Turning Conversation into Knowledge with Viva Engage

For most organisations, the challenge isn’t a lack of knowledge—it’s unlocking what people already know and making it easy for others to access, use, and build on it. While tools like Teams and SharePoint do a great job of organising documents and driving project delivery, there’s another layer of knowledge that’s much harder to capture: the tacit knowledge that lives in conversations, experiences, and everyday insights.

In increasingly distributed teams and busy workdays, those quick moments of knowledge exchange are becoming harder to come by. This is where Viva Engage can make a real difference.

Often mistaken for “just a corporate social network”, Viva Engage is much more than a corporate message board, or “Yammer 2.0”. At Silicon Reef, we see it as a key tool for unlocking the value of everyday expertise. It creates space for open, organisation-wide conversations that go beyond task-specific work. It helps people ask questions, crowdsource ideas, and learn from peers they might not otherwise meet.

A Modern Home for Everyday Expertise

Viva Engage creates spaces where people can share what they know, ask for support, and connect with others who have similar interests or experience. These communities are open, inclusive, and built around shared topics rather than reporting lines or formal roles.

Unlike project-based tools like Teams, where collaboration is often time-bound and focused on specific deliverables, Viva Engage encourages ongoing, informal learning that’s just as valuable—but often harder to surface.

Here’s how it helps people learn from one another and solve problems faster:

Answers that stick

You can ask a question once and get responses from across the business. The most helpful replies can be marked as the “best answer”, making it easier for others to find later.

Easier to discover insights

By tagging conversations with topics, you make them easier to search and browse. This turns ad-hoc discussions into reusable knowledge for everyone—especially new starters or people switching roles.

Connections that matter

Viva Engage communities break down silos by helping people find colleagues they may not have met but share common ground with—be it a job function, interest area or challenge.

Knowledge in the flow of work

With Viva Engage integrated into Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint, you don’t need to leave your usual tools to participate. Sharing knowledge becomes part of the way people already work.

And now, with Copilot, verified answers from Viva Engage can appear directly in search results—helping people find trusted information even faster, without needing to ask the same question twice. It’s a powerful way to surface collective knowledge right when and where it’s needed.

Where It Adds Value: Real-World Examples

Viva Engage works well wherever knowledge needs to move freely—especially in cross-functional, fast-paced or people-first environments. Here are some examples:

• Accelerating onboarding: Help new joiners get up to speed by joining communities where they can ask questions, access useful content, and connect with more experienced colleagues. They can also find answers to questions that other new starters have already asked, saving time and avoiding common frustrations.
• Crowdsourcing ideas: Use polls and open threads to gather feedback from across the business. It’s a quick way to test ideas and surface suggestions you might not hear otherwise.
• Unblocking internal support: Communities like “Ask Finance” or “Ask IT” give employees a go-to space to get help, while reducing pressure on internal teams to answer the same question multiple times.
• Developing skills and confidence: Encourage professional growth by building communities of practice around topics like leadership, digital skills or employee wellbeing—allowing people to learn together and support one another.

How to Get Started

You don’t need a big launch or detailed strategy to begin using Viva Engage effectively. In fact, small, focused communities often lead to the best results. Here’s how to get started:

1. Choose a meaningful purpose

Start with a clear “why”. What is the community there to do? It could be solving problems, supporting a role, sharing best practice, or building connection around a theme.

2. Launch with a few champions

Get a handful of early contributors involved. Ask them to post questions, share resources, and @mention colleagues who might have something useful to add. This sets the tone and builds momentum.

3. Guide new members

Pin a welcome post that explains what the group is for and how to get involved. Suggest things people can do—like ask a question, tag someone, or share a recent challenge they’ve overcome.

4. Make it visible

Promote the community through Teams, email, or your intranet. Use the Viva Engage web part to bring conversations into SharePoint pages where people are already active. You can also use SharePoint to add further context and reference content to the community conversation, creating a richer knowledge ecosystem.

5. Recognise and celebrate

Use Viva Engage’s built-in features to give praise and spotlight helpful contributions. Contributors can also earn badges when their answers are upvoted or marked as the “best”—a simple but effective way to recognise expertise, build confidence, and show that knowledge sharing is valued.