Introducing LookBook 365

Today, I want to introduce to you a new website I have created, LookBook365.com.

You might be wondering what this is all about. That’s a great question. 😊 Here are several reasons that led to the development of this new project of mine.

Reason # 1: Samples of my work

Over the years, clients have often asked me to look at the examples of intranet sites I have developed for other clients. This was always a challenge as those sites I created resided in my clients’ tenants and are not publicly accessible sites and pages. Besides, for privacy/confidentiality reasons, I could not share this information anyway.

Reason # 2: Third-party examples

In addition, my clients would typically email me samples and examples from their Google searches, asking me to recreate them in their environments. Those examples were often from third-party themes and web parts, meaning they would not be possible in SharePoint Out of the Box. Now, I have nothing against using third-party vendors – many of them have attractive designs and functionality that add value and make sites much nicer and more functional. I do realize that SharePoint’s out-of-the-box (OOTB) features have their limits. As a matter of fact, I often refer my clients to third parties in case OOTB does not cut it for them. But you probably know my philosophy – I am a staunch advocate of SharePoint Out of the Box and only specialize in what’s available natively within SharePoint. So, I often had to reset the client’s expectations regarding what was possible.

Reason # 3: SharePoint Look Book by Microsoft

For years, Microsoft has maintained its own LookBook, a collection of stunning SharePoint designs built using out-of-the-box features. I have always referred clients there and continue to do so – it’s a great resource. However, despite the new and cool functionalities and web parts rolled out, it has not been updated lately with any new designs or templates.

Reason # 4: Other Microsoft 365 applications

In addition to SharePoint, we have many other wonderful applications within Microsoft 365, like Lists, Planner, Forms, and Teams. While SharePoint excels in Page design and Document management, clients would sometimes ask me to build a simple Suggestion or Vacation Request Form or an Onboarding Checklist. There are many ways to achieve those requirements with the magic of Lists, Forms, and Planner. Seeing such examples and possibilities in action greatly benefits companies switching from file shares to SharePoint and realizing there is so much packed inside the Microsoft 365 treasure box.

This is where the light bulb went off… Why not create my own portfolio website, my own version of the LookBook? One that’s 100% focused on real-world examples using only SharePoint’s and Microsoft 365 native features? I decided to call it LookBook 365 since this is not just a site for SharePoint examples but also a site where you can find examples of other applications within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

The LookBook is split into 6 main areas at the moment, each corresponding to a specific set of use cases:

• Intranet & Employee Portals – examples of SharePoint intranet designs, corporate landing pages, department and collaboration sites
• Project & Task Management – examples of Task management options within Microsoft 365
• Checklists & Trackers – examples of checklists, logs and trackers
• Document & File Management – examples of document management capabilities, DMS
• Knowledge & Information Management – examples of knowledge management capabilities within SharePoint and Microsoft 365, Copilot
• Forms & Surveys – examples of interactive surveys, quizzes, polls, and feedback forms

I hope LookBook 365 sparks ideas, inspires creativity, and, most importantly, helps you prove to your boss once and for all that SharePoint and Microsoft 365 don’t need to be boring! 😀 Enjoy!