I was recently asked to serve on a panel for episode 21 of The Intrazone, Microsoft’s bi-weekly conversation and interview podcast about SharePoint usage and adoption. Hosts Chris McNulty and Mark Kashman recorded the show live at SharePoint Fest Chicago.

The topic for our panel discussion was 2019 predictions for SharePoint. I was asked to represent the user adoption and enterprise governance point of view. Wes Preston outlined his predictions about PowerApps growth, Drew Madelung shared thoughts on OneDrive, and Treb Gatte discussed data visualizations and Power BI.

So what are my top predictions for SharePoint in 2019? Check them out:

1. User adoption challenges will grow. As organizations realize their users are not homogenous and the traditional methods (e.g. company-wide rollout email communications, “train the trainer” education strategies, instructor-led training classes that focuses on features and not business outcomes) are ineffective, there will be a stronger focus on effective adoption models.
2. SharePoint hub sites will require enterprise-level governance. Hub sites enable us to bring families of SharePoint sites together with common branding, search, news, and navigation. But hub sites are limited (only 100 hubs allowed per tenant) and site owners may be unsure when and where to use hub sites effectively. I predict many companies will dive headlong into hub sites and later realize that more effective governance of hubs is critical. I recommend creating a hub site governance policy and seeding your organization with strong hub site success stories/examples.

For more on our SharePoint 2019 predictions, check out episode 21 of The Intrazone. And for more on the episode, read Mark Kashman’s blog post.

Thanks to Mark Kashman, Chris McNulty, and their Intrazone team for inviting me to participate. It was a pleasure!