SharePoint Liz

SharePoint Skills, Cowork, and Better AI Judgment For the past year, I have watched “build an agent” become the AI version of “make it a Team.” And to be fair, I have been guilty of that too. I have agent-fied more than one scenario that probably did not need to become an agent at all. A perfectly normal SharePoint problem shows up, and before long the conversation has leapt to chat surfaces, custom instructions, clever names, and a polished little AI wrapper that is somehow supposed to make the whole thing feel more strategic. Sometimes that is the right answer. A lot of times, it is not. That is exactly why the new skills capability in AI in SharePoint caught my attention. Not because it is flashy, but because it may force people to slow down and ask a better question. Skills are a way to turn repeatable, multi-step work into something reusable on the site itself. They take logic that would otherwise live in scattered prompts and make it something other people can run again, in t...

Every time I suggest moving away from folders in SharePoint Online, someone laughs. And I understand why. Folders feel organized. They feel grown up. They feel like the responsible way to structure information. The digital version of labeled drawers and neat rows. If you grew up in file shares, folders were the system. They mirrored filing cabinets. They created hierarchy. They gave you something concrete to click into when you were not sure where to start. They feel mature. But comfort, even grown up comfort, is not strategy. A shared SharePoint library is not a filing cabinet. It is collaborative. It is indexed by search. It feeds Copilot. It supports knowledge experiences that depend on structure being interpretable, not just clickable. That difference matters more than we want to admit. Folders can work beautifully in your personal OneDrive. If you are the only one navigating that space and you understand your own logic, number things however you want. Build your maze. Save FINAL_v...

Stop Underestimating SharePoint Online You’ve seen the infographics. You’ve read the blogs. Every other post in your feed talks about optimizing SharePoint for Copilot, implementing robust governance, and getting your data “AI-ready.” They’re all making really valuable points. But... None of it matters if your organization still underestimates SharePoint. Until you recognize and understand that SharePoint is foundational to how Microsoft 365 works, no amount of governance checklists, security policy overhauls, or AI excitement will get you across the finish line. Stop the SharePoint Hate You’ve heard (or maybe said) it all before: “I hate SharePoint.” “It’s confusing.” “Why can’t I just recreate the same folder structure we had on the file share?” “It’s dumb.” This mindset is where transformation efforts go to die.  💀 SharePoint powers more than you think : Microsoft Teams file sharing OneDrive’s document backend Viva Connections home sites Copilot’s conte...

So You Want to Rename Your SharePoint Online Tenant? Read This First Let’s be honest, choosing a tenant name isn’t always a carefully considered decision. Maybe it was chosen in a rush during initial setup, or maybe it made perfect sense at the time but no longer reflects your organization after a rebrand or merger. Whatever the reason, the good news is that Microsoft allows you to rename your SharePoint Online tenant. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should jump in without a solid plan. I’ve performed several tenant renames since this feature became available, and where it fits as a solution, it’s a great alternative to migrating everything into a brand-new tenant just to change the name. I recently worked with a client to rename their tenant, and while the technical steps were fairly straightforward, the overall impact reached much further than many expect. I thought it was a good opportunity to share what I’ve learned after managing multiple renames over the years. At ...

As a SharePoint consultant with a deep love for punk rock, I easily find parallels between the two. One of my favorite t-shirts says, "Old punks never die we just stand in the back," which accurately describes SharePoint Online's evolution.  SharePoint's wild, early days were like the mosh pit of a punk show in a small smoke-filled club—chaotic, loud, and full of custom-built solutions that felt like DIY band flyers scattered everywhere. Still Rocking, Just a Bit Different In the early days of punk, everything was raw, fast, and loud—much like the early days of SharePoint. Early iterations of SharePoint were rough around the edges. Configuring sites and managing content was a DIY experience, where every admin had their approach, often involving custom development or workarounds. But just like the punk scene, SharePoint matured. It's cleaner, sleeker, and more polished, but the fundamentals remain the same: empower users and deliver collaboration in ways that fit a...

Navigating bias based on perceptions is something we all deal with—whether based on appearance, gender, age, cultural background, educational background, or whether you like pineapple on pizza 🍕+🍍. Assumptions based on perceptions can shape how we are seen and treated, even if the assumption does not reflect reality. From my own personal perspective, my vocal cords are damaged, leaving my voice soft and easily fatigued. My quietness is often mistaken for shyness, but I constantly evaluate situations to avoid unnecessary speaking to conserve my voice. It's frustrating to be misunderstood based on superficial perceptions. Still, I've learned to handle it with resilience (mostly 😀) and determination, and I use my not speaking time to constantly improve my listening skills—not just hearing but actively listening. My personal experience is an excellent example of perception bias, and it mirrors a broader challenge that I often see organizations face when planning and implementing...

Depeche Mode, Barclays Center  When I have a SharePoint migration planned it is typically a weekend long affair. Friday night into Saturday is reserved for party time, aka final migration deltas 😆 It is the culmination of the weeks of initial data and permissions migrations, followed by countless delta's, remediating issues, and verifying the file counts and permissions align.   A part of me secretly loves these Friday nights (why else would I do it, right?), I usually spend the days leading up to it firming up my final delta schedule, ensuring that I select 8:00 PM and not 8:00 AM, I have made that mistake before.  It also means queuing up my playlist.  I love all types of music, side note - the most fun job I ever had was as a sales clerk in a record store. I will sit and watch the migrations kick off, make sure that everything is behaving itself. I am a night owl, and I can not fully trust that any tool is going to kick off when I told it to 😅 Once I am con...