I’ve never quite understood the complaints about “Too many choices in #Office365”, and the “When to use what” situation. Of course I’m guilty of not taking the time to get to know something before I start complaining about being confused, but that’s just human right?

 

Office 365 Apps & Services

Yes I know. When Teams was launched I had a wobble. I was like “What the hell Microsoft?”, but then when you start using it, and you spend some time to research communication methods, time wasters and productivity in general, then you realize that they might be on to something.

I remember saying that I wish they would just supply us with a manual that said “When we had to do what, how and with what.” But as I said it, I also realized that, it would mean I had no power. And then of course, I’d complain about that.

As always, I love using analogies, and for this one, we’re going to talk about shoes.

Shoes

Retired Brands

Imagine a shoe company had to design a shoe and eventually realized that it’s outdated or no longer useful. Maybe we now had cobbled pavements instead of muddy gravel roads and times had changed. Or, they just realized that it was a stupid shoe design to start with.

But now they can’t bring out a new design. Nope. They have to stick to the original design and just keep ‘improving’ it. Like the example of the shoes in my banner image.

Too many types and colors

Or a company that just brings out one type of sneaker, high heal, slipper, flip flop and pump, in black and brown. Why on earth would they bring out variations if that ‘kinda’ works already?

Because people and their feet are different and we use shoes for different reasons, on different terrains.

The problem is that if people aren’t ‘educated’ on colors that go together, and which shoes are good when, then they will feel there are too many choices.

You cannot give people Office 365 licenses and then just expect them to make the right decisions. Especially when your company has never really invested in training for the citizen developers before.

When users don’t understand the benefits of Teams / Planner, they’ll keep on using Outlook to send tasks and have short conversations. You can’t blame them for that.

Ensure that your users receive the necessary training to give them the ability to make better informed decisions on their own.

Don’t blame Microsoft for giving you too many choices, blame yourself for not investing in your users so they can choose. Yes, they might keep making mistakes because of habit, but that’s why Change Management is not a once-off thing.

Empower your Citizen Developers:

SharePoint Conference 2019 in Vegas: May 21 to 23

Honored to be speaking at SharePoint Conference in Vegas, May 21-23, 2019. Follow & on Twitter for more updates, and click here to register: REMEMBER to use my discount code (SCHYFF) for $50 off! See you there!

New Initiative:

Every couple of months I’m going to travel to a new country, rent a motorcycle, and travel to as many communities as possible, for 15.2 days. Purpose would be to create awareness around Digital Literacy and give users an overview of Office 365 Apps and Services and how it can transform their lives. I’ll do video and written blogs to capture and share my journey and experiences.

Feedback would be crucial, and I’ll be using Microsoft Forms & Flow to gather valuable feedback for myself and Microsoft. I will be inviting other community members to join me on my journey when I’m in their respective areas.

Of course it wouldn’t be possible without sponsorship to help support this cause. Reach out if you’re interested on getting involved in any way, here’s a link to a Microsoft Form that can be completed: https://bit.ly/2LaQBRQ

REgarding 365:

“You can also find me contributing to REgarding 365. I’m a member of a group of enthusiasts, sharing their stories, thoughts and opinions about Microsoft 365. Catch us at https://regarding365.com | @regarding365 on Twitter and regarding365 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/regarding365 ”

Disclaimer: I create content about Office / Microsoft 365. Content is accurate at time of publication, however updates and new additions happen daily which could change the accuracy or relevance. Please keep this in mind when