don't get what's available. What tools are there and they're not utilizing it. Well a great Example that too is the you know the the personal insights that you get that you can get I'm always it's funny because I do some things that are all within teams and within office And of course work happens. It's on the phone or you know, I'm looking at my desk And I have these you know yellow yellow notepads and things that I still I'm old school that way Not using one now come on. I do It's also open on my screen I do that and I have to do open on my screen and yeah all those things But anyway, so I get like the analysis and it says like over your week is that you had all this free time I'm like No, I didn't You know And so part of it is I'm trying to Change the way that I work. It's like leaving teams open and on And changing my status to unavailable. I still have visibility. I don't get bothered by all the notifications While I'm working on something else But I'm still there. So if I'm able to catch something and see something and jump in and participate um, I I'm aware they're the dangers of uh multitasking and being careful. I'm trying to be sensitive to that Um, but I am trying to be aware of this is how the tools are capturing This information because I want to find out where am I usually or how am I using my time? How can I better spend my time and back to your you're kind of the healthy working habits as well I do want to start paying attention to those It's like I've got my apple watch that tells me to breathe every once in a while or says stand up I'm starting to listen. I'm not wearing my watch But I'm starting to listen to that kind of stuff because I I understand how important it is to take regular breaks and to To block out time to work on You know things of my myself and my own health and personal things and not just focus on work Yeah Let's see Do do do question number six and I'm sure we had a bunch of Microsoft people lurking in specifically for this one What pieces would you say are still missing from Microsoft's employee experience strategy? I know it's brand new. Yeah For me one of them was user voice We need a definitely need a user voice page. I'm sure they'll have it at some point to gather some feedback And more adoption resources. There are some that are out there and and that's probably going to come with people using it and You know some maybe some round table focus groups or something to kind of gather What's needed for that? I agreed I think I'm actually surprised that day one with the announcement that there wasn't an adoption page And a bunch of other resources built. I know they're building that that stuff up and it'll be there I'm confident of that Microsoft has gotten really good at that But they've also with other, you know less complex products You know day one had resources and things that are out there and now when you get major Teams feature releases and things and the documentation will be there immediately with the announcement So I would have liked to have seen more In that area as well. One other area I think is it is kind of a next piece And I know that there's things happening, but as task management Of course, it's a big aspect of that and integrated across these different pieces So I'm interested to see what Microsoft I know it's part of the strategy But to see how that is folded in With the we have of course the you know planner and the the task app and and kind of all those things and to do And how all those things we then together into the viva perspective will be interesting Yeah, I'm curious about that too with sticky notes So maybe some more things that they can do without look email and meetings and different things that You know when you're taking notes, what what can they do with that to help us? Not have things slip through the cracks and and uh and with like you know post meeting the meeting actions and being able to You know those experiences will as well the system understands that Hey, you just came out of this meeting and you're about to jump into another back to back What can you do to lighten the load? Here's what you need to know Here's what you need to have with you Capture all your notes in this place so that they're shareable everywhere You know and so for the system to be able to to help facilitate that will be incredibly powerful Yeah, and then we'll start getting better outlook insights like you've spent very little time taking notes christian, you know Um, well final question here says overall Uh, do you think microsoft viva will help drive better microsoft 365 adoption or will it cause more complexity and confusion? I think that all depends on on how it's rolled out within the organization You know, are they gonna take some time to make sure they get it set up properly that? They really understand the scenarios of of where do they have These inefficiencies and and where can they build things out to? Create those work habits to get back that time to make sure that you're able to share resources or information Um with different groups So taking the time up front and making sure that it and others are Really digging in to get that set up properly and offer some training like we said not just set it up roll it out And and see if they can figure it out Yeah, and I think that the I think we should separate to the fact that there's a new brand and new offering There's short-term confusion and complexity about what that means and where it fits And I know we had another question around that but I think you're right I mean the the real issue here is you know, we're past that we understand what it is what it what it offers Coming from a pm background I always say that you know planning first first You can't you can't just go release something and then assume it'll be successful Right you got to do the planning do the work and and really start exploring and understanding and that even when you've Done the planning and do that initial rollout Pilot some things out try some things Is be prepared having a good change management model in place To get that feedback and make adjustments to that as you learn about really how your organization collaborates I agree All right. Well heather, you know, thanks so much for doing this people want to find out connect with you Find out more about you. How can they find you? Absolutely. Yeah, you can connect with me on linkedin. You can also connect with me on twitter on twitter It's heather subarino and if you have a linkedin learning subscription, you can find all my courses there Excellent. Well, thanks so much. Have a great rest of your day and a great weekend and Thanks everybody for watching. Bye christin. Bye everyone