Microsoft has announced that they will retire Viva Goals on December 31, 2025, and all new development ended on December 5, 2024. I wasn't surprised by the announcement, because I saw signs almost a year ago that Goals wouldn't last much longer. And after some thought, I see a silver lining in the retirement of Viva Goals, despite the immediate impact to businesses. Before I share my thoughts on that, I'll cover what I think will happen in 2025 with the rest of the Viva Suite.
Future State
Without Goals and Topics, here's what will remain at the end of 2025:
We can't be certain another one of the Viva apps won't be retired. If another one does retire, my guess is it will be Learning or Pulse. I say that only based on my experience and how often both apps get attention from the product team and clients. But both offer a lot of value, so I don't think either is on the chopping block just yet. And while unlikely, a new Viva app might be introduced. Copilot in Viva will also continue to evolve and become more integrative.
My experience also tells me that the most popular apps in the Viva Suite are Connections, Engage, Amplify, Glint and Insights. And in the top spot is Connections because it's so closely integrated with SharePoint Online, Microsoft's intranet solution, and is very easy to configure without additional licensing. In a close second is Viva Engage, especially with the news from Ignite 2024 that Storylines will soon be integrated into Teams.
I expect more evolution for those top five Viva Suite apps more than Pulse and Learning. But only time will tell.
What is the silver lining in the Viva Goals retirement?
Now that we know what's ahead, let's talk about what's in front of us. There are three main reasons I see a silver lining in the retirement of Viva Goals. The market is ready for the upcoming surge of migrations, this is a chance to clean your OKR data, and the vision for the Viva Suite has become even clearer. Let's go into detail.
Help is Ready and Available
Firstly, I acknowledge that the retirement creates technical debt for current users of Goals, but many similar OKR platforms are raising their hands, ready to help customers land on their feet. Companies like WorkBoardAI, Quantive, and Mooncamp are prepared to help you stay afloat and continue tracking OKRs. Microsoft's partners are also ready to help fill in the details. I recommend you reach out to your Microsoft representative to find the best path forward, as well as stop your Goals billing once you're fully migrated.
Microsoft also created a Retirement section in their Viva Goals Learn site to get you started and offer an extensive FAQ section.
Below are a few screen shots from the alternatives I mentioned above. There are many OKR alternatives so spend time assessing your needs and matching them to the right solution.
A Chance to Clean Your Data
Because this migration away from Goals is mandatory, you might as well spend some time analyzing your OKR data. In any migration, there is an opportunity to remove obsolete data. This applies across all types of migrations, whether it's your intranet, email, file shares, directories, or other enterprise solutions. When you perform a ROT (redundant, obsolete, trivial) analysis in the planning phase of a migration, you will likely come across information that's not needed.
In the context of Viva Goals, it looks like there will be a few ways you can export your Goals data, depending on the solution you go with. For example, if you go with Excel for your data export, you could clean the tables of outdated information before uploading into the new solution. The support team for the third-party solution you choose will likely have a migration team that specializes in this process. And there may even be something built into the solution that helps you clean up your data as it's migrated.
If you and your team can manage to move to a new OKR solution with cleaner data, you will thank yourselves over and over again. The cleanup process can be cumbersome, but the upfront effort replaces the back-end effort that might catch up with you if you choose to migrate your data without evaluating it first. If you have the people, you can divide and conquer. If you're a solo admin, you can narrow the scope of the analysis to still achieve some amount of cleanup. Either way, try to take advantage of this opportunity since you're already exporting your OKRs.
Clearer Vision and Purpose for the Entire Viva Suite
One of the biggest challenges with demonstrating Viva's value is sharing the vision for all the apps working together. For example, Viva Topics was often viewed as disconnected and confusing to my clients, making its retirement the right choice from my perspective.
As for Viva Goals, it was rarely discussed in my client calls. In my two years of supporting and implementing Viva, none of my clients opted for Goals, and I had only two demo requests. Often, clients already had an OKR solution, didn't need it, couldn't afford it, or it was too late in the fiscal year to request funding. I doubt I'm alone in experiencing this lack of interest. Again, I think retirement was the right choice for Goals from a development perspective. Even Microsoft acknowledges the slow adoption rates in their retirement FAQ section:
With that in mind, I'll point out the apps that will remain and their purpose. To be clear, the purpose of these apps hasn't changed, but the vision actually became clearer to me without the other two apps in the suite.
This grouping is much easier to grasp from a sales perspective. With Viva Topics reintegrating into the M365 AI stack with the help of Copilot, clients will have almost everything they need to succeed. Some concepts are easier to understand when there are fewer options.
The Communications apps boost engagement and transparency, while the Analytics and Feedback apps help leaders understand employee sentiment and productivity. And Viva Learning enhances workforce skills, whether through an LMS, LinkedIn Learning, or training on M365 technologies like Copilot AI and other productivity apps.
"With their powers combined" the Viva Suite still packs a punch.
Final Thoughts
The retirement of Viva Goals creates space for more focus on what the rest of the Viva Suite does well. Microsoft's product team will be able to move on to more meaningful ideas and solutions. And the more easily understood vision for the entire suite is great news for those in sales, pre-sales, and implementation roles.
While Microsoft has made it clear in the FAQs that they have no intentions to replace Goals or integrate it into other products, it's always possible they could return to this idea with a fresh perspective in the future. After all, Copilot AI is a disruptor and could open doors that weren't open for Viva Goals. So, stay positive and never say never!
But for now, start preparing for the future by reaching out to third-party OKR platforms, Microsoft partners, and your representative.