Problem 

The ideal experience communities in Yammer is not provided from the current Groups experience.

Context 

We have positioned Yammer as a tool to serve Outer Loop user cases, and we have prioritized Executive Engagement and Communities as the two most important of those outer loop use cases. The vision we have for Communities in Yammer is potentially different enough from our current group construct that we think it is necessary to at least think through the idea of introducing a new destination in Yammer for Communities.  

Team

2 designers and 1 Project Managers from Yammer
1 designer and 1 Project Manager from Sharepoint

Role

Lead Designer

Goal 

Provide a holistic, differentiated experience of a community in Yammer more quickly than is possible by retrofitting groups.   

Proposed Solution 

Provide a new destination in Yammer that is differentiated in comparison to groups via a different layout, different right rail modules, a different header, and more. These communities would be backed by O365 groups and would have the same management capabilities/attributes as existing groups: membership would be managed in the same way, public/private settings would be the same, etc. The biggest difference between existing groups and the communities destination being proposed here is:  

• Right rail modules 

• Move the members module above the feed

• Include a community statistics module?  

• Move the info section out into a module above the feed?  

• Collapse the  layout of the middle column of the page  

• Provide a sense of place within the community? 

Research Session

Who
23 users representing 13 of our enterprise customers.

Bayer Booz Allen Hamilton • Bosch • Danaher •
Liberty Mutual • Medtronic • Shire • Takeda • Thermo Fisher • Unilever • Wake Forest Health • Medical

When
3 packed days and 2 evenings of sessions and activities. 

What
Cross-platform integration across OneDrive, SharePoint, Yammer, Bing, PowerApps, Flow, Office 365 Branding, Outlook, and SOX.  Yammer hosted a vibrant discussion and co-designing session around Yammer integration into Community sites.

Getting Started

We utilized the What If Framework to begin the brainstorming process.

To innovate and push ideas forwards, being aligned on a design vision helps give focus and direction, it makes sure you are aiming for something with a purpose.

We went from Community Opportunity Areas > Underlying problems > What ifs for sets of problems

Research Learnings & Analysis

Top 5 Community Opportunities: 

1. Provide tools that help admins and members foster a sense of community 

2. Improve means of visual, textual and lighthearted expression 

3. Help people create, share and discover events in their communities 

4. Assist communities in knowledge creation, consumption and retrieval 

5. Provide ways for people to be recognized for contributions in communities

Customer Feedback

• Customers expressed general excitement for this integration

• Need to define use cases for Sharepoint VS Yammer VS Teams

• Users want identical functionality for both Sharepoint Communities and Yammer

Features and Key points

1. Improve dynamic expression

   • Rich text: Allow for basic features such as bullets, bold text, links

   • Reactions: Not necessarily the final reactions we want to show, but a way to enhance and individualize the "like" function

   • Dynamic short posts: Allow images or illustrations to be available as a background

2. Support learning and knowledge

   • Post types: Q&A, Suggestions/Polls/etc

   • A Best Answer from the replies can be selected by the OP or by upvotes/downvotes

3. Provide acknowledgment & recognition

   • Top Contributors: Displaying the most helpful/active users by week/month. This would help other users know who to ask questions to and perhaps inspire them to become a more valuable contributor

   • Badges: Admin badges, Top contributor badges, New community member badges, New network member badges

4. Events

   • Events cards that allow for in feed discussion

Branding: Cover Solutions

Cover Image

- Allow background to multiply and blur,
to accomodate for different dimensions

- Allow multiple/carousel

- Provide illustrations/ colors/ patterns/
Bing Photos integration

Feed: Layout Variations

Feed: Layout Variations

What if community management was effortless?

What if communities could support and foster meetups that helped bring members closer?

What if community leaders could effectively set the rules of conduct in the community?

What if community leaders could exemplify behavior?

What if people could easily know if a community is worth their time?

What if people could articulate and express themselves effectively?

• Means of expression or interacting with content are limited

• “Like” doesn't cover most emotions users feel

• Can't format complex conversation

What if communities could facilitate rituals that created greater sense of community?

• Hard to create community rituals (repeatable behaviors)

• Welcoming new members in community

• Asking people to share what they've learned in last two weeks

Nominating members who've been helpful in the last month

Higher fidelity wires….