In today’s hybrid work environment, connection is essential for an engaged and productive workforce. Microsoft Viva Connections centralizes communication, resources, and collaboration tools within Teams, creating a unified digital workspace. This session will explore how Viva Connections enhances the employee experience and builds a more connected workplace.

Key Takeaways:

• Streamlined dashboards for essential tools and resources
• Integration with SharePoint and Microsoft Teams
• Customized feeds for relevant updates

Below are the questions and answers from the November 2024 Meetup Session.

Q. Tell us a bit about yourself? – City, family, hobbies, job title

A. Wonderful family, wife - Michelle, 2 beautiful girls Maci 9 and Teagan 6.

Dog Parker / Boston-French Bulldog mix + a rescue TRIPOD cat Marcello

 I love playing guitar, soccer and getting to the gym for weight training. I also love building things - handy around the house or playing with technology

 Collaboration Director @ Soho Dragon NYC

Q. Tell us something about yourself that not many people know about you?

A. I really love drone racing and freestyle FPV  - I love watching it and I have a 3in and 5in that I will take out and fly around the yard or setup pool noodles to fly around [occasionally fly into, HAH].

Built CommunityDays.org - its been out there for 2 years but most people don't know that I sat around for about 5 months building it before partnering up with Microsoft to help promote it.

Q. What does a typical workday look like for you?

A. Morning meetings - check in with my teams. Start on client work & meetings until 3:45, take break, get kids off  bus 4-5 I handle emails / close out items / prep for next day. usually come back on around 8-10 for more focus work [communitydays.org] or experimenting with AI [Stable diffusion / Crew.ai / open AI api]

Q. 1st job out of college?

A. PC Refresh team at Bristol Meyers Squibb

Q. Your 1st version of SharePoint that you experienced and what year?

A. 2003 - installed it for our project DMS as one of the tools for Software Engineering Masters @ Monmouth University

 Q. Last challenging project and why? (this should relate to your demo)

A. Intranet building out and Viva Connections integration - They are on the fence to roll out Viva Connections because 1) They didn't like the Viva Connections landing page, they preferred it go directly to the home page 2) They don't like that there are different experiences on Desktop vs Mobile [even differences on Android vs iOS]

 Q. What is the biggest mistake that your feel holds back your clients from the results they want (this should relate to your demo)

A. I feel the value that Viva Connections brings to MS Teams is reason enough to go with it. Also understanding that there are differences where it's not quite the best experience but Microsoft is continually making changes  and we can only hope that one day there will be parity between desktop and mobile.

 Q. Describe a SharePoint train wreck project, and what did you learn?

 A. I had a client that wanted a webpart - I took down all the details of what they wanted, they explained it was on SP2013 on prem.

 I spent the weekend getting a SP2013 setup on my hyper v server. I build the webpart and meet with the customer to deploy it. 

 I find out that it's not sp2013 on prem - its SP online in classic mode.

 I rebuild the webpart as SPFx react and then I go to deploy it and they has the site locked down that it won't install and would need to get IT involved. I'm a genius so I'll just rewrite it in javascript.

Ok so I rewrite it in JavaScript as most of their webparts are JS/Jquery pasted on the page in content editors. Test in my env - meet with customer to deploy.

 No one can edit the page - the previous developer damaged the custom master page that you cannot edit b/c there is broken controls that need to be fixed.

OK - I'll fix the masterpage but the permissions don't allow my to download anything on this network so I have to involve IT now to download and send me the files. I install and fix on my SP Online dev environment

 I meet with IT to install new masterpage b/c I can't upload anything and that’s done. Working fine.

I meet with customer to copy / paste new webparts on the page, but its classic mode and we can't do anything because custom scripts need to be enabled. Go back to IT to get that turned on for 24hours, make the updates.

Eventually got it installed and the customer can do any small updates from the .html file source.

What did I learn - before starting on the actual work, have the customer show you the environment and check to see the rights if you have access to the app catalog, can edit the page. Make sure there won't be any major blockers. 

The project was so simple that I took that overlooks all the simple things that are necessary and while the development was only 1 day the back and forth and redo forced the project to last 2 weeks.

Q. Your favorite M365 feature/tool and why?

A. SP Editor - chrome extension that allows me to drill down into all the bits and pieces. It's a mandatory developer tool.

Q. Where do you think Microsoft is going with M365? Be totally honest

A. AI will take over the platform - offering suggestions and add options to make things easier. Less skill required to use the platform and administer it.

What are the 3 cool features of the demo?

1. The viva connections in Microsoft Teams
2. The Viva dashboard & extension through ACEs
3. The Mobile / Desktop Experiences

Q. What was your first job out of hire school?

A. CompTutorComputerCenter

Repaired computers / made websites / little bit of graphic design

Q. What's your biggest nightmare project you have worked on … And what did you learn from this experience?

A. Company acquisition of 2 tenants - Migration of PowerPlatform from 1 tenant to another which included [Apps / Automate / BI] we had to create our own scripts to inventory all this information, some owners didn't exist in the company anymore. Had a hard time understanding what was used, and we have to export / import and fix all the connections.

 I learned that the technology problems were easier to overcome but the interaction with the respective teams and outreach to business owners [who were not necessarily thrilled out the acquisition] and which made this project take longer than normal. Being patient and understanding

Q. What’s the best and worst tech advice you’ve been given?

A. If it's not broken - don't fix it.

Best & worst advice - if somethings working and you're reaping the benefits [money/success/whatever] stick with it

BUT - just because somethings working doesn't mean it's working correctly, efficiently. It might have been built/designed incorrectly and make take more resources to right the ship.

Q. What are you working on to become a developer/consultant / CTO ?

A. Developer  - also working on side projects - as of now CommunityDays.org

Community Leader - planning new events in NJ/PA/NY - want to do AI event in NJ + PA soon.

Consultant - studying for PL-400 Power Apps Developer test

Q. Where do you want to be in 5 years?

A. Same company - in charge of a team of thriving developers, playing the role of a mentor, actively speaking at larger conferences

Q. What's your blind spot in your Microsoft knowledge? Pitfalls

A. I just cannot stay up to date on everything - I'm busy working on many things and I just don't get the time to read every blog article. I do interact on socials and speak with others because I travel to community events but I am sometimes a week or 2 behind on the latest news.

Q. Where do you source your knowledge? - Twitter- who do you follow, site urls

A. I follow most speakers / bloggers on twitter + linked in so I pick up when they release new articles.

I also follow many of the Microsoft folks -

 Mondays at Microsoft

https://adoption.microsoft.com/en-us/mondays-at-microsoft/

Pop in on the SPFX community calls every once in a while

https://pnp.github.io/blog/microsoft-viva-and-spfx-community-call/

 Reboot of the m365developer podcast

https://www.m365devpodcast.com/

 Also the IntraZone w/ Mark Kashman

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/spblog/%E2%80%9Cthe-sharepoint-experience%E2%80%9D-%F0%9F%8E%99-%E2%80%93-the-intrazone-podcast/3848507

Q. In your mind, if there was 1 song that could describe Sharepoint, what would it be? - David Bowie - Heroes

A. Don't Stop Believin - Journey

Persevere through difficulties - maintain faith in a brighter future - even when the path is not clear.

M365 is sometimes difficult to accomplish some of the simple things, hope that the Microsoft will continue to improve upon it and bring in new features / functionality keeping the platform relevant and thriving.

Q. Where can people find you?

A. Twitter

@_tomdaly_

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-m-daly/

 Bluesky

@tommdaly.bsky.social