Disqus - Latest Comments for mollyanglin

Re: Getting started with Microsoft Planner | Nonlinear Enterprise | nonlinear enterprise

Molly Anglin — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 08:26:29 -0000

:-) Very happy to help! Regarding the desktop version of Outlook vs Office 365 - it's sort of both (but they are different experiences.) When you create the group in O365, a new email address is created. In the desktop version of Outlook, you can cc this address and the message will be incorporated as part of the threaded conversations in the Group. Depending on settings within the group and the way messages are posted to the group, you will also receive messages as emails.... I've recently upgraded to the latest version of Office and threaded conversation aspect of Groups is now incorporated into my Outlook desktop client... I think you can also access the Group calendar (but I haven't tried that yet.)

The "real" group interface, and all it's bells and whistles (links to OneDrive, Planner, calendars etc) is currently available through Office 365 Outlook. (You can also download a Groups app.) Does that all make sense?

I'd be really interested to hear about the results of your pilots at some point... How are you testing them? What's been the reception so far?

Re: Getting started with Microsoft Planner | Nonlinear Enterprise | nonlinear enterprise

Molly Anglin — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 19:24:20 -0000

Ah! A new post! Thanks for sharing; it's a great one.

In some ways, I think Microsoft's approach is an attempt at keeping things relatively tidy. If you offer several collaborative options under "one roof" - does it lessen the appeal of shadow IT?

Your point about digital literacy is important. With regards to Planner, the OOTB collaborative experience is Groups... which, I suppose is closest to email. With Groups, you don't even have to leave your comfy Outlook client to use it. It's a very gentle nudge into more public/searchable/archivable forms of collaboration than email alone.

Somehow, you need to strike a balance between the power-users who are inclined to sneak in the latest and greatest... and those that can barely open their browser. Is designing for the averages the way to go? Is anyone well-served when you do?

In that regard, I absolutely love the philosophy behind inclusive design. The playground example that starts at 8:13 is very inspiring https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Microsoft also has an amazing inclusive design toolkit http://www.nonlinearcreatio...

Re: Getting started with Microsoft Planner | Nonlinear Enterprise | nonlinear enterprise

Molly Anglin — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 12:30:41 -0000

Hi Jed, thanks for reading!

We'd be happy to give you a demo if you're interested. It's easiest to actually see this in action... but I'll try to explain:

The grand vision from Microsoft is to make the Office 365 Group Service "a cross-application membership service that makes it easy for people to move naturally from one collaboration tool to another, preserve their sense of context and share with others." https://blogs.office.com/20...

When you create a new board in Planner, an equivalent Office 365 Group is associated with it. You can also choose to incorporate a new Planner board with Teams as well. (Teams is actually underpinned by the Office 365 Groups service - my colleague wrote about this recently here http://www.nonlinearcreatio... )

Yammer, too is scheduled to be integrated with the Office 365 Groups Service - https://blogs.office.com/20... - and they discuss Planner integrations but are hazy on the detail.

Rather than "one ring to rule them all", the idea is that there should be some choice by the user/team about what kind of collaboration solution is most relevant to the work being done. I think this makes sense; the size of the team, the type of work being done, the composition of the team and their familiarity/comfort level with web-based collaboration call for different approaches.

Hope that helps!

Re: Why Cisco Converged Its Intranet, Extranet and Website

Molly Anglin — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 09:54:50 -0000

Thanks Toby. That makes sense. I look forward to reading the next column!

Re: Why Cisco Converged Its Intranet, Extranet and Website

Molly Anglin — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 12:20:32 -0000

Hi Siobhan. Thanks so much for the clarifications. I remember reading about Cisco's acquisition of OpenDNS and thinking that their strategy is incredibly progressive. The concept of "intranet" is getting blurrier by the day and it makes sense that they enable greater participation through the web. I'm just a little surprised that this vision translates to an "employee" button on Cisco.com - it seems like so much more is possible! Perhaps this is just the beginning of the journey.

Thanks to Toby and CMSwire for this insightful piece!

Re: Why Cisco Converged Its Intranet, Extranet and Website

Molly Anglin — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 13:54:07 -0000

Based on the screens you've shared it seems like employees get the short end of the stick, no? There's so little real estate there to engage them. The cost savings of consolidated platforms may look good on paper but does it actually make sense? Customers might benefit most from a system focused on customer experience; whereas employees might be better served with systems that enable more productive work. Their needs are so different and by trying to architect a system that is everything to everybody ends up being of lesser value to each group.

Re: So Now Microsoft Axes the Yammer Community Team

Molly Anglin — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 14:28:53 -0000

With the news of Yammer being pushed to all Office 365 tenants, do you still hold the opinion that it's doomed? https://blogs.office.com/20... It sounds like there is greater commitment than ever to the product... and plans to integrate it into many O365 experiences.

Re: 2015 Contributors of the Year: Sam Marshall

Molly Anglin — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 11:13:33 -0000

Sam: I've become an avid reader of your posts. Congratulations on a great year and thank you for sharing your insights!

Re: Digital Transformation Will Not Provide Competitive Advantage

Molly Anglin — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 10:02:09 -0000

Gerry - I enjoyed reading your post. You make an interesting point. Perhaps it's a matter of semantics, but to me, digital transformation encapsulates a degree of customer centricity. The rationale behind "transforming" is to increase capacity to "work like a network"... Essentially making use of digital technology to strengthen and broaden relationships both internally and externally. Competitive advantage comes from the organization's capacity to adapt to signals from throughout this network (ideally faster and more cost-effectively than the competition)... of course this *must* include insights from and about the customer... but I think there's maybe more to it than just that alone.

Re: A Participation Framework for Social Media

Molly Anglin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:56:25 -0000

No problem! And thanks so much for the response! The radio analogy is really interesting... Would love to hear more about how that's approached. You come from a background in radio - don't you?

Regarding "Topeka", have you seen Peter Merholz's post on Social Media & User Experience ? He raises some good points. Wishing the UX crowd could get beyond the "social media douchebag" factor and direct their big brains towards thinking about how to design a site that effectively bridge the activities of existing community. (Although, admittedly, you're one of the few who are.) A perfectly crafted user-friendly website is great... but one that attracts and retains the attention and ongoing discussion (both onsite and off) is worth aspiring to. Are there ways as UX designers that we can shepherd that phenomenon? I'm thinking yes.... and I'd love to see more discussion about the design attributes that can spark and engage external communities.

Re: A Participation Framework for Social Media

Molly Anglin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:40:28 -0000

Hi Michael,

Such great points! I especially liked your thoughts on replies - you hit the nail on the head with this one: "the existential weight of the position holding the brand out for everyone to see sometimes outweighs the tendency to send out a response." Marcom professionals are faced with a pretty fundamental shift in the way they think about their corporate communications... the folks who have to-date focused entirely on perfectly wordsmithed campaigns and press releases are now dealing with the incredibly daunting prospect of nimbly addressing their customers more personally - and that's scary shit! I see a lot of interest amongst my clients (they all sense opportunity,) but also a lot of fear ... Social media requires a greater degree of immediacy and reaction speed than anything else and I'm sure they think: "What if I say the wrong thing"? "What if my response is interpreted the wrong way?" "What if I say something that somehow violates our legal terms and we get sued?"... unfortunately, more often than not, this leads to conversational paralysis. Too bad, because you're absolutely right that a well-timed, personal, helpful response can create incredibly strong brand advocates. I like your idea of a "framework" - it provides somewhat of a sense of process and security to the difficult challenge of talking to people as opposed to talking at them... The Air Force has a really nice model for dealing with dialogue that seems to I think allay some of the fear with this form of communication and ensure that they come out looking pretty good. http://www.wired.com/danger... . PR Firm Edelman also has a nice model for tackling social media and minimizing risk (Walk/Crawl/Run) - they describe it in a good paper about Obama's use of social media during his election campaign http://www.edelman.com/imag...

p.s. Of all the people involved in brand building through social means that I've met over the years - you are by FAR the best... I've seen you apply all of the tactics mentioned above and am so impressed to have witnessed the outcome on your own reputation. respect :) Thanks for sharing the secret recipe!