Company: Microsoft
Company background: Microsoft enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Contact: Sandy Rivas
Title: Program Manager
Related URLs:
Microsoft Power BI Community Data Stories Gallery
Microsoft Power BI Community Galleries
Microsoft PowerApps Community Video Gallery
Microsoft PowerApps Community "Community Apps" Gallery
Microsoft Flow Community Video Gallery
Lithy category: B2C Community Innovator
1. Describe the innovation(s) and how you settled on the decision to innovate (user request, Lithium suggestion, internal idea, etc.)
Microsoft Power BI launched a new element called Galleries to its online community of over 900,000 members globally. Galleries was an idea born from a desire to optimize the value of the community and stimulate increased participation and engagement.
Galleries are a dedicated area within the Power BI Community where members can showcase their accomplishments to each other, upvote and comment on each other’s work, and exchange ideas. They have been so successful, we have since replicated them in our other communities!
2. Tell us about how you made it happen Did you stage it first, who got an early look, how you drove adoption/use, and any iterations you had to make to get it right.
Step one was creating the Data Stories Gallery, where members post examples of how they use Power BI to tell a story or display insights from their data. Each entry is open to upvotes and comments from other members.
Each month, users are presented with a theme for Gallery entries, and the submitted stories are evaluated by the community staff or industry guest judges. The best data stories are highlighted, with one being selected as the “Story of the Month.” The best submissions are also featured on the Power BI blog, which drives additional traffic to the Gallery and boosts exposure for the contributor.
Members are excited to show off their work and connect with other talented peers. Additionally, the Data Stories Gallery has become a great resource to power other forms of engagement – for example, turning selected reports into examples during a “Dashboard Makeover” webinar that turned out to be the most-attended session to date!
Once the Data Stories Gallery launched successfully, the community team replicated its success across other new Galleries. Together, these Galleries provide users with the information they want, when they want it. This builds trust and motivates them to participate in the community, which in turn provides them with recognition and feedback that adds value and facilitates learning, creating a virtuous Demonstrate – Participate – Celebrate cycle.
The strength of this model is that the learning and inspiration comes from what other users are doing, not what Microsoft does. Rather than one-to-many communication, Microsoft fosters an environment where peers can learn from each other, a key driver of community value.
The Galleries have been so successful, we have since replicated them just as successfully in other Microsoft communities. Here are a few examples:
3. What were the results? Tell us how it impacted your customer experience or the outcomes you seek as a business.
The launch of the Data Stories Gallery and the subsequent additional Galleries have been an enormous success for the Microsoft Power BI Community team in terms of driving monthly active users, building engagement, and creating a pipeline of quality content. Some metrics include:
- 650,000 active monthly community members
- 17,000 monthly forum posts and replies
- Over 700 submitted pieces of content
- 5 Galleries created to date with over 2.4M views
- Increase of 65% in the amount of quality content generated each month
- Galleries are consistently in the top 5 of all forums for customer traffic
The Galleries in our other communities have been just as successful, with equal or better impact on those community numbers, as well.
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