1. Fewer Teams, more Channels where possible. And keep Channels to a minimum where possible too. Teams should be organized around the people you want collaborating on a topic.
For example, if only Bill, Sue, and Henry work on "Product X" - that might be a better Team than a Channel because it can be hidden away and not show up / distract non-interested parties.
2. Make sure people know the cardinal rule of Teams: If you don't specifically @ mention them, assume no one read your comments and they are there for posterity's sake.
And the converse is: If you want someone or a group's attention, use the @ mention.
3. Use the Wiki and not a conversation thread for collaborative discussions. The wiki is still very limited but it is 100x better than having an important conversation get out of control (and eventually buried) in the conversations thread.
With the wiki, we find it useful to put initials and date in front of comments.
4. Start slowly and add slowly to the structure. It can quickly get out of control if you don't watch out.
SPECIFICS:
1. We have an Azamba general Team for everyone. In there, we have some specific-topic Channels that are open for all (such as Microsoft CSP program information and conversations) to see but most people ignore.
2. We have group-specific Teams for restricted conversations. The restrictions might be "Executive Team" or it might simply be "90% of the firm won't be interested, so let's compartmentalize this stuff."
3. We have some specialized teams around a very specific topic. For example, we have an "OnTrack" team. OnTrack is our primary services plan for customers. We have discussions in there about value, marketing materials, sales feedback, development of additional services, and customer case study conversations. We could have put this in the Azamba general Team but it's so important that we split it off.
I hope that helps. If you have specific questions, fire away.
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Peter Wolf
Azamba Consulting Group
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