Microsoft released Viva Pulse a few weeks ago as a public preview and now it’s globally available. It’s a tool to send targeted surveys to users and gather feedback. I played with it for a while and in this post, I will show you how to use it and get data from users.
Introduction
Microsoft Viva Pulse is a new member of the Viva family. It gives you the tool to keep an eye on your teams. You create a survey (a pulse) based on a template, assign it to your team, and Viva Pulse will do the rest. People get notifications and can give you feedback using the tool. When it’s done you get summarized and anonymized information about the survey.
Microsoft released it in public preview mode but right now it’s fully available and you can use it in production. Viva Pulse is part of Viva Suite and can be acquired via Viva Suite or Viva Workplace Analytics and Employee Feedback. Check the Viva comparison table – https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=2208882.
One more thing – all Pulse authors (people creating and sending surveys) must have an active Microsoft Forms license.
Configuration
The first step after getting licenses is to set up Viva Pulse. You must be a Viva Pulse Administrator (Global admins have this role automatically).
1. Navigate to the Viva Pulse site – https://pulse.viva.cloud.microsoft/ and click the Manage section
2. There are 5 sections:
- Privacy – You can customize a privacy policy statement, enable, or disable sending required and optional diagnostic data, and choose how many responses are needed before you can see some data (3-25).
- Customization – allow users to edit stock questions (from templates), allow users to create/edit their own questions
- Notifications – Select the level of control users will have over their notifications
- Delete user data – Remove users’ data (survey responses) from Viva Pulse
- Custom support page – Provide a link to a custom support page
Send a pulse
Now the main part – how to create a pulse and send it to users. You don’t need any specific role or permissions, just Viva Pulse and Microsoft Forms licenses assigned.
1. Navigate to Viva Pulse https://pulse.viva.cloud.microsoft/ and click the Send a pulse button
2. You must choose one template from the list
3. Check questions from the selected template (1). You can modify them or add your own custom questions (2).
4. Select users (enter users one by one or using groups) (1) and click the Send pulse button (2).
5. The last step – a confirmation window. There is info about your pulse and for how long it will be available for users. There is also a link that you can copy and use in direct communication with your team.
Respond to a pulse
Selected users will get e-mail notifications with direct links to the pulse. The information is also available in the Viva Pulse portal. To respond to a pulse, click on the Get started button.
1. Click the Get started button again
2. Go through all questions and select answers
Manage pulses
You can always check running pulses and manage them. You extend the deadline, add more people (but you can remove existing ones), or even cancel the pulse.
When enough people respond to your pulse you can check the summary. Click on the selected response and the report will load.
- If you want detailed information for a specific question, click the arrow (1)
- If you want to share the report, click the Share report button at the top of the page
Summary
This is Viva Pulse – a dedicated tool to get feedback from your team. You can quickly create a pulse from a template, modify it if needed, and send it to a specific team. It’s easy to configure and send pulses to people. User experience is straightforward and available directly from the Viva Pulse portal. There is also a dedicated Teams app that users can install in Teams client, but it provides the same features and look and feel as the portal.
For me it’s a powerful addition to Viva Insights features – it’s designed only to send pulses and gather feedback. For many organizations, it could be a very helpful tool to get in touch with teams and know what’s going on inside each team. One feature is missing for sure – you can’t create custom templates. You can only change existing ones, but I believe it will be changed in some upcoming updates.
