End-user guidance is the last but crucial stage for the success of Viva Connections. We are now ready from a business and technology point of view to roll out Viva Connections for our Microsoft 365 users. The rollout has been successful when the users adopt the implementation.
In this chapter, you will learn how to make end users comfortable with this new offering and help them quickly adapt to Viva Connections.
It is important to convey a message to the end users that your SharePoint intranet is now in Microsoft Teams.
End-User Psychology
Every human is different. Everyone reacts differently to changes. A few end users might be eager to make their move to newer offerings, while you might see pushback from a few end users when adapting to new implementations.
The success of this entire exercise lies in how easily and quickly end users can adapt to this change and start using Viva Connections as their new digital experience.
How Easy or Difficult Is It?
Viva Connections is the integration of SharePoint, Yammer , and Stream with Microsoft Teams. A technical audience with prior experience might feel more at ease knowing that Viva Connections consists of the tools they already use. However, to drive the adoption, it is important to understand the “why” behind the Viva Connections experience. The main driver behind adopting Viva Connections for end users is the power it brings by offering information from various sources in a single place in Microsoft Teams. With this change, end users will not need to visit multiple places, including the SharePoint home site, organizational news sites, and Yammer communities, to get updates. Rather, all those updates are at their fingertips, within their comfortable experience of Microsoft Teams, which is now at the center of everyone's digital experience.
Prepare Your Adoption Plan
Every organization has its own culture. Planning for a new tool and helping users adapt to it is always a different journey for every organization. There is no one rigid plan to make it work.
The following are a few considerations that will help you get started with end-user adoption at your organization.
User Engagement
User engagement is the key to the success of Viva Connections adoption. The first step is to analyze the different sets of audiences in the organization. Plan and implement adoption stages and steps for each of them to drive better user engagement at each stage.
Find the Early Adopters
Every organization has enthusiasts who are passionate about technology and like to explore new things, evaluate the functionality, and provide their open constructive feedback.
For the success of Viva Connections, identify the early adopters and draw on their enthusiasm to evaluate the Viva Connections experience.
Organizations should ensure that employees not only get engaged but stay engaged in a sustainable way. Ensure the freshness of the content from various sources including SharePoint, Yammer, and Stream. Place engaging cards on the dashboard to help find information easily. Implement a solid feedback channel for continuous improvement of the Viva Connections experience.
Build a Champions Program
Champions are a specialized role for driving engagements. It is an important role from any organization’s perspective because learning with the help of colleagues is considered the most effective method over self-learning or formal training.
Champions can help for the business transformation and easy adoption of changes by creating excitement and influencing others by spreading the word.
Spread Awareness
Start by spreading the word about this new offering and start drawing end-user attention to let them know that something interesting is coming their way.
Identify Channels
Identify the most engaging mediums or channels in the organization that can act as effective communication tools such as SharePoint, Yammer, Microsoft Teams, etc.
Advertise
Based on the identified channels, advertise the new Viva Connections offerings by creating SharePoint news or announcements, Yammer conversations, and Microsoft Teams channel posts.
While posting on these channels, make sure it is not one-way communication; rather, encourage users to participate in the discussions, resolve their queries, and get them excited about the new rollout.
Communications
Create engaging email announcement templates to send emails to users; see https://adoption.microsoft.com/viva/ . Stick physical posters at the common places including meeting rooms, the cafeteria, etc., to attract users’ attention.
Training
Training can help raise awareness about the subject.
Train the End Users
Provide formal training to end users to get them up to speed on using Viva Connections. Record short videos explaining Viva Connections and post them on channels including SharePoint, Yammer, and Microsoft Teams.
Implement Storytelling by Champions
Champions can help bridge the gap between business scenarios and user expectations. Promote channels for champions where they can share success stories and helpful tips to the end users.
Measure the Success
To measure how effectively Viva Connections is being used across the organization, you should define the metrics to measure.
Measure Usage Analytics
Based on the information being presented on the SharePoint home site, as well on the dashboard cards, measure the traffic to those sites.
Microsoft 365 usage analytics : Track the overall usage of apps including SharePoint, Yammer, and Microsoft Teams.
SharePoint site or page analytics : If the SharePoint page is referred to as a link on the dashboard card or SharePoint news is published via the SharePoint home site or an organizational news site, then the user engagement can be tracked via the SharePoint site or page analytics.
Yammer analytics : When a Yammer conversation is featured on the SharePoint home site, its engagement can be tracked with Yammer analytics.
Encourage Feedback
What do they like about the experience?
What do they think is lacking?
What can be done to improve the experience?
Setting up Microsoft Forms to collect feedback from users is a nice and out-of-the-box option to consider.
Create Forums
Employees might face usability or technical issues while accessing the Microsoft Viva Connections. Encourage employees to submit the issues. Set up Microsoft Teams channels, SharePoint sites, or Yammer communities where they can have a conversation around any issue with the champions. Champions can help them remove the blockers and ensure a smooth experience.
Conclusion
The adoption of Viva Connections by the end users defines the success of the organization. Every human and organizational culture is different. It is essential to build your plan around the adoption of this tool change for your end users.
In the next chapter, we will learn to meet custom business scenarios by extending Viva Connections.