Microsoft Teams and the Meeting Lifecycle

In June, Microsoft announced a substantial update to Microsoft Teams, which included support for up to 49 people in the gallery view, virtual backgrounds, support for 300 participants, instant channel meetings and more in the IT Admin suite for management and security.

But today we got more. Microsoft launched “Together Mode” for Teams. This new view turns the meeting participants into avatars who can have some level of interactions like a wave, tap on the shoulder or high-five and can be used in settings like a coffee shop or an auditorium depending on the number of participants.

Other features include a dynamic view to share content more dynamically, video filters that help with lighting and camera focus, live reactions with emojis, live captions with speaker attribution, suggested replies and the integration of Cortana.

There is a lot there to unpack, but what is particularly interesting about today’s announcements is the focus on people and on making video meetings more an integral part of collaboration rather than an island that has a beginning and an end when we turn the camera on and off. Meetings are born from work that happens before people come together and continues after people leave.

I have always thought about meetings as part of my daily workflow.  During quarantine, the growth we saw in the number of meetings made this realization even more critical as it has implications in the tools we are using as well as the features we see as most valuable.

In a study we, at Creative Strategies, conducted across 1000 US respondents working from home during the pandemic, daily meetings became a reality for 62% of the panelists up from 25% before the quarantine. As I discussed before, I do expect more flexible work and more remote working to remain in place once offices reopen. Thirty-one percent of our panelists said they would like to continue to work from home once the sheltering in place is lifted with another 22% who want the flexibility to do so a couple of days a week. Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Report published on the back of a recent study the company conducted supports our finding as 82% of managers they reached out to, said they expect to have more flexible work from home policies as the economy reopens.

It’s All About the People

So now we have established the long-term need to look at video meetings as an essential and integral part of our workflows. We have also clearly found that working from home is productive, but it has been interesting to see how video calls have impacted the way we feel about our colleagues. Microsoft said that 62% of people surveyed said they feel more empathetic towards their colleagues because they feel they made more of a connection with their personal lives by being in their home. My own set up has undoubtedly offered a glimpse into how demanding my cats are, how much my dogs sleep and how well trained my kid is at not just walking into my home office!

While people might have a better appreciation for their colleagues, they do not necessarily feel more connected to them. Sixty percent of the people Microsoft surveyed said they feel less connected to their colleagues and yet 52% of people surveyed feel more valued or included as a remote contributor. As a long time, remote worker, this last point hit me very early on this quarantine phase. It was apparent to me that everybody contributing remotely, in the same way, was democratizing the virtual meeting room table we were joining. The combination of the amount of time we spend in virtual meetings and how our brains process the visual and audio information it is receiving is having an impact on how tired and overwhelmed some people feel while working from home.

All these data points informed Microsoft’s decision to focus on tools that will make the video interaction more natural and more focused on the people. There is certainly a degree of maturity in how today’s features came about. I am not sure if there is a hype cycle of video meetings, but if there were, it would certainly show us edging from the slope of enlightenment to the plateau of productivity.

The new Together Mode might seem like a gimmick at first, but if you do not get too carried away with the high-fives, you can see there are benefits to it. First, there is a decrease in distractions as the focus shifts from what is going on around you to the people. It also draws participants more into the meeting, providing more body language cues. This is particularly useful in a lecture format, either in a business or education context. Other features help spotlight people like live captions with speaker attribution make it easier to follow along, especially when you are not familiar with the people in the meeting and the new filters that help improve the clarity of the picture so you can better read facial expressions.

The Meeting Lifecycle

I want to go back to the concept of the meeting lifecycle or, if you prefer, how you should think about the meeting as part of your daily workflow rather than an event in isolation. In a real-life context, it might be harder to see the flow but if you think about it for a second there is a flow. You would take your computer or a notebook into a room together with any documents or information you might need. During the meeting, you would take notes, brainstorm on a whiteboard, take pictures of the information and walk out of the meeting to pick up the next step over email or in future meetings.

When we come together virtually, however, the way the meeting blends with what happens before and after is much more obvious and the tools that will allow that blending to be as smooth as possible will drive more significant engagement and grow loyalty. This is why I believe video only or chat only solutions will find it harder to compete with solutions that have the ability to transcend what are becoming more unnecessary artificial boundaries between people, content and task at hand. Being able to have content and people engaged onto one platform will provide better data which in turn will provide solutions that will easily surface information at the right time, connect the right people in a timely fashion basically offer more and more value but taking care of the most frustrating aspects of collaboration.

 

There is no question that remote work, video meetings, in particular, will continue to see an array of developments for quite some time, including welcoming new entrants like the new collaboration app mmhmm to the space. On the one hand, this focus highlights how overlooked remote collaboration has been for so many years. On the other hand, it shows how much our current experience can be improved today by AI and software rather than having to wait for the proliferation of XR based solutions.

Published by

Carolina Milanesi

Carolina is a Principal Analyst at Creative Strategies, Inc, a market intelligence and strategy consulting firm based in Silicon Valley and recognized as one of the premier sources of quantitative and qualitative research and insights in tech. At Creative Strategies, Carolina focuses on consumer tech across the board. From hardware to services, she analyzes today to help predict and shape tomorrow. In her prior role as Chief of Research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, she drove thought leadership research by marrying her deep understanding of global market dynamics with the wealth of data coming from ComTech’s longitudinal studies on smartphones and tablets. Prior to her ComTech role, Carolina spent 14 years at Gartner, most recently as their Consumer Devices Research VP and Agenda Manager. In this role, she led the forecast and market share teams on smartphones, tablets, and PCs. She spent most of her time advising clients from VC firms, to technology providers, to traditional enterprise clients. Carolina is often quoted as an industry expert and commentator in publications such as The Financial Times, Bloomberg, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. She regularly appears on BBC, Bloomberg TV, Fox, NBC News and other networks. Her Twitter account was recently listed in the “101 accounts to follow to make Twitter more interesting” by Wired Italy.

53 thoughts on “Microsoft Teams and the Meeting Lifecycle”

  1. I have realized that of all forms of insurance, health care insurance is the most marked by controversy because of the clash between the insurance coverage company’s duty to remain profitable and the client’s need to have insurance policy. Insurance companies’ earnings on wellbeing plans are incredibly low, consequently some firms struggle to profit. Thanks for the strategies you share through this web site.

  2. Thank you for another informative website. Where else could I get that type of info written in such a perfect way? I have a project that I’m just now working on, and I’ve been on the look out for such info.

  3. Thank you a lot for providing individuals with remarkably special possiblity to read in detail from here. It’s usually very pleasurable and as well , stuffed with a great time for me and my office acquaintances to visit your blog at the very least 3 times in 7 days to read the newest stuff you have got. Of course, I am also always fascinated concerning the gorgeous tricks you give. Selected two facts on this page are undoubtedly the simplest I have had.

  4. I must express some thanks to the writer just for rescuing me from this crisis. As a result of researching through the the net and finding principles that were not productive, I figured my entire life was done. Living without the approaches to the issues you’ve fixed through your good guide is a crucial case, as well as those that could have adversely affected my career if I hadn’t discovered your web blog. Your primary expertise and kindness in handling every item was useful. I’m not sure what I would’ve done if I hadn’t encountered such a solution like this. It’s possible to now relish my future. Thanks a lot so much for your skilled and result oriented help. I won’t be reluctant to suggest the website to anybody who will need counselling on this situation.

  5. Hi there! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any problems with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing several weeks of hard work due to no back up. Do you have any methods to stop hackers?

  6. After 4 decades of teaching and learning experience, If Dr. Hegde says so.. he must be speaking his heart. It is very true that, Modern medicine only addresses symptoms of the problems but never goes into the root cause of the problem. Initial process may be started with noble ideas.. but ended as a business institution.Read http://www.cancertruth.net/ explains what is treated in cancer in modern medicine.

  7. My partner and I absolutely love your blog and find a lot of your post’s to be just what I’m looking for. Do you offer guest writers to write content to suit your needs? I wouldn’t mind creating a post or elaborating on a number of the subjects you write related to here. Again, awesome site!

  8. This design is spectacular! You most certainly know how to keep a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Fantastic job. I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!

  9. This is really interesting, You are a very skilled blogger.I have joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your wonderfulpost. Also, I have shared your site in my social networks!

  10. You’ll find on this site your major each option lovemaking free of charge games along with entirely new porn video game.A marriage item is actually a personal installation specified up which husbands and wives and/ or even guys and girls meeteach of our company throughout the globe on the intention to produce amorous affiliation, comradeship as wellas intimacy. For each guy, sexual partnership plays a quite significant job and when it relates to on the web sexualactivity, at that point everybody favors some particular type of girls.You must pick the greatest platform if you are actually intrigued in on the web escort in vadodaraa ctivities.According to police, she sped away, at that point operated.But he still possessed 2 significant bouts of bronchitis, “and the coughing, pain as well as hoarseness just wouldn’t leave,” hementions. “A bunch of opportunities, when parents overdiscipline their youngsters, especially when they’re queer, their objective isn’t to injure them,” Indya claims.

  11. I recently tried CBD gummies throughout the first cbd with thc gummies lifetime and they exceeded my expectations. The taste was entertaining, and they helped me unwind and relax. My worry noticeably decreased, and I felt a sense of whole well-being. These gummies are now a fundamental in my self-care routine. Highly advocate for a logical and comforting experience.

  12. When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thank you!

  13. I recently embarked on a expedition to increase autoflower weed seeds for the win initially shilly-shally, and it was an incredibly cheap weed seeds for sale satisfying experience. As a beginner, I was initially apprehensive, but the process turned out to be surprisingly straightforward. Beginning on holiday, the germination aspect was velvety sailing. The seeds sprouted quickly, and their vigor was impressive. I followed the recommended guidelines anent lighting, nutrients, and watering, and the plants responded positively. Harmonious of the biggest advantages of autoflowering strains is their ability to automatically transformation from vegetative proliferation to flowering, regardless of beat cycle.

  14. Having read this I believed it was rather informative. I appreciate you spending sometime and energy to put this content together. I once again find myself personally spending a lotof time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worthwhile!

  15. BETFLIX เว็บรวมสล็อต และการลุ้นรูปแบบใหม่ มีเทคโนโลยีทันสมัย ฝากเงิน – ถอนเครดิต autoเว็บไซต์เกมสล็อตและเกมคาสิโนค่ายฮิตรวมไว้ที่นี่ betflikสล็อตออนไลน์ เกมยิงปลาออนไลน์ และยังมีเกมส์คาสิโนมากกว่า 888 เกม โดยแบรนด์ผู้ออกแบบเกมคาสิโนโดยตรงเยอะกว่า 22 บริษัทยอดฮิตทุกมุมโลกพนันสล็อตคาสิโนที่เวบ สมัครเบทฟลิก ได้เลย ไม่ต้องดาวน์โหลดแอพลิเคชั่น แค่คลิกสมัครสมาชิก betflik สมัครรับยูสเซอร์เดียว ลูกค้าสามารถเข้าเล่นสล็อต ยิงปลา และบาคาร่า จากหลายๆผู้ผลิตเกมคาสิโนดัง จากบริษัทเกมโดยตรงกว่า68 เกม ลุ้นสล็อตผ่านทางเข้าเล่น betflik ทางเข้าใช้งานได้ไม่ต้องโหลดแอพลิเคชั่น ยกตัวอย่าง เช่น PG Slot,JokerGaming, NETENT, สล็อตค่าย Playstar, พีพีสล็อต, BrueprintGaming นี่เป็นเพียงส่วนนึงโดยบริษัทสล็อตค่ายชั้นนำทั้งหมดไทยและต่างประเทศสมัครbetflix ยังเปิดให้พนันเกมส์คาสิโนสดบาคาร่าออนไลน์ Dragon Tiger และเกมลูกเต๋าสนุกๆแนวต่าง จากค่ายดัง เช่น SA Casino, AEคาสิโน, WM Casino, DGCasino เรารวบรวมเกมทั้งหมด มาไว้เวบเดียวที่ เบทฟลิกซ์ บริการโดยระบบออโต้ที่เร็วทันใจ ระบบเกมที่ใช้ง่ายเดิมพันด้วยโน็ตบุ๊คและโทรศัพท์มือถือของผู้เล่นทั้งบน Iphone และ android

  16. Wow, amazing weblog structure! How long have you been blogging for? you make running a blog look easy. The total glance of your web site is fantastic, let alone the content!

  17. Thanks for your post. I have usually seen that the majority of people are eager to lose weight simply because they wish to show up slim and attractive. However, they do not generally realize that there are many benefits so that you can losing weight also. Doctors say that overweight people experience a variety of illnesses that can be directly attributed to the excess weight. The good thing is that people who are overweight plus suffering from a variety of diseases can help to eliminate the severity of their own illnesses by simply losing weight. It is easy to see a progressive but noted improvement in health while even a slight amount of fat loss is attained.

  18. I actually wanted to jot down a comment to be able to express gratitude to you for all the lovely concepts you are writing on this website. My time consuming internet investigation has at the end been paid with high-quality information to talk about with my best friends. I would mention that many of us readers actually are rather blessed to live in a decent website with many brilliant professionals with helpful advice. I feel very lucky to have seen the website page and look forward to tons of more awesome times reading here. Thank you again for a lot of things.

  19. Rattling fantastic information can be found on web blog. “Society produces rogues, and education makes one rogue more clever than another.” by Oscar Fingall O’Flahertie Wills Wilde.

  20. Thanks, I have recently been looking for info approximately this topic for ages and yours is the best I have discovered so far. But, what in regards to the bottom line? Are you sure about the supply?

  21. What¦s Going down i am new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve found It absolutely helpful and it has helped me out loads. I’m hoping to contribute & aid different customers like its helped me. Great job.

  22. I just couldn’t depart your site before suggesting that I really enjoyed the standard information a person provide for your visitors? Is going to be back often to check up on new posts

  23. I discovered your blog site on google and check a few of your early posts. Continue to keep up the very good operate. I just additional up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. Seeking forward to reading more from you later on!…

  24. Whats up very cool website!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds additionally…I’m happy to search out numerous useful information right here in the post, we need develop extra techniques in this regard, thank you for sharing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *