Yammer Roadmap

[Cian Allner]

Many of us saw the roadmaps from the SharePoint Virtual Summit with features like communication sites that include integration with Yammer.

What are you most excited about with the Yammer and Office 365 roadmap as we approach Microsoft Ignite later in the year and how does Yammer stay relevant, as an add-on question? Thanks!

[#2]

We have an initiative dedicated to customer reporting. We know that people have long desired improved analytics from Yammer, especially at the group level. We're actively working on some group level analytics that we think will delight group admins and community managers. There will likely still remain things customers want and need that our great analytics partners will still provide.

[#3]

I am most excited about 'Dynamic Groups'. This helps enhance the experience of a user new to Yammer - imagine a new employee joining a company, visiting Yammer, and are already part of relevant groups, with useful content. 

[#4]

Man those Communications sites look slick. I really like how the new Yammer web part makes it easy to insert conversations onto the page.

[#5]

Definitely most excited for Yammer + Stream integration. Learn more in last week's blog: https://blogs.office.com/2017/05/16/new-in-yammer-building-a-more-connected-and-engaged-organization...

[#6]

We have some really nice community manager features coming that we'll announce at Ignite!

[#7]

Glad to hear this! I'd definitely like to understand what MS will be providing in this space. Looking forward to Ignite.

[#8]

Oh man, now you're teasing me. Can't wait.

[#9]

How does Yammer stay relevant? By being the only conversation-engine that's focused on transparency and the associated cultural changes. I said in a recent Tweet Chat that choosing to use Yammer is probably more a decision about the values of your company than it is about a particular feature set. If internal transparency and speed of spreading innovation is key to your success as a company, then you are compelled to look at Yammer.

[#10]

Please! I'm still using Tosilog. LOL!!!

[#11]

We are in the process of identifying the best integration scenarios between Yammer and SharePoint. Our goal is to ensure that these integration points will always be first class, meaning that when Yammer experiences are seen in SharePoint (Yammer web part, share to Yammer, Yammer group information, group creation, etc.), they should feel as high quality as the rest of the experience. Similarly, when SharePoint elements are surfaced in Yammer, they should be of the same high quality (page/site previews). Keep in mind that we are early in this journey.

One of the first things we plan to build is a new SharePoint web part for Yammer that is separate from the existing Embed-based web part. Whereas previous integration efforts focused on embedding Yammer functionality within SharePoint and other third party systems, our vision for this web part is to surface important Yammer content in SharePoint as a complementary experience to the site the web part lives in and give users great and intuitive paths to further explore that information in Yammer. Similarly, we plan to improve the experience of SharePoint objects in Yammer. For example, we recently built the ability to view Stream/O365 Videos inline in Yammer; you can imagine that we might do something similar for Office docs stored in SharePoint.  

Getting back to the new web part...users of the existing Embed-based web part have probably run up against some of the limitations we hope to address: the UX isn't ideal (scrolling region within a scrolling page), doesn't work on mobile, doesn't inherit styles from the page it's hosted on, authentication challenges (especially in SSO networks), etc.

Stay tuned! 

[#12]

hello everyone how do you use Yammer for external users users (i want to work with my customer)

[#13]

This was posted as a reply to another question...I think you want to ask this in the top level AMA. 

[#14]

I also love your graphic :blue_heart:

[#15]

It's exiting to see how far we've come with integrating Yammer into the rest of the Office 365 suite. Over the past few years, the number of items (document creation, co-authoring, connected groups, video support) to make it easier for users to work across all of the apps has been incredible and has also shown the commitment MS has to Yammer. Looking forward to future updates and more metrics! =)

[#16]

100% agree. Well said! Transparency is truly what sets it apart.  

[#17]

Thanks, for the great responses and the subsequent discussion.  Thanks especially to @Steve Nguyen, @Pradeep GanapathyRaj, @Michael Holste, @Angus Florance and @Ron Blandford, as well as everyone else who replied.

It's exciting to hear how Yammer is well placed to be at the heart of unlocking more potential in many organisations. 

[#18]

This is really great insight, @Ron Blandford! With tighter integration between Sharepoint and Yammer, for instance via the new web part, will you also make it possible to provision a connected Yammer Group as you are creating the Sharepoint team site?

[#19]

In this respect I am kind of with Microsoft on this one. If you want a Office 365-connected Yammer Group (e.g. a Yammer group with a connected Group Site in SharePoint) then start the process in Yammer first (not in SharePoint).

[#20]

Any hint on timing for group level analytics?

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@Steve Nguyen wrote:
We have an initiative dedicated to customer reporting. We know that people have long desired improved analytics from Yammer, especially at the group level. We're actively working on some group level analytics that we think will delight group admins and community managers. There will likely still remain things customers want and need that our great analytics partners will still provide.

---

[#21]

Can't promise anything on timing, but just know that it's a key area of focus and work is underway.  

[#22]

Yeah, I think this is something we'd want to think about for sure.

[#23]

This is why I think a change in the provisioning of Groups is needed, especially related to the conversational model

• 1.If you need a foundational service, like Office 365 Groups, it should be available at the most foundational level (= Office 365 Admin), with all the alternatives available there and then
• 2.If you really want the conversational alternatives (Outlook or Yammer) to be seen as equal, they should be treated equally, not as it is right now, that you get Outlook conversational model via Outlook, Sharepoint Home, Planner and Office 365 Admin, while the Yammer conversational model only is available in one place, through Yammer.
• 3.I also believe that being able to choose between Yammer or Outlook in Office 365 Admin or Sharepoint Home, would probably prevent the mess that a lof of businesses are experiencing right now, where sites, libraries and onenotes are being duplicated because they have followed earlier recommendations regarding connecting and embedding Yammer in Sharepoint sites.

cc @Ron Blandford and @Adrienne Trudeau

[#24]

Agree Morten. Your points are exactly what we would like to have
I think that Office groups should be the connecting glue, but the final user interface you use is only a question of preference. We would like to have a conversation visible in Yammer, Outlook or Teams. it does not matter the way you post. Admins can decide to enable this feature for the company or not making that you only uses Yammer or Teams or in other organizations being able to use any method sharing the conversations and the this will be seen as equal.

[#25]

Me too!  Where can I download a copy of that graphic?

[#26]

Here you go, Jim. 

[#27]

@Chris Slemp thanks for sharing the image.

[#28]

So I got some hands on issues. I want to have a Communication site with a Yammer Group. I don't want a whole Offic 365 Group from that Yammer Group and it gets confusing. 

Is there a way around this? To create a Yammergroup alone? Or one to a Communication site?