Simply SharePoint Newsletter: The foundation has to come first

The foundation has to come first ```

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Simply SharePoint • Thursday Edition

Hi 👋

Two posts went up on the blog this week, and I hadn't planned for them to be related — but they are. One is a demo of what Copilot adoption actually looks like in a real executive meeting. The other is how I took a Teams transcript and had a fully-built SharePoint list live in under 30 minutes.

Both of them hinge on the same thing. And it's the same thing I'm presenting on in Melbourne later this month.

This Week's Question

"We've got Copilot licences. People are using it. Why aren't we seeing the outcomes we expected?"

— A question I hear in some variation almost every week

The Short Answer

Copilot is only as useful as the environment it works in. It surfaces what exists — and if what exists is messy, duplicated, poorly structured, or accessible to the wrong people, that is exactly what Copilot will work with.

The 30-minute SharePoint list I built this week worked because the meeting was captured properly, the metadata design was clear, and the structure made sense to the AI. The Copilot demo I ran for an executive committee landed because the environment underneath it was clean.

Neither of those things happened by accident. Both of them required getting the foundations right first. That is the part organisations keep skipping — usually because it's less exciting to talk about than agents.

The Takeaway

There is no AI without Information Architecture. Copilot doesn't fix bad structure — it exposes it faster.

Read This Week

📖 Blog

From Meeting to Live System

A Teams transcript, a Copilot prompt, and a fully-built SharePoint list — in under 30 minutes. The step-by-step breakdown of what actually happened and why it worked.

📖 Blog

What Real Copilot Adoption Looks Like

The four-step workflow I demonstrated to an executive committee — using their own meeting. No staged content, no fictional scenario. This is what adoption actually looks like.

In Person • Melbourne • 28–29 May

Digital Workplace Conference Australia 2026

From SharePoint Foundations to AI Agents: The Blackmores Journey

I'm presenting at this year's Digital Workplace Conference at the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins. My session (co-presented with Sujith Sukumaran) is a case study of the Blackmores project — a SharePoint environment deliberately designed to be AI-ready from day one, before a single agent was built.

It's a real-world example of the foundations-first argument in practice. If you're attending DWCAU this year, I'd love to see you there.

View the session →

If You Want to Do the Work

Self-Paced • $497

The Modern SharePoint System

The Guide, Workbook, and Spreadsheet Toolkit for getting your SharePoint environment structured properly — for collaboration now and AI later. Plain English. No videos. Buy once, use it at your own pace.

Learn about the program →

If you'd prefer to work through this with me alongside you — on your actual environment — the Copilot Ready Cohort starts in June. Eight weeks, live group sessions, and a personal 1:1 assessment before week one. Waitlist is open now.

Find out more about the cohort →

See you next Thursday,

Liza

P.S. If you're coming to DWCAU in Melbourne, hit reply and let me know — I'd love to say hello in person.

Simply SharePoint • Liza Tinker, Microsoft MVP • Unsubscribe

Simply SharePoint

May 13 • 2 min read

Simply SharePoint Newsletter: The foundation has to come first

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