What is Microsoft Viva? - for regular people

What is Microsoft Viva and how does it impact me as a regular person?

As we work more physically disconnected from our teams and organisations, it has become more difficult to feel connected. People and information are harder to find. In amidst the demands of work, we find it harder to connect with people and information when we need it. That leads to poor work patterns that impacts our well-being.

Microsoft Viva is a simplified way for you to connect with people, your organisations activities and culture, topics, learning, and manage your well-being at work. The goal of Viva is to improve your employee experience of work by making tools easier to use from one place.  You will use it from inside Microsoft Teams.

If you have been using Microsoft 365 for a while, you will recognise some of the applications and some are new with Viva. For you, Microsoft Viva is a leap forward toward a modern working environment with seamless transition between different work activities and tools. If Microsoft Teams is the hub for teamwork, then Microsoft Viva, inside of Teams, is the collection of connections.

Up until Microsoft Viva, you have visited separate tools to connect with people, your org and topics, learn, and manage well-being. Intranet and news in SharePoint. Communities and org-wide discussions in Yammer. Managing well-being from insights in Outlook and MyAnalytics. Learning across disconnected and isolated platforms and providers.

Viva brings this all together by reframing existing products and introducing new experiences and products like Topics app, learning in the flow of work by making connections for you through AI and smart suggestions. Or the Learning app, where you can attend courses and discuss your learning with team members.

Some of Microsoft Viva will feel familiar and some of it will feel new. All of Viva will feel more connected as you use it through Microsoft Teams.

If you haven't been using Microsoft 365 at work and this is all new, your experience is going to be much like Mila Moraes. "I don't know what Microsoft Viva is. But all the pieces of my on-boarding came together in one app."

You will be using Microsoft Teams for the first time, where you can chat with team members, collaborate together on files, co-ordinate activities and connect with other information sources from your organisation. Microsoft Viva will be a seamless collection of places to connect with learning, communication and culture across the organisation, connect topics with information and experts in your organisation, and get guidance to manage your well-being at work. You will use Viva through Microsoft Teams and you won't even know it's Viva.

That is my 10 cent's on the topic. They are my opinions. That's all for now. I'll have more to say as I take a deeper look at Microsoft Viva and think on it for a while.