Chris Slemp

Keeping it simple: S / M / L

Now that Yammer has made the leap to rebrand as Viva Engage, and more of us are using it in the context of Microsoft Teams and Outlook, an even simpler model than all the ones previously designed becomes more obvious. Especially in Teams, where I now have the Chat, Teams (channels), and Viva Engage appsContinue reading “Keeping it simple: S / M / L”

Yammer: End of an Era, Start of a New One

Microsoft announced today that the Yammer brand is being retired as the product evolves to become part of the Viva employee experience suite. In this post, I talk about why that’s a great thing.

The Broad Comms Ecosystem

How to think about Viva Connections, Company Communicator, and Yammer as a comms professional.

The optimal MOCA blend

This is a long overdue post about the Microsoft Modern Collaboration Architecture (MOCA), authored by Rishi Nicolai, Marie Chua, and Reggie Best. The MOCA model is the latest, and in my opinion the best so far, of the models proposed to address the “which tool when” question. What I appreciate most about their presentation isContinue reading “The optimal MOCA blend”

20 Years: Lessons from a Microsoft vet

A cat on a fire-breathing unicorn flying the Microsoft flag

HR tells me it’s officially been 20 years since I started at Microsoft. The thing that first comes to mind to be grateful for is that this anniversary hits while I’m in Scotland during a pandemic. If I’d still been in the States, Microsoft tradition would require that I purchase 20 pounds of M&Ms toContinue reading “20 Years: Lessons from a Microsoft vet”

What are you trying to do?

I’m going to describe a situation where I felt like Pepper Potts, surprising Iron Man when he delivered that great line “let’s face it, this isn’t the worst thing you’ve caught me doing.” But before I get to that story… I haven’t talked enough about what questions you SHOULD be asking. I’ve covered models forContinue reading “What are you trying to do?”

Collaboration Loops: More on Making the Leap

If you’ve read some of the other articles on this site, you may know that I established it primarily to change the nature of the “which tool when” conversation from one focused on tools to one focused on principles that we can apply across present and future tools. It’s my belief that people don’t needContinue reading “Collaboration Loops: More on Making the Leap”

Your Inner and Outer Loops

Conversations about how all the tools in the Office 365 toolbox fit together continue to boil over with stronger and stronger opinions. What products should be dropped or simplified, how the initial launch of Groups should’ve been handled, and what users should be able to turn off and on continue to be points of heated debate. I’veContinue reading “Your Inner and Outer Loops”

Working Out Loud: the How of Transparency

Working Out Loud, or #WOL on Twitter , is more than a description of how we can work together as a team. It’s a philosophy for managing a career, and a core principle of an increasing number of organizations. It’s a movement. While transparency may be one of the reasons that we want to collaborate differently, Working Out Loud is theContinue reading “Working Out Loud: the How of Transparency”

Compartments: Everything in its place

We love our email inboxes. Email is so ubiquitous, and so simple, and therein lies the secret to its success and power. However, that simplicity comes at a cost, and so we also hate our email inboxes. We’re constantly triaging and managing every message, whether it’s high-priority fire drill from the boss or just aContinue reading “Compartments: Everything in its place”