Clipchamp teams stay in sync using Microsoft Loop to collaborate across apps for richer insights

Collaborating without barriers

Clipchamp Product Manager Bill Reath works with Van Kimmenade on the Gateway Team, a group that focuses on making the Clipchamp experience within Microsoft 365 as seamless as possible. “We constantly run experiments,” says Reath. “We’ll test things like AI or personalization and then measure to see if this improves the user experience.” In the past, the team struggled to share those experiments, for instance with stakeholders outside the immediate Gateway Team. “The tool we used created friction when we wanted to circulate our findings,” says Reath. “We often had to copy the results and send screenshots to people.”

Now, the Gateway Team uses Microsoft Loop to track and share its findings from one dedicated workspace that’s always up to date. “Migrating to Microsoft Loop solved a big problem for us,” says Reath. “It’s much easier to share our write-ups. Using the insert menu feature in Loop to format content makes documents look a lot more polished and readable too.” Reath and his colleagues now have the ability to easily share work and invite collaboration from employees across the company. “With the old tool, I constantly had to add new users just so they could view the experiments,” he says. “Having everything in Loop now saves a lot of time because everyone knows where to go for information.”

With Microsoft Loop, the Gateway Team has added a new level of transparency to how it operates. “We use Microsoft Loop to share our experiments and also to post updates on our team progress towards our goals and what we’re learning,” says Van Kimmenade. “Those updates get shared widely so that anyone who’s interested can see our roadmap and what we’re working on.” Reath agrees, saying, “Using Microsoft Loop has made everything more open. If anyone in the Clipchamp organization finds a Loop document they think looks interesting, they can go in and add comments.” The team applies insights to consistently improve the user-friendliness of Clipchamp, so it welcomes the chance to involve outside perspectives. “We’ve started writing documents that people can understand even if they don’t have a ton of context,” says Reath. “It’s more organic to share and gather feedback through Microsoft Loop.” And, the consistent, familiar formatting of Loop components creates a more harmonious experience for collaborators. “Before, when collaborators would switch between various documents, we'd have to quickly adjust to whatever formatting the creator had used,” remembers Jase Clamp, Principal Product Manager for Clipchamp at Microsoft. “This is not the case with Loop - each page is consistent and familiar and reduces that cognitive load associated with switching between contexts.”

Working across apps

In his role as a product manager, Clamp thinks collaboration is the key ingredient for rapid customer discovery. “For me, the goal is to get everyone together discussing customer needs as quickly as possible,” he says. When those collaborations happen with Microsoft Loop, the discussions follow teams wherever they most naturally work, whether that’s within Microsoft Teams, Outlook, or a Loop workspace, an experience Clamp has dubbed “a round trip.” “Microsoft Loop represents the first time I‘ve used a collaboration product that can unfurl across many apps,” he says. “It means that I can take a Loop component, a document for instance, put it in a Teams chat thread, update it with my colleagues, and then send it out via email, and it’s exactly the same file. It saves a lot of time.” Clamp describes the contrast between an always-synced Loop component and a static file that needs to be shared via links as a “game-changer.”

Reath also uses Loop components to streamline meetings. “I use Loop components in Teams meetings to take notes,” he says. “In a one-on-one meeting, we can both see what’s being written down. There are a lot of benefits to being able to collaborate on that note-taking in the moment.” Clamp is another fan of Loop components. He uses the Loop table component to sort information with his team. “Our team finds prebuilt tables in Microsoft Loop really helpful,” he says. “For example, it’s simple to create a table to gather and inform the status of projects.”

Improving discoverability and making faster decisions

Van Kimmenade gravitates towards Loop workspaces to keep projects organized. “Before, when we had different tools and varying permission levels, it could be difficult to keep every aspect of a project connected and organized,” she says. “Now, with Microsoft Loop, everything is in one place, and I can refer back to it easily.” Clamp also notes the ease of navigation that Loop workspaces afford his team. “We’ve been using Loop heavily to gather documents together in one space,” he says. “The wiki-style navigation of a Loop workspace helps ensure that files don’t get lost or forgotten. We use Loop to easily create a tree structure for collecting, maintaining, and organizing our documents.”

In Microsoft Loop, Clamp has found an ideal complement to his “incomplete by design” ethos. “As a product manager, I adhere to the theory of ‘incomplete by design,’” he says. “That means, I would rather get something into the discussion phase with the team and shape the outcome through collaboration than build a polished document first and work in stages.” Embracing an “incomplete by design” methodology relies on tools that can support fruitful group collaboration. “Why would you want to use Microsoft Loop?” Clamp asks. “To move fast and work together more effectively.”

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