Microsoft's Satya Nadella: 6 tips for better productivity using Office 365 and Windows 10

Six Office 365 centric tips to working better, direct from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Scott Carey November 10, 2015

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Speaking at the Future Decoded conference at London’s ExCeL, Satya Nadella demoed a whole range of Windows 10 updates and Office 365 products and gave the audience a window into his working life. Here’s six takeaways:

1. He really loves OneNote

Nadella started off by saying that OneNote for Office 365 has the most profound impact on his working life. This might be a case of recency bias, as he no doubt used OneNote to prep for a busy day of meetings and a big keynote address while travelling, key goals for a OneNote user.

2. He uses multiple devices

Nadella’s demo used three devices, the first of which was surprisingly an iPhone. The CEO’s pet name for an iPhone with all of the MS apps loaded is an iPhone Pro, which he used to demo some of these apps, before transitioning to a Windows phone (which he said was his) and then a Surface tablet.

3. He likes to collaborate… a lot

Nadella went long on his demo for the Office app Delve, primarily how it allows small teams to work together and communicate in real time, surfacing the most important things in an intuitive way.

4. He wants to see what is going on at Microsoft all of the time

Office 2016

Delve also allows Nadella to get a real-time picture of what is happening within his organisation. Delve analytics doesn’t just tell you who you are collaborating with on current projects, but also who you are neglecting.

In the wrong hands this sounds like a micromanager’s dream, but in Nadella’s parlance it allows for greater “transparency” and for the organisation to “break down the silos.”

5. He spends too much time on Outlook

Using Delve’s analytics employees can set targets and see how you and your team’s time and attention is being allocated. Nadella’s stats for a 40-hour working week read: 16 hours in meetings (20 target), 9.6 on email (nine target), eight after work and two focus hours for work (four target).

6. He likes “natural language”

Nadella the engineer has had to take a back seat now that he is CEO, concentrating on natural language prompts into Microsoft products. Using the example of Power BI Analytics he checked real time social analytics by inputting prompts like: “Show me tweets for Microsoft over the last hour in the UK” and was given a visual representation immediately.

Microsoft's Satya Nadella: 6 tips for better productivity using Office 365 and Windows 10

Six Office 365 centric tips to working better, direct from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Scott Carey

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