Yep.

I’d say it’s heading towards love.

It’s been a few months since I explored using Loop for a team meeting, and it’s amazing to see how it has become a go-to.

Here are some of the example use cases from my workplace:

Brainstorming in chat with a colleague

The Project Manager and I are often creating a meeting or workshop and are finding value in being able to keep it all in our 1:1 chat, but not lose it in amongst the thread. We create a Loop component, pin, and use while we are brainstorming or adding ideas. Then when we have formalised elsewhere we delete or just unpin. It is great to both be able to easily add text, and to have a list of items quick to access when we have a catch-up call.
Below is an example of how easily we can use the Loop task list to add items, assign to us and put due dates.

Director and PA

Recently I was chatting to a Personal Assistant of one of our Directors and she asked “what task tracking could I use with just a Director and myself?”

She receives on the fly requests across the day in chat and was thinking of adding them into Planner, To Do, or elsewhere. I showed her Loop and she was more excited than me!

The PA saw immediate application of it, and not only just for this instance, but thought of other quick ideas where Loop would be really useful for projects or activities across the organisation.

She now has Loop in the 1:1 chat with the Director. Instead of sending text asking her to do something, he can add things in Loop, or if he prefers to send a text chat message, she will add that request into their Loop for transparency, tracking and clear timeframes.

Weekly Team Retrospective

In a development team we have an ongoing weekly retrospective. Often on a Friday afternoon we start the meeting with 15 mins of brainstorming and adding to the retro board, to then discuss and review. We then pick a couple of items to change in the following week. This enables ongoing innovation to how we work.

Now, we use Loop. It’s easy to have it in the chat for that reoccurring meeting.

Questions for My Manager

I report to a guy who recently commented he gets peppered with questions all day through Microsoft Teams chat and was considering a more effective way to track and ensure he gets back to people. While you can ‘save’ a message, or mark unread, in our 1:1 chat we triggered loop to give more structure to things I need from him. A key element was to not be lost in the thread, but to have items easy to see and remind him. We use Loop as a mini action list for him, like when I need to check in on something, or need something quick setup or answered.

What else can you create?

You can see below in the image I have clicked on the Loop icon in chat and the options for the different types of components is visible.

There are many ways you can collect data, track actions or bring ideas together. Whether is be a list, table, or other component, this ad hoc method is really gaining traction in our organisation.

As you can see, these are not complex use cases, but small innovation to how we communicate, collect information and keep across things. And we haven’t delivered any adoption or guidance for Loop. There have been many competing priorities along with change fatigue for staff, it wasn’t a stand out of something requiring training and communication. So even more impressive that this small feature is getting traction and attention through staff.