05 / Selected work
Planner notifications keep people informed about their tasks so they can act on what matters. The next step is to make them more trusted and actionable, and to add updates from AI agents in the same familiar Teams experience.
01 / Overview
The goal
Make Planner notifications more reliable, contextual and actionable.
Helping users stay informed and take action with less effort, across the Teams activity feed and Outlook email.
02 / Approach
Identify the Planner moments where users spend the most time.
Identify the corresponding high-value actions and events.
Audit how Planner handles notifications today.
Identify the problems and jobs to be done.
Determine who needs to know: plan owners, members, assignees, followers and others.
Decide whether each event deserves a notification.
Select the right timing, cadence and channel.
Establish notification principles using urgency and actionability.
| Journey area | High-value actions and events |
|---|---|
| Plan setup and structure |
|
| Task execution |
|
| Reporting and generated events |
|
| Collaboration and context |
|
| Governance and risk |
|
Stage 1
“Help my team understand what work exists, who owns it, and what needs attention.”
Stage 2
“Help me act on work, unblock others, and respond when collaboration needs me.”
Stage 3
“Help me track work I care about without having to constantly check Planner.”
Stage 4
“Help me know what completed, and what still needs attention.”
User needs, high level: each stage has one job for notifications, from understanding the work to closing the loop on it.
03 / Notifications today
| # | TeamsActivity feed notifications | OutlookEmail notifications |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Planner Agent needs you to review a task (for tasks that are ready)Everyone assigned | Planner Agent tasks are ready for reviewEveryone assigned |
| 2 | Assigned you a task (not all assignment tasks)Only you | Assigned you a task
|
| 3 | Marked your task urgentEveryone assigned | Assigned you a task
|
| 4 | Mentioned you in chatOnly you | Mentioned you in chatOnly you |
| 5 | – | Added you to a planEveryone in the group |
| 6 | – | You have tasks due today, late tasks or upcoming tasksEveryone |
Gap: two scenarios exist only in email. Teams has no “Added to a plan” or “Tasks due, late, upcoming”.
04 / Core problems
| # | Problems | JTBDs | Proposed solutions | Value added | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Personal identity missing, all notifications show the Planner icon instead of the profile card of the person or agent that triggered them | When I receive a Planner notification, I want to know who triggered it so I can quickly understand its relevance and urgency. | Show actor identity prominently (person, teammate or agent) with clear attribution | Creates stronger context, trust and relevance | Content + Design |
| 2 | Not following Teams activity anatomy | When I scan my activity feed, I want Planner notifications to feel like a part of Teams notifications so I can process them effortlessly. | Align with native Teams activity structure, spacing, hierarchy and metadata placement | Reduces learning curve and improves discoverability | Design |
| 3 | Passive-aggressive content over Teams and Outlook, plus confusing content (e.g. “Serena assigned you a task”, “You’ve been assigned a task”) | I want the notification to clearly explain what happened and what it means for me. | Use neutral, action-oriented language focused on the change and impact | Builds trust and reduces misinterpretation | Content |
| 4 | Batching missing, creating notification spam | When multiple updates happen on the same task or plan, I want them grouped together so I can stay informed without feeling overwhelmed. | Batch related updates into a single notification summary | Reduces noise and notification fatigue | Content + Design |
| 5 | Key scenarios missing (“Added to a plan”, “Tasks due”, “Tasks late”, “Upcoming tasks”) in Teams | When my work changes or requires attention, I want proactive notifications that help me stay on top of my responsibilities. | Improve consistency and reliability | Improves task awareness and follow-through | Eng |
| # | Problems | JTBDs | Proposed solutions | Value added | Area | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Main message unclear | When I review a notification, I want the content to be concise so I can extract insights quickly. | Visual hierarchy: clear message, the right info highlighted first | Recipient understands the message and their role without effort, which builds confidence and a feeling of being in control | Content + Design | P0 |
| 2 | Lacks contextual information on why the task matters | When I review work, I want enough context to decide whether to act now, later, or ignore it. | Improve task hierarchy with owner, priority, due status and clearer task affordances | Faster triage and prioritisation of work | Design | P0 |
| 3 | No actionability | When a task or plan needs my action, I want to act right here, so I don’t break flow switching tools. | Interactability: actionable controls, not just consumable info | Recipient completes or updates the task in place, saving context-switches | Design | P0 |
| 4 | Two CTAs (Open in browser / Open in Teams), extra cognitive load | When I decide to open a task, I don’t have to think about where it opens, it should be clear. | Have one obvious way forward | Removes a redundant decision | Content + Design | P0 |
| 5 | Overall string enhancements. Passive-aggressive content over Teams and Outlook, plus confusing content (e.g. “Serena assigned you a task”, “You’ve been assigned a task”) | When I receive a notification, I want to immediately understand if it’s important, needs my attention and if I should act on it immediately. | Make content contextual and action-oriented. Reduce repetition and use the space for meaningful context. | Recipient understands relevance and the entire context of the plan, which builds confidence and a feeling of being in control | Content | P0 |
| 6 | Batching missing, creating notification spam | When multiple updates happen on the same task or plan, I want them grouped together so I can stay informed without feeling overwhelmed. | Batch related updates into a single notification summary | Reduces noise and notification fatigue | Content + Design | P1 |
05 / Recipient of the notification
Determine who needs to know: plan owners, members, assignees, followers and others.
“Me” from “We”: suggesting personal and shared or team contexts.
06 / Notification intent
Notifications serve a few broad purposes.
Intent 1
Creation, update, assignment and completion.
Intent 2
Asking the recipient to do something.
Intent 3
Keeping users informed without requiring immediate action.
Order matters: this taxonomy is applied before selecting a channel.
07 / Channels
Channels and notification platforms:
Urgent
Informative
Actionable
Not urgent
08 / Notification principles
Every notification must have a clear user job.
Notify the person who needs to act and has stakes.
Urgency and actionability decide the channel.
Respect due dates, work hours, batching and frequency caps.
Include task context and next-best actions.
Each notification type needs a success action and attribution window.
Users and plan owners need preference controls.
09 / Solution
10 / Agent notifications
Clearly identify the agent responsible for the notification and its relationship to the work.
Lead with what the agent accomplished or needs from the user.
Make the state of delegated work clear: ready, needs input, blocked, or failed.
Give users enough context to recognize the delegated work at a glance.
Interrupt only at meaningful human-agent handoffs.
