An introduction to Microsoft Planner. Usage scenarios including publication planning, issue management, virtual workshops and report compilation. Integration with Flow / Power Automation
We will try to answer
some questions during
the webinar, and a few
more at the end.
Both participating
companies will email
you the recording
within 48 hours (so you
won’t miss it!).
You can listen via your
computer or by dialling
the phone number in
the email you received
today.
Housekeeping
About ClearBox
ClearBox Consulting is a specialist independent consultancy
that believes in making the workplace a better and more
productive experience.We understand technology, but we
approach it from the people side first.
Our goal is to help organisations collaborate and communicate
more effectively.We specialise in intranets and the wider digital
workplace, including internal social media, enterprise mobile
strategies and real-time collaboration tools.
Sam Marshall
Managing Director
@SamMarshall
ClearBoxTraining andWorkshops
• SharePoint for Internal Communicators
• Office 365 for Business Leaders
• Intranet strategy & Management
• Intranet Governance
• Intranet Launch and Adoption
• Technology explained in business
terms
• Delivered in-house or virtually
• Up to 10 people
• Interactive, team exercises and real-
world examples
hello@clearbox.co.uk
How much experience do you
have with Planner?
• Seen it, not used it
• Just played with it
• Set up one real plan
• Using regularly
Poll
Agenda
Planner basics
Use Cases Part 1
Planner set-up and principles
Use cases Part 2
Planner integrations
Limitations & Frustrations
Q&A
Teams gets all
the love
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
Planner - Let’s
hear it for the
underdog
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
Five things to know about planner
Based on
Kanban
board
concept
Great when
tasks are not
inter-
dependent
Free (as in
licensed,
not as in
beer)
Relies on
O365
Groups
Part of
Microsoft’s
vision for
unified
tasks
Main components of a Planner board
Priority
indicator
Due date
‘In progress’
indicator
Attachments Assignee
‘Buckets’
Task cards
• Create tasks and assign to
team members
• Show progress visually by
moving between buckets
What it can do
• Create tasks and assign to
team members
• Show progress visually by
moving between buckets
• Discuss issues in the
context of a task using
comments (limited)
• Add files and images
stored in SharePoint
• Tag with labels
• Add a checklist
What it can do
Planner vs Project
Planner Project
Project scale Small Large
Task dependencies None Gantt chart
Milestones Fluid Significant
Resource workload Guestimate Plannable
Who updates Everyone Project Manager
Ease of use Intuitive Elvish runes
Cost Bundled At least one kidney
Typical use case Weather widget Colonise Mars
To-do is to Planner as OneDrive is to SharePoint
Planer vs To-do
Need
• Magazine, intranet news or website
planning stories (sales pipeline too)
• Simple review and approval process
• Charts show workload
Editorial Pipeline Scenario
Need
• Magazine, intranet news or website
planning stories (sales pipeline too)
• Simple review and approval process
• Charts show workload
Design principles
• Don’t lose ideas
• Progress ideas at different rates
• View by contributor
• Document moves with process
Editorial Pipeline Scenario
Need
• Standing weekly agenda
• Make sure actions from last
week not lost
• Built-in OneNote for
minutes
Design principles
• Quick way to see if actions
overdue
• Any team member can add
agenda items
Variant: Meeting actions
Need
• Any ‘Request’ type service – IT, HR,
Procurement
• Works where whole request fits one
card
Design principles
• Any member can pick up a task
• Show urgent tasks easily
• Simple reporting on status
• Resume stalled tasks
Issue management scenario
• Create a new plan from
• Planner hub
• TeamsApp
• SharePoint team site
• Mobile App
• Tip: create the plan
wherever the group makes
most sense to you
• Copy a plan to use as a
template
Setting up a plan
• It also creates a Group
• Outlook mailbox
• Calendar (but not tied to schedule)
• SharePoint team site
• OneNote notebook
• Can I create a plan without a group?
• Only by assigning to an existing group
• You can have multiple plans per group
When you create a plan…
• Use buckets for major ‘state’
changes
• Buckets are there to visually
limit work in progress
• Group by ‘Assigned to’ to check
people aren’t overloaded
• Profile photos help a lot
Good practices and Tips
• Use labels for attributes that
don’t change across buckets
• Use checklists for minor steps
• Use ‘template’ task cards for
consistent checklists
• Group by ‘Priority’ then drag
to change priority setting
Good practices and Tips
Need
• Complex report, many sections
• Some steps require iterations
• Multiple authors progress at
different rates
• Multiple sub-steps to complete
Design principles
• Clear overview of progress
• Detect when sections running late
• Organise by both vendor and
author
Report Production scenario
• Using a checklist for
within-stage steps
• Search and filtering
• Grouping
Demo – Complex Report
• When you wish you could use
post its but people aren’t in the
room
• Dragging cards has tactile
appeal
• Multiple people can work at
once
• Combines well withTeams set
up for a workshop
• Encourages more details than
handwritten Sharpies
Virtual meeting facilitation Scenario
• Product reaction cards
• Idea collation
• Label categorise by
platform
• Assign yourself to a card to
‘vote’ for it (not as nice as
Trello)
[Demo – Workshop Facilitation]
Example Integrations for Planner and Power Automation
• Create a Planner task for emails received in a shared
mailbox
• Create a daily digest of planner tasks and status
• Create a Planner task recurring every month
• Create a Planner task when a Microsoft Form is completed
• Create events in Outlook Calendar when Planner tasks are
added
• Post a message to Teams when a Planner task is created
• Post a message to Teams when a Planner task is
completed
1. Requires a full-fat Group
2. Assigning a task to an external gives them
access to the whole Group
3. Comments very limited
• No @mention
• No notifications unless a reply
• Emails for every comment – you can’t stop this
4. No import from Excel
5. Export to Excel looks like shit
6. Moving a task between plans doesn’t move
everything e.g. files or multiple tasks
7. Poor search
8. Only one checklist and max 20 items
Limitations and frustrations
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
Planner and Trello features comparison
Planner Trello
Integration with Office365 apps Integration via Zapier, IFTTT etc.
Free with Office365 licence Free up to 10 team boards
One checklist within a task Multiple custom-named checklists within tasks
Start and due dates as standard Due dates only as standard
Analytics dashboards as standard Analytics dashboards via power-ups
Calendar view as standard Calendar view via power-ups
My tasks view for employees that aggregates tasks
from across plans
No equivalent as standard
Notifications are all or nothing @mentions in card discussions trigger notifications
Tasks can be assigned a priority No equivalent as standard
‘In progress’ indicator No equivalent as standard
No Excel import Import from Excel
ClearBoxTraining andWorkshops
• SharePoint for Internal Communicators
• Office 365 for Business Leaders
• Intranet strategy & Management
• Intranet Governance
• Intranet Launch and Adoption
• Technology explained in business
terms
• Delivered in-house or virtually
• Up to 10 people
• Interactive, team exercises and real-
world examples
hello@clearbox.co.uk
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Login as Adam
Open Planner Hub https://tasks.office.com/cbxc.onmicrosoft.com/en-GB/Home/Planner/#/plantaskboard?groupId=87682ee2-2a6b-4c1f-bf6b-bedbc8155ea3&planId=bXeNmQvMrUaS0KgL-p2dr5YAHmTX
Open Teams page https://teams.microsoft.com/_#/conversations/General?threadId=19:d87724da1ae7469ca069462f95577863@thread.skype&ctx=channel
Open Forms https://forms.office.com/Pages/DesignPage.aspx?origin=shell#FormId=8QsP0SoXykqLzC9RfqSHQeIuaIdrKh9Mv2u-28gVXqNUMElBRlFOOFZWWU5PQlVZRzMxM09RSVZLSCQlQCN0PWcu
Open Flow https://emea.flow.microsoft.com/manage/environments/Default-d10f0bf1-172a-4aca-8bcc-2f517ea48741/flows
ToDO https://to-do.office.com/tasks/id/2oiF2j5pbEaBN_m9xFGiqpYAABI2/details?ru=https%3A%2F%2Fto-do.office.com%2Ftasks%2Fid%2F2oiF2j5pbEaBN_m9xFGiqpYAABI2%2Fdetails
Ready in Zoom.
Kanban means “card wall” in Japanese – developed at Toyota in the 50s
Purpose of visualizing buckets in Kanban was to LIMIT WORK IN PROGRESS
Purpose of visualizing buckets in Kanban was to LIMIT WORK IN PROGRESS
Comments – no @MENTIONS!Only ONE checklist and max 20 items
Comments go into Group email, and then your personal email for ANY FURTHER COMMENTS
https://tasks.office.com/cbxc.onmicrosoft.com/en-GB/Home/Planner/#/plantaskboard?groupId=87682ee2-2a6b-4c1f-bf6b-bedbc8155ea3&planId=bXeNmQvMrUaS0KgL-p2dr5YAHmTX
Explain Layout* Plans on left
Cards
Show a card
Group By
Filter by
Charts
Schedule
TASKS likely to be new name in 2020
Allegedly, a re-think of Project is coming that will work alongside.
REALLY its Waterfall vs Agile here!
Project for the Web – cheaper and friendlier and has planner-like view of tasks.
ASK – How many have had formal PM training (Prince2 etc.?). How many use more than 10% IRL?
Demo
-- Add an idea
--Move to submitted
--Assign to writer (group and drag to bucket)
-Mark as in-progress
--See charts – LOOK AT THAT!!
--Attach Word doc draft from SHAREPOINT
--OneNote and Files
IT helpdesk, HR helpdesk
Later I’ll show how tickets can be raised using MS Forms and Flow
New tickets logged
Urgency indicated
When someone picks them up they assign themselves
We use ‘Stalled’ so ‘Picked up’ doesn’t get over-long
Labels indicate e..g part needs ordering
Checklist on card indicates
Checklist on card indicates actions following diagnosis e.g. part needed
We DON’T have a ‘completed’ column, it should drop off at that point.
Big complaint on User Voice e.g. people want a personal planner board
Label for e.g. “Internal / External” “UK/ France / Germany” so only SIX of them!
Running late <> Overdue!!
Complex Report board
Show template card
Image or checklist, not both
Images take up too much space!
Group By
“Assigned to” You don’t need buckets per name
Person has their own “My tasks”
Filter – acts like search but ONLY ON CARD NAME, not notes e.g. buffalo
Filter – ‘Vegan’
Filter by Assigned to TWO people and Label=STALLED better than “Group by”
OR you can do “Group by” and then “Filter” e.g. Assigned to and then Next Week
You COULD do it in Excel
My wife’s an accountant, she’d do everything in Excel, even write a novel.
But the act of moving and dragging cards – especially on a tablet, works really well
Beware – as people must be in a group its better for internal workshops. External ones are a barrier. Trello much better in this regard.
Group by BUCKET again
Voting – nearest is to say “vote by assigning up to 6 cards to yourself”
@Mentions also a sad omission
IT helpdesk, HR helpesk
DEMO: Skunk trapped in pool table. DATE must be +1 day for flow to run!!
https://cbxc.sharepoint.com/sites/Estates-Facilities/SitePages/Facilities-re.aspx
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=8QsP0SoXykqLzC9RfqSHQeIuaIdrKh9Mv2u-28gVXqNUMElBRlFOOFZWWU5PQlVZRzMxM09RSVZLSCQlQCN0PWcu
https://emea.flow.microsoft.com/manage/environments/Default-d10f0bf1-172a-4aca-8bcc-2f517ea48741/flows
Comments: get someone to comment as soon they pick up a task. That way they see replies. Just allocating them to the task isn’t enough. Person who sets up task should ALSO comment to subscribe.