Why we renamed Masthead to Navo
Here’s a little opening nugget. Before Masthead, we had a product started called ‘Project Compass’. But this little thing called Microsoft Teams came along and well, it didn’t make sense to continue it. Abandoning something you are proud of is hard, but making those tough choices comes with the job. And I’m glad I did it.
Change is hard. Not changing is fatal ~ William Pollard
So, our efforts turned to Masthead when Teams arrived on the scene. We knew someone had to take the lead on providing SharePoint navigation that was quick and easy to deploy yet universally simple to add, edit and update. And the timing was right as Microsoft made the big move of taking SharePoint down to the studs and slowly (monolithically at times, it seemed) replaced functionality we used to know in classic SharePoint sites and pages with modern equivalents. Here we are in late December 2019 and there are still parts missing – but boy how far SharePoint modern has come.
What was Masthead?
Masthead was a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that organizations can sign up for that allows an administrator to create the perfect, global navigation for all of your SharePoint sites, whether they be modern Team and Communication sites, or classic sites (even sub-sites). Once created, complete with links, tags, descriptions AND Security Trimming (this is a big one folks), an administrator can easily toggle on deployment to all modern SharePoint sites at once, or selectively deploy it. Due to the complexities of older, classic SharePoint sites, one must individually select/deploy to classic (or we have some Powershell to help you push it out quickly, just ask us), but even that is far easier than the old days of modifying master pages, etc. The original Masthead lives on today within Navo, and the platform page for SharePoint carries on that legacy, along with new improvements like inline filtering, different styles such as our original design that folks loved but also a mega menu style as well.
The name ‘masthead’ came from the idea that it was located in the Masthead of your SharePoint site. Much like in a newspaper, that bar along the top where all the most central/useful information appeared, to find your way around the rest of the newspaper.
Navo — SharePoint Standard Style
Navo — SharePoint Mega Menu Style
Ok, so that was Masthead, focused on SharePoint. And it still provides tonnes of value today, particularly when every Microsoft Team creates a SharePoint site … and private channels create even more SharePoint Team sites. Hub sites are NOT helping here, sorry Microsoft. Nope.
Then Navo Was Born…
Early last year, we started exploring my favourite talking point of a “floating Intranet”. Web-based intranets were all the rage for years and SharePoint was king. Then it became time for Microsoft to tear SharePoint back to the studs to modernize the platform and everybody was stuck … waiting. Do I find another product? Do I continue to invest in classic SharePoint sites until they get their shit together? For most it seemed, they did neither.
We waited, and waited. And here we are today. A mobile-first world, with apps everywhere and either a dated SharePoint intranet that needs a new lease on life or another product was purchased – all the while, SharePoint modern pages and sites now do the job beautifully but we aren’t in SharePoint all day anymore, we are in Teams – which while amazing, confuses and blurs the lines between communicating/sharing useful information and collaborating. We still need an Intranet but we need an Intranet that ‘floats’ with us. Wherever I am, I want quick, easy access to whatever I’m looking for – and fast.
So we delivered a solution. We called it Navo (thanks Kayla!) And we have something pretty special here, I think.
How did we come up with the name Navo?
We had a lengthy, impassioned whiteboard session (I wish I had kept photos of that session) discussing possible names. A few seemed okay but we just weren’t satisfied. “OurPoint” was a frontrunner but alas, between SharePoint, PowerPoint … it became a case of ‘what’s the point?’.
Somewhere in the discussion, a new (and obviously awesome) hire named Kayla said something to the effect of ‘what about Navo’? She then explained where that came from. The ‘Nav-O’ on a Navy ship is responsible for ensuring ‘safe passage’ of a ship. PERFECT! That’s what Navo for Office 365 does. Governed (managed) links to the things (resources and information) that matter most, no matter where or how you might be travelling (desktop, web, teams, etc.).
A long meeting was immediately shortened. We slept on it … and that was it. It stuck. And heck, asking Navo the ‘bot’ (maybe, one day, eh?) where your stuff is sound a lot more bot-like (think ‘Siri’) than Masthead did.
Navo and Navo for SharePoint
I’ve beaten the SharePoint stuff to death above, so besides commenting that we call the SharePoint component ‘Navo for SharePoint’ because it looks different than the rest of the product (it is that menu sliver along the top of your sites, it exists all on its own everywhere else), I’ll focus now on where else you can use and enjoy Navo.
The Navo Standalone App
Out of the gate first was our ‘standalone’ app and this was what led to everything else that came next. As a Progressive Web App (PWA), we can roll out updates and enhancements quickly and easily. This includes more controls, styles, etc. And we look forward to constantly improving on this. It can be found at app.getnavo.com (it only works once it is activated for your organization of course). I save it not only as my home page in Edge Chromium (and Google Chrome when I’m slumming it), but it’s also on the home page of my iPhone (or Android if I had one).
Further, we have it in our Task Switcher in Office 365 so it is easily launched from everywhere.
Finally, Navo, of course, comes with “Dark Mode” because there is definitely some popularity around that. I don’t get it so much myself, but others certainly do. So there it is.
The Navo Microsoft Teams App
Coming very soon is our Navo component within Microsoft Teams. We are just waiting for the approval process to complete and we should be there as we enter 2020. Navo in Teams is a very compelling thing indeed. SharePoint was king of the Intranet’s but users don’t spend all day in their desktop web browsers to find what they are looking for anymore. Outside of document management, SharePoint still plays a big role in presenting rich pages and lists but being the ‘one place to go’, it is not, anymore.
Teams, on the other hand, is hot hot hot. But noisy noisy noisy. Collaborating and ‘working out loud’ is amazing but getting around, getting to those little bits of important information you need is proving difficult all over again. We can’t keep asking each other ‘hey, do you remember where X is?’
So in Microsoft Teams, Navo brings two huge benefits:
- Bring the Navo app right into Teams and plunk it wherever you want. At Regroove, Navo sits in position number 1. Our ‘floating intranet’ joins us, right where we live and work as a modern, distributed team.
- We made it so you can add contextual tabs right within your Microsoft Teams Channels. So, for example, if you built a branch of Navo that has all the tools your Sales department needs, you can simply display those items in the matching team for that department. We think this is pretty awesome and we’d love more feedback on it.
The Navo Chrome Extension
Teams is hot, but Navo as a browser extension is where things REALLY get interesting.
Having Navo in SharePoint (and in sites created when using Teams), in Microsoft Teams (as a universal home page/navigator and contextually), and as a mobile app on your iOS and Android device is great and all. But it is still something you need to go to, to get to your key organizational information.
What if Navo was a click away, on EVERY website you visit? Further, what if Navo was right there in your Browser’s ‘OmniBox’ (ya, I didn’t come up with that name). The OmniBox is the address bar where so many people today just type in what they are looking for, vs visiting websites themselves. We’ve added the ability to simply type the letter “N” and the ‘tab’ key and whatever you request next, will be served up by Navo. #awesome.
Navo Extension for Edge Chromium
Nope, we didn’t forget about this as it is a big deal. Navo has entered the approval process to be included in the Edge Chromium store. Edge Chromium arrives on the scene January 15, 2020. We look forward to Edge Chromium being the default browser on future Windows 10 desktops – one less product to download in a new workstation deployment … more performant than Google Chrome which has become a bloated mess and I’m eager to give even less information for Google to use against me when I search.
What Next?
So, what’s next for Navo? Well, we have big plans and ideas. Windows 10, plugins for other web platforms (perhaps WordPress and others, TBD based on demand) and we already have the plumbing in place to allow for SharePoint on-premise to use/inherit the navigation created online in Navo to be repurposed on your servers to provide a seamless experience/transition from on-prem to the cloud, over time. Another reason we like the name Navo is it is short and two syllables, much like ‘Siri’. Yep, as stated earlier, I could easily see a bot in our future.
Until next time, please check out Navo and signup for a free trial and give us some feedback, today!
