TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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Hi, everyone.
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Welcome to the latest episode of the Simply SharePoint podcast.
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SharePoint Confessions, the good, the bad, and the messy.
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Yeah, I'll admit it.
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I love SharePoint.
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I live it.
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I breathe it.
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I probably dream in document libraries.
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SharePoint is definitely my thing.
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But here's the truth.
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It hasn't always been that way.
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In fact, there were times when I thought SharePoint was the bane of my existence.
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And today, I want to share a few confessions from those early days.
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The good, the bad, and the messy.
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Music Music Music Music Music Confession number one, the metadata committee.
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Let me take you back to when I was working in a large organization and we were upgrading to SharePoint 2010.
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This was a massive project.
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I was flying around the world, holding meetings with stakeholders in St.
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Louis, Sydney, Singapore.
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It was huge.
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And of course, everyone had an opinion.
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Enter the metadata committee.
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Yes, an actual committee.
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More than 10 people, weekly talks, And what were we arguing about?
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Metadata fields.
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At one point, we had 13 of them.
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13.
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And 7 were mandatory.
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Can you imagine trying to upload a file and having to fill out 7 mandatory fields before you could even hit save?
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Back then, I didn't get it.
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I kind of hated metadata.
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It felt like this overcomplicated thing that slowed everything down.
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And honestly, it was a dog's breakfast.
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Meetings went in circles, everyone thought their department's needs were the most important, and we just layered field upon field.
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Now, with the benefit of hindsight, I can see it so clearly.
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Metadata is brilliant when it's done well.
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It's what makes SharePoint powerful.
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But 13 fields?
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7 mandatory?
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No wonder people were frustrated.
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At the time, though, I'd walk out of those meetings absolutely drained, thinking, how did I end up in this?
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It was both funny and I've got to admit, painfully boring.
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And yet, those experiences shape the way I use metadata today.
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Keep it simple, keep it useful, and don't over-engineer it.
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So the solution, fast forward to now, and the best practice is simple.
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Don't drown people in metadata.
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Three to five fields is plenty, and usually only one should be mandatory.
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Start with fields that genuinely help people find or filter later, like document type, department, or project.
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Every single SharePoint library that I create now in an organization has at least department and document type.
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Everything else can be optional or added gradually.
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Keep it lean, keep it useful, and metadata will actually work for you instead of against you.
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Confession number two, the sub-site explosion.
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Now, while I was drowning in metadata debates, IT had their own special brand of chaos going on.
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They had spun up over 800 sub-sites.
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Yes, you heard that?
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More than 800.
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And here's the kicker.
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Some of those sub-sites only had one single document sitting in a lonely document library.
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Just one.
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No guidance, no governance, no plan.
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It was like the wild west of SharePoint.
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Every department doing their own thing, spinning up sites like Oprah giving out cars.
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You get a sub-site, you get a sub-site.
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Everyone gets a sub-site.
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The result?
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A giant digital junkyard.
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Clicking through it was like wandering a ghost town.
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Empty libraries, half-finished pages, and tumbleweeds rolling by.
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I laugh now, but it was a really good lesson.
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More sites don't equal more success.
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Without governance, structure, or a strategy, you end up with noise instead of value.
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And believe me, 800 sites worth of noise is deafening.
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What's the solution today?
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Well, in modern SharePoint, sub-sites are a thing of the past, although I've worked with a few people who still think that they should create them.
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The best practice is to use a hub-and-spoke model.
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One hub
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site at the centre, with connected sites branching off for actual needs, like projects, departments, or functions.
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Each site has a purpose and governance ensures nothing spins up without thought.
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Instead of 800 empty sub-sites, you get a clean, connected site architecture where everything has a home and a reason to exist.
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Music
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Confession three, the workflow meltdown.
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Then there was the infamous workflow saga.
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We decided to roll out the out-of-the-box workflows in SharePoint 2010, you know, check-in, check-out, approvals, the basics, in one of our departments.
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We put together training sessions, we sent out the invitations, we booked the room, and guess what?
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Hardly anyone showed up.
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So instead, I'd be sitting at my desk and I could literally hear the chaos breaking out across the cubicles.
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People yelling out things like, I can't edit this file.
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You've left it checked out.
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Why is it locked?
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It was like a comedy sketch, except no one thought it was funny at the time.
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I'd just sink into my chair thinking, yep, this is my life now.
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It was one of those times where SharePoint's power clashed with human behavior.
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The tool was doing what it was designed to do, but because people skipped the training, it became a nightmare.
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And on Honestly, that's why I always say technology is only half the story.
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People and process matter just as much.
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So what would be the solution today?
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These days, modern SharePoint has made this so much easier.
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Instead of clunky check-in, check-out and limited workflows, we use Power Automate for approvals and collaboration features like co-authoring.
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That means multiple people can edit the same file at the same time without locking each other out.
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Training is still key, but the tools are far more intuitive now.
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The solution is, ditch the old check-in checkout model unless you absolutely need it.
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Embrace co-authoring and automate approvals with Power Automate so your team isn't stuck yelling across cubicles.
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So what did all of this teach me?
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Well, besides how to survive a metadata meeting without crying, it taught me that SharePoint doesn't have to be messy.
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The chaos comes when there's no strategy, no governance, and no training.
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It also busted a few myths for me along the way.
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Myth one, SharePoint is just a dumping ground for files.
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No, it's so much more when you design it properly.
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Only IT can set it up.
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Also false.
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End users can build amazing practical solutions.
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Myth three, nobody likes SharePoint.
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Untrue.
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People love it when it makes their life easier.
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They just hate when it's overcomplicated.
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And here are a couple of quick wins you can try today.
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Things I wish I'd known back then.
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Firstly, you can pin your most important documents to the top of a library.
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Think of it like putting your favorite coffee mug at the front of the cupboard.
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You can create custom views so you don't scroll endlessly through files.
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It's like Netflix categories.
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You get to see exactly what you want.
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You can use metadata like labels on a wine rack.
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You don't need 13 labels.
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Just a couple will help you find the right bottle at the right time.
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So those are my SharePoint confessions, the good, the bad, and the messy.
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And I know you've got some too.
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If you're listening right now and thinking, yep, I've lived through my own SharePoint nightmare, I'd love to hear it.
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Share your confessions with me.
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I've actually written a blog post about one of these stories.
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It's called Liza's SharePoint Chronicles, the Metadata Steering Committee.
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You can head over there, read the full story, and even leave your own SharePoint confession in the comments.
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I really love to see what messy situations you've all survived.
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And who knows, your story might make it into a future episode.
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And before I close out, I've got something exciting to share.
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I've just launched a brand new service, a dedicated SharePoint and Microsoft 365 help desk.
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Think of it as your direct line to real answers from someone who's lived through the chaos and knows how to fix it.
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The details are live on my site right now.
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So if you ever find yourself stuck, whether it's metadata confusion, workflow woes, or just figuring out which tool to use when, you can get help quickly without the stress.
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Because here's the thing, SharePoint doesn't have to be boring and it doesn't have to be painful.
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With the right support, it can actually be simple and maybe even fun.
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Bye for now and I'll see you in the next episode of Simply SharePoint.