We are excited to introduce this week’s Friday Feature— @Kevin Crossman. Kevin is an IT Collaboration and Content Manager at Jupiter Networks. He is responsible for functional ownership and support for Office 365 services, including end-user adoption and evangelism. Kevin received his first MVP Award last year, in Office Servers and Services. Check out his Q&A below!
Kevin Crossman
Job Title: Manager, IT Collaboration and Content
Company Name: Jupiter Networks
MVP Profile: https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/PublicProfile/5001781?fullName=Kevin%20%20Crossman
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevincrossman/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KevinCrossman
1. Tell us a little bit about where you work and your role in the organization.
I am the IT service manager for Content and Collaboration tools at Juniper Networks in Sunnyvale, CA. I am responsible to managing O365 services such as SharePoint Online, Yammer, OneDrive, O365 Video, Teams, and Delve. My role is focused on functional ownership and support for these tools, including end-user adoption and evangelism.
2. One of your focuses seems to be around developing and delivering training materials. What tactics or forms have you found most useful in training end-users?
Each team’s use case is slightly different so it is always more effective to have a smaller team or org when discussing the introduction to the platform and especially best practices for usage. When we roll out a new service we always have more attendees at an org-specific rollout session than then “company-wide” sessions; people feel more comfortable coming and learning with their close colleagues.
3. The IT Pro community is a highly-engaged community. What role have these communities played in your career? What drives you to be so active in them?
These communities have been essential at getting up to speed on new products and platforms. In a previous life, I was active in the Jive Communities and served as a Jive Champion (sort of an MVP equivalent). When my company moved to O365, I immediately felt like a very small fish in a much larger pond! But I was able to get up to speed quickly. I followed some MVPs like Jennifer Mason and Christian Buckley, and then got involved in the customer communities. The Yammer customer community in particular was extremely welcoming and active (this is still the case). It is so much easier to learn about the product when you see the questions others are asking, and availability of an active community to help when you have a question. Conferences such as Ignite are great places to make a personal connection and then to continue the journey online.
4. We just recently posted about improving personal productivity. What are some of your Office 365 tips and tricks that help you stay productive day-to-day?
Go Mobile!!! It is so much easier for me to stay connected to my work colleagues via the MS Teams mobile app. I’m involved with several Yammer networks and there too the mobile app is great for seeing the answers to your questions or to be able to immediately respond when someone @ mentions me. I get notifications for both apps on my Apple Watch and that also helps me triage the incoming messages.
5. As someone who has been in IT for a while, what advice would you give to someone just starting their career in IT?
I did not come into IT via a traditional route; my education background is a BA in Physical Anthropology and a Masters in Library and Information Science. I’m not a programmer. But there are definitely places in IT for people who are excited about technology and who work well with both the business users as well as IT admins. Being passionate about the technology and its transformational impact will go a long way.
6. How do you stay up-to-date with all of the new technologies and updates?
Usually the fastest way to learn something new is via following thought-leaders and official application accounts on Twitter. The accounts from the O365 services do post often with quality posts. I’m also active in some “backchannel” communities including ones for Microsoft MVPs. The Microsoft Tech Community is a good resource as well. I like how the Tech Community blog posts add additional details and context to the higher-level announcements on the Office Blog.
