Setting Up Planner in Teams

…and enhance Team Productivity. Turn conversations into shared tasks, directly with Planner in Teams

Using Microsoft Planner inside Teams helps teams move from conversation to action. Tasks stay connected to the work, ownership is clear and follow‑up becomes part of the daily flow, not a separate system.

Many teams collaborate daily in Microsoft Teams. Still, they struggle to keep track of tasks, ownership, and deadlines.

Conversations move fast. As a result, action items are easily lost. This happens especially when work is spread across many different communication channels and chats.

Microsoft Planner helps bridge that gap
It turns discussions into shared, visible tasks. And it does it directly where the work happens.

Step-by-step guide

In this step‑by‑step guide, I will show you how to set up Planner in a Teams channel. Along the way, I will share clear illustrations and practical tips.

The goal is simple:
Create a shared task overview that supports collaboration, accountability, and follow‑up.
All without introducing yet another tool your team has to remember to use.

How Planner and Teams are connected

A new Teams room is always linked to a Microsoft 365 group. This group contains the members of the room. It controls who can access, share, and collaborate there. Because of this, access is consistent across tools.

When you add other Microsoft 365 apps to a Teams room, all members automatically get access. In other words, you don’t need to manage permissions separately.

For example, when you add a Planner app to a Teams room, the Planner will use the same name as the Teams room per default. You can choose a different name if needed.

In addition, you can add multiple Planner plans to the same Teams room. All members will have access to them.

Example: Planner for M365 and Copilot Adoption

In this example, we will set up a Planner dashboard for an M365 and Copilot Adoption process.

For this purpose, I am using the ADKAR model for change management. Therefore, I will use the ADKAR pillars to structure the Planner dashboard.

In our project Teams room I have created a channel called 📊Deliveries. Next I will add the Planner dashboard to this channel

9 When you are creating a basic plan you will see the Teams group name in the lower field. In the top field write a clear and descriptive name of your new Planner dashboard. Keep it concrete. Remember, all Planner dashboards will be visible via the Planner app overview. Because of that the name should clearly explain what the plan is about.

Click “Create” when ready.

Rename Planner tab for clarity
Sometimes, the Planner dashboard name is correct. However, it might not signal that the tab contains tasks. Therefore, you may want to rename the tab.

Organize tasks using buckets
Inside Planner, you organize tasks into buckets.
You can create many buckets if needed.

At the same time, remember that Planner scrolls sideways.
Depending on your screen resolution, you will typically see three to four buckets at once.

In this example, I use the ADKAR pillars as bucket names:
– Awareness
– Desire
– Knowledge
– Ability
– Reinforcement

Next, I add activities or checklist item as tasks under each pillar.

Use labels for extra clarity

To further differentiate tasks, you can use color labels.

For example:

– Red for “Risks” or “Urgent”
– Blue for “Training”,
– Green for “Completed” or “Ready”

This makes it easier to scan the plan at a glance, and you can filter by color labels.

You can see practical examples of this approach in my blog: Share before the crisis – MeretheStave

+ Did you know?

Did you know that you can make a conversation in a Teams channel (or a Teams private chat) into a task in Planner, directly in the conversation window?

In the next window you rewrite the title into a descriptive task, and you can also add to or change the notes. Set priority and due date.

📚👀Learn more about how to work with Planner in Microsoft Planner Help & Learning:

• Planner help & learning
• Create a plan in Microsoft Planner – Microsoft Support
• Create buckets to sort your tasks – Microsoft Support
• Flag your tasks with labels – Microsoft Support

🖼️Image sources for this blog: Unless otherwise stated all printscreens and illustrations are mine. Emoticons (Windows + “.”). Featured image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/person-holding-purple-and-pink-box-iJg1YzsEfqo