This week, I participated in a REgarding 365 debate about use of org-wide Microsoft Teams. Not surprisingly, the Microsoft Teams versus Yammer question was raised multiple times. Here’s the thing–there are uses for Microsoft Teams (including org-wide teams) and there are uses for Yammer. In the end, it’s not about which tool myself or the other REgarding 365 panelists prefer. The valid questions are:

• What are your organizational use cases and content needs?
• What is your company culture?
• Which technologies best fit your use cases and culture?

Use cases are practical business needs (aka requirements) that need to be met. Examples of use cases include:

• Sharing organization-wide HR policy changes
• Sharing strategy and content updates from the company’s CEO
• Providing newly-onboarded employees with a resource center for frequently asked questions
• Enabling employees to instant message, chat, and screen share with their peers
• Enabling employees to quickly engage with other employees and members of IT on technology support questions

As collaboration strategists, our first job is identifying and documenting the unique use cases for our organization. Next, we need to assess our organizational culture, including: company values and norms; technology adeptness (aka how well our users adopt new technologies); and readiness for change (e.g. do our users welcome change or do they fear it?).

When we view our use cases alongside our company culture, we’ll be able to determine which technologies are best-suited to meet our needs. There is no one-size-fits-all model or one Microsoft 365 capability that wins the day. Let’s look at our organizational use cases and culture and determine what tool works best for our specific needs.