Creating user awareness for communication and collaboration
Creating a plan for implementation to roll out new use cases
Executing campaigns using communication sites
Using SharePoint communication sites for leadership communications
Measuring the success of adoption
Keeping this focus in mind, you will learn to effectively communicate and collaborate using SharePoint communication sites. Further, you will get experience in how communication sites are used when collaborating and communicating with users, customers, and suppliers, learn to build user guidelines, launch campaigns around communication sites and, finally, develop ideas to increase leadership adoption for communication sites. Let’s start by discussing creating user awareness.
Create User Awareness for Effective Communication and Collaboration Using Communication Sites
User awareness is one of the more important aspects when it comes to deploying new products or services in your organization, as it’s important that people are well informed about the products they are using or will use shortly. By adopting the user awareness approach, organizations build a friendly relationship with the user community, in order to get feedback, suggestions, and input about its products. There are various approaches to creating user awareness and you can rely on communication sites to build awareness.
When you talk about user awareness of a product, this means you try to communicate the product’s details, features, benefits, and business value and provide hands-on experiences to the user community. When we meet a new person, we might be uncomfortable talking to them without an introduction; however, when they are introduced to us by an acquaintance, we tend to get an idea about them and adjust our communications accordingly. User awareness works along the same lines; if you can introduce your products, your user community will be more likely to accept them. This does not mean that everybody will accept them, but user awareness is a good approach to make products well accepted by the user community.
Beta testing
Super user or champions communities
Leadership announcements
Critic communities
Success stories
Beta Testing
Understanding new features to be launched
Testing their workings
Figuring out their side effects
Getting hands-on experience
Reporting bugs inside a feature or functionality
Discussing the business benefits with product owners
Reducing the chances of failure
Releasing better-quality features due to feedback from the user community
Increasing user satisfaction
Getting buy-in from the user community
Building a good relationship for future releases
Beta testing is therefore a technique through which one makes users familiar with products and new features by directly involving the end user community that will be directly impacted.
Microsoft communications sites have been actively performing beta testing on its Microsoft 365 products. To make communications sites more user friendly, the organizations must involve their users in beta tests. Those users often help the organization during rollout or launch by becoming a super user or champion.
Communication Sites to the Super User or Champions Community
The super user effectiveness implementation aims to upskill, connect, and engage the super user community in order to help the end user community be more effective. This section shows that getting the super user (SU) community to adopt and implement communication sites results in acceptance of these communication sites by the end user community.
Super users become engaged in their role and act like owners in their community
Leadership becomes committed (and is seen to be committed) to the super user community
End users are aware of the communication site features and rollout process
End users are aware of the changes that will impact them
This super user community approach is designed to provide the structure required to achieve the communication sites’ rollout objectives. The approach confirms the key stakeholders involved in the rollout, the SU community, and the main communications channels available during the rollout phase. It then provides detailed audience journeys and detailed key engagement activities needed to take stakeholders from awareness to commitment to ownership.
A model diagram represents the four layers of an organization such as governance, process, super users, and end users along with various departments.
Super user audience during rollout
Figure 2-1 shows a four-layered organization, which is generally part of any organization during the product rollout. process These four layers are governance, process, super users, and the end user community. Let’s look at the role of each layer during the product rollout process.
The business are the owners of the super user community
Engagement with business leaders is carried out by the super user community
Super users from the business leadership side take a key governance role regarding implementation and link the implementation process to the business
Due to the process-specific nature of super users, process owners also have a responsibility/interest in super user performance
There is a requirement from the project’s perspective to include process owners, process managers, and process architects/analysts in the super user community
Process owners will be engaged and aligned with the business stabilization workstreams
Super users and their line managers are engaged by the super user champions
Part-time super users and full-time super users require different types of communication
Super users are the focal point of the implementation communications
End Users are made aware of the changes affecting them
Support website: Hints and tips, training, “find your super user,” and so on.
SharePoint communication sites: Status/KT/Wiki/information sharing in the SU forum. One-stop self-service shop for all super user-related content. Expert directory to support the community.
Mailers: Standard format (header/text style, sender, etc.). Super user champions send these to the end user and super user communities.
Webcasts: Core messages and ways of working. Presenter-led format for key groups on the SU implementation. Two-way communication is available.
Virtual meetings: Status/KT/information sharing in an PFP forum. Ad hoc meetings with key business representatives. Two-way communication available
Welcome new super users to the community
Engage existing super users
Introduce super user champions to super users
Introduce and explain support tools and processes
Provide updated SU roles and responsibilities and SU profiles
Explain the know-how about the product
Provide clarity on the training approach
Re-launch the super user community
Explain the super user succession process
Create a webcast approach
Review and agree on the approach with SU champions and the process support manager
Develop and agree on material with the SU champions
Arrange training sessions
Invite interested attendees who want to be future SUs
Conduct sessions
Follow up
All super users
SU business champions (to front)
Process focal points and process support manager (to front and support)
Super user effectiveness team (to front and support)
SU support first level support – L1 (to assist)
Before going through the super user journey, let’s review the super user initiative discussed so far. We started with a four-layer organization, where super users can work with other layers of the organization in order to create effective standards to communicate and collaborate using communication sites. Then, you saw key communications channels used during product rollout, and finally, you saw a list of activities to be performed that will ensure that you are effectively using super users in the product rollout process.
In order to become a super user, you go through various steps such as aware, understand, collaborate, commit, and own. Becoming an SU is systematic progression and includes adopting products, as shown in Figure 2-2. Buy-in from super users is very important during product rollout, as they stand behind process managers during implementation by answering end user queries, giving them ideas for adopting products, and creating new use cases.
A scatter plot represents the super user audience journey with plots are initial communication, webcast invite, S U welcome webcast, S U newsletter, S U onboarding, newsletter, and webcast invite, S U clinic, and super user.
Super user journey
Leadership Announcement
In my experience as a Yammer rollout manager during my tenure at a Global French IT company, two kinds of rollout processes are common. Top to bottom rollout (i.e. driven by management) and bottom to top rollout (i.e. indirectly driven by management). The user community will judge the quality of the product regardless. My Yammer rollout was bottom to top and I had to evangelize the good message of Yammer to the entire company, build a pool of super users for assistance, and build Microsoft relationships. This role was challenging, not in terms of roles and responsibilities, but in terms of sustaining Yammer as an enterprise collaboration platform. On a yearly basis, leadership would recommend a replacement for Yammer and I had to do my best to make an argument for keeping it.
YamChats –Online question and answer sessions on Yammer with leadership teams.
Leadership events for Yammer: Whenever there were business leadership events, we included a small session on Yammer.
- Built content to educate leaders covering the following points:
On Monday, start a new conversation.
On Tuesday, reply to an existing conversation.
On Wednesday, like one message.
On Thursday, invite a colleague to join Yammer.
On Friday, follow one new Yammer user
Conducted Yammer webcasts with leadership teams.
Published Yammer success stories from leaders.
Convinced the leadership team to be part of the super users program.
Our Group Chief Technology Officer was Yammer fan, so we leveraged his connection to promote Yammer to the leadership teams.
Leadership teams are often on the road, so we launched a campaign for leaders to download the Yammer mobile app and win goodies.
Organized Yammer so that leadership teams could talk about their Yammer journeys.
Such leadership engagement helped the user community see the value in adopting the program. From a general end user perspective, if leaders are not using a product, the product does not seem to have business value. Lack of leadership engagement is a big challenge when you are performing a bottom to top rollout. Eventually, you will have minimal support for your product. Gaining support from Yammer super users improves the Yammer adoption rate.
Identify whether the rollout model is bottom to top or top to bottom
If it’s bottom to top, create a plan to build the super user community and identify top leaders who support communication sites.
Regularly engage with the super user community and leadership teams that support communication sites.
- Build content for leaders such as this:
On Monday, contribute to a Topic.
On Tuesday, share a Topic Card on Yammer or Teams.
On Wednesday, Share a People Card on Yammer or Teams.
On Thursday, contribute to knowledge centers with your experience.
On Friday, share a couple of knowledge center pages with wider communities.
Conduct a communication sites webcast about adoption with the leadership team.
Publish success stories from leaders.
Convince leadership team to be part of the super users program.
Leverage leadership connections to promote communication sites in the leadership teams.
Organize a Microsoft communication sites leadership lunch to talk about their experiences.
Conduct a whitepaper competition on how you can effectively use Microsoft communication sites.
Conduct online question and answer sessions with the leadership team on Microsoft communication sites related topics.
Unless and until there is leadership buy-in, the end user community will not take the rollout seriously. An email from a top leader such as the CEO supporting product rollout makes an immense difference because the user community then understands the business value of the product. Therefore, it is important that you involve leadership teams in order to effectively collaborate and communicate on SharePoint communication sites.
The Critic Community
Provide early indication of failure or risk during the rollout phase.
Get a different perspective of the products from people wearing different hats to provide continuous feedback and scope for improvement.
Act proactively to mitigate risks and fix issues.
Challenge super users in their day-to-day promotion of the product.
Make leadership teams part of the critic community to understand why they are uncomfortable using products.
Develop pain areas that prevent user engagement.
Make the product stable and highly interactive.
Eventually makes the objectives of the product rollout clearer and more transparent.
A critic community will help you make the rollout objectives very transparent, create scope for improvement, and help create better content for users to access platforms and create user engagement.
Success Stories
A table represents the two columns, and five rows which contain the user name, business division, issue, how communication sites resolved issues, and efforts saved or money saved in column one, and column two is blank.
Success story template
The next section looks at one strategy and approach to running a Microsoft communication site campaign.
Microsoft Communication Sites Campaign Overview: Strategy and Approach
In this section, you are going learn about the strategy and approach of Microsoft communication sites campaign. The name of this campaign is the Microsoft Communication Sites Literacy Campaign. This section covers a campaign overview, campaign definition and goals, good communication sites, bad project communication sites, the scope of the communication sites campaign, and several other topics. Let’s start with Data Literacy campaign overview.
Data Literacy Campaign Overview
A model diagram represents the four W s such as why, what, who, when, and one H how of the campaign.
Four Ws and one H of the campaign
What: Campaign will increase user awareness, achieving business excellence using communication sites across the organization.
Why: To support operational excellence, make sense of the repositories, and create accessible, trusted data. This is done through tacit and explicit knowledge of the organization’s systems, people, and employees and understanding how to use data and where it came from.
How: A global, centrally coordinated but locally executed program across business/functions, leveraging different teams (a top to bottom rollout).
Who: Entire staff
When: As per the organizational campaign calendar
Campaign Definition and Goals for Leadership Communication
The goal of the Microsoft Communication Sites Literacy Campaign is to increase the literacy of the Microsoft communication sites among all staff, make them excited and develop confidence to work with it, enable them to make decisions using communication sites’ data, and accelerate their organizational digital journeys. The campaign supports a culture where data entry into Microsoft communication sites is a value-added activity, a culture with a reusable mentality, and where data is owned and trusted.
What Does a Digitally Literate Staff Look Like?
Meaning: Know the value of communication sites, their health, how to use them and where to find them.
Case for change: The case for change is to accelerate the digital transformation.
Impact: How can you create value from this and support new business models.
Principles: Make contributions to communication sites everyone’s responsibility. Data is governed in line with the enterprise information and security policy.
The need: Understand the urgency of the digital transformation and use communication sites for knowledge and content management purposes.
The value: See high-quality data inside communication sites, this has clear value for users, businesses, and the organization.
The confidence: The organization is excited and confident about how data in the communication sites is a competitive differentiator and how this data can help the organization stay relevant.
Culture: Embrace Microsoft communication sites in day-to-today activities.
Learn: Be eager to share lessons.
Treat: Treat data in communication sites as an asset and keep it safe and secure.
Articulate: Describe the organizational drivers and the benefits of digital transformation using communication sites.
Apply: A communication site data mindset, being able to read, contribute, and discuss data in different context.
Now that you have some knowledge of the goals of this campaign, let’s be practical and distinguish between good and bad communication sites.
Measuring the Success of Adoption
To measure success, you must distinguish between good communication site literacy and bad communication site literacy.
Good communication site literacy:
Examining sites in in Microsoft communication sites and making a decision
Having a formal communication sites literacy strategy, program, and plan
Commissioning value-based dashboards; checking on usage with the help of Power BI
Common understanding of communication sites features
Understanding, articulating, and using communication sites in relation to a business case; seeking the relevant data, internally/externally, and structured/unstructured
Telling succinct, but thorough data stories
Viewing and treating communication sites as an enterprise asset
Focusing on high-value diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics
Consider communication sites skills during hiring, performance reviews, and learning, and development
Integrating with standalone and non-Microsoft repositories
Leadership by example; they are visible and are the communication sites champions
Bad communication site literacy:
Cherry-picking data to justify a decision
Saying that communication sites data is important, but not treating it as such
Making reports as “that’s the way we’ve always done it”
Inconsistent understanding of communication sites data terminology; silos
Not understanding communication sites data in a business context; using data from other systems because it’s available/easy to use; not seeking more suitable data
Misleading by using the wrong chart type or measure for a dataset
Representing conclusions without adequate context – fake news!
Individuals/departments hoarding communication sites, limiting their value to others
Focus on reporting and analyzing past activity only
Not considering communication site competencies in new hires
Minimal analytics infrastructure
Good Communication site behaviors not exhibited or championed
Let’s now look at how good and bad communication site literacy differs.
Appearance of Good Communication Sites Literacy
Explicitly call out communication sites as important
Communication sites have known and visible sponsors
Leadership demonstrates behavior using communication sites
Project communication sites is not viewed as a by-product; reporting and analytics are not afterthoughts
Formal strategy, program, and plan for communication sites
Existence of communication sites glossary, catalogue, and dictionary
Communication sites knowledge is incorporated into hiring and performance
Communication sites data is trusted and understood
Meetings cover how communication sites, metrics, and analytics can be leveraged to demonstrate business value
A commonly heard phrase is: “What does the communication sites data tell us?”
Ability to describe the communication sites data, metrics, and analysis used in a business use case
Ask good questions of communication sites
Hypothesis test with communication sites
Distinguish correlation from causality using communication sites
Understand the value of communication sites as an asset
The power of blending types and sources from communication sites
Adherence to communication sites data privacy, security, ethics, bias, and risk
Adopt self-service business intelligence using communication sites
Active, engaged data storytelling using knowledge centers
Variety of analytical techniques using communication sites
Communication sites data quality understood by those who enter/create data
Common communication sites data language – not silos
Analytics professionals can articulate varying communication sites management approaches
Data-discovery and augmented analytics capabilities and tools are in place and used
Opportunistic embedding of communication sites into business workflow to make faster decisions
Use of communication sites for visualization and storytelling
Integration with standalone repositories to derive value from content
Development programs in place to attract, develop, manage, and retain top talent
Certification in place or in development for communication sites
Appearance of Bad Communication Sites Literacy
No common language – e.g., metadata repository being referred to as and understood to be a derivation from communication sites
All talk – talking about the importance of communication sites data, but not treating it as important
Creating and funding dashboards without vetting their usage and value
Failure to consider the communication sites competencies of new hires in any position
Not understanding how to articulate business impact and actual contribution to business value using communication sites
A rarely heard phrase is: “What does the data tell us?”
Cherry-picking data to justify a decision, not examining the data to inform a decision
Not clarifying or challenging assumptions
Saying “Give me the data and I will figure out what to do with it later”; using Microsoft communication sites just because it’s what you have available
Using wrong terminologies to explain Microsoft communication sites
Asking for a report because “that’s the way we’ve always done it”
Not identifying and adjusting for inherent or implicit biases
Idle project repositories for many years
Fake news: Representing Microsoft communication sites and conclusions in a way that does not provide adequate context, clarification of assumptions, and/or discerning interrogation by the viewers
Relying on internal structured data because it is familiar and easy to access, rather than exploring other relevant internal and external data sources and types such as Microsoft communication sites
Not treating information as an enterprise asset, e.g., individuals and departments hoarding data, thus limiting its value to others
High-value diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics over Microsoft communication sites
Narrow/local focus; failing to consider other ways to monetize information internally and externally from communication sites
Lack of professional development and certification programs related to Microsoft communication sites
After defining the campaign goals and the definition, you need to define the campaign’s scope. It is comprised of three phases—let’s get started, let’s do it, and embed it.
The Literacy Awareness Campaign Scope
Phase 1 focusses on aspects of user awareness.
Phase 1. Let’s Get Started
Define basic topics to know about Microsoft’s communication sites.
Define learning paths for end users and super users.
Define most the valued internal professional (MVP) for the communication sites.
Curate content for normal a communication sites user.
Create extra MVP content.
Define a strategy and approach.
Phase 2. Let’s Do It
Complete the existing content (internal and external) for MVP.
Complete the extra MVP content.
Create the communication site’s literacy SharePoint.
Create the MVP learning paths.
Identify the communications contacts per segment.
Pilot the MVP.
Phase 3. Embed It
Curate the remaining existing content (internal and external).
Create the remaining extra content.
Create the remaining learning paths.
Create the communications content.
Create and share the communications plan with the segment contacts.
During any campaign roll-out, there are pain points. Probable pain points are different competencies to adopt communication sites, lack of business value, lack of reward and recognition, and lack of support.
Pain points in a Microsoft Communication Literacy Campaign
A text model explains the differing share point communication site competence, communication sites not viewed with a use case in mind, lack of rewards and recognition, and misunderstanding of communication sites of Pain points literacy campaigns.
Pain points of a literacy campaign
Differing Microsoft communication sites competence to adopt organization wide
Communication sites are not viewed with a use case in mind. Data journeys inside communication sites through the supply chain are not understood.
There are no incentives/penalties for staff for adoption or participation (i.e. no reward and recognition program).
Communication sites’ management, controls, and governance are not understood or prioritized; they are seen as low value and high effort. There is a proliferation of multiple versions of the truth.
Initially, the literacy campaign is about building awareness at scale and increasing understanding of the importance of the communication sites. Later initiatives can build on this to address specific areas, such as knowledge, content, and information management.
Challenges Overcome by Literacy Campaigns
A table with three columns and four rows represents the opportunities achieved through literacy campaigns that include columns for opportunities, business blockers, and literacy campaign achievements.
Opportunities achieved through literacy campaigns
A table represents the two columns and seven rows that contain share point analytics, video, communication site success stories, embedding elsewhere, feedback surveys, yammer interaction, goals, and K P I s.
Measuring a campaign
Summary
This chapter explained how to roll out different techniques to create user awareness, launch communication site campaigns, and create intelligent and informed communities. The primarily focus was on creating user awareness, creating plans for implementation, executing campaigns, and measuring the success of adoption. The next chapter covers information compliance and governance aspects of communication sites, as the global user community falls into different zones where information has been classified at different levels.