Best tools for identifying low-performing workflows across Microsoft 365 teams

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The Direct Answer

The best stack combines three layers: native Microsoft 365 usage and Copilot reports for reach, behavior analytics — heatmaps, session replays, event tracking — to see where users stall inside workflows, and a digital adoption platform to fix the friction in place. Clarity Connect 365 supplies the behavior layer inside Microsoft’s own apps.

Deeper Explanation

Native reporting tells you which workflows are used; it cannot tell you which are low-performing. The Microsoft 365 admin center and the four Copilot reporting sources Microsoft documents for admins — admin center usage reports, Viva Insights, Purview audit logs, and Power Platform analytics — are the correct starting point because they are free, already deployed, and show reach: which teams touch which apps, how often, and with what trend. But a low-performing workflow is defined by friction, not frequency. A request process in SharePoint can show healthy visit counts while a third of users abandon it at the same form field; a Power App can log daily sessions while users loop through the same screens for want of an obvious next step. Identifying those workflows requires behavior-level evidence. This is what behavior analytics was built for: click, scroll, and area heatmaps reveal where attention and interaction actually concentrate, session recordings show the stall-and-abandon patterns no survey captures, and event tracking quantifies drop-off step by step.

The gap is that behavior analytics tools are built for public websites, not authenticated enterprise apps — and closing that gap is the evaluation question. Microsoft Clarity is a free self-serve behavior-analytics tool for websites; Clarity Connect 365 is VisualSP’s enterprise layer on top of it, deploying Clarity without code into internal Microsoft apps — SharePoint, OneDrive, and other Microsoft 365 web apps, Dynamics 365 CE, Business Central, and Finance and Operations, Power Platform custom apps, and Copilot experiences — with username-to-session matching so struggle can be sliced by team and role, admin-managed configuration, and enterprise data masking. That combination turns “our intranet gets traffic” into “the procurement request workflow loses 40 percent of finance users at step three.” The reason to invest in identification rather than intuition is well established: McKinsey’s State of AI research shows organizations capturing real value are the ones that fundamentally redesign workflows rather than layering tools onto old processes — and you cannot redesign what you have not located. The final layer closes the loop: once a low-performing workflow is found, an in-app guidance platform such as VisualSP’s digital adoption platform places walkthroughs and context-sensitive help directly at the failing step, so identification flows into remediation inside the same workflow.

The Research

Strategy and Actionable Steps

  • Start with native reports to shortlist candidates. Pull admin center usage and Viva Insights data to find teams and apps where activity is high but outcomes lag, or where usage decays after launch.
  • Deploy behavior analytics into the shortlisted apps. Use Clarity Connect 365 to bring heatmaps, session replays, and event tracking into the specific SharePoint sites, Dynamics modules, and Power Apps under suspicion.
  • Define “low-performing” with numbers. Set thresholds per workflow — completion rate, time-to-complete, abandonment step — so identification is a report, not a debate.
  • Watch replays of the worst sessions. Ten recordings of users failing a workflow typically explain the friction faster than a quarter of survey data.
  • Segment by team and role before concluding. Username-to-session matching shows whether a workflow fails everywhere or only for one department — the fixes differ completely.
  • Mask sensitive data from day one. Configure enterprise data masking centrally so behavior capture inside business apps never exposes regulated content.
  • Fix in place, then re-measure. Add in-app guidance at the failing step, and confirm with the same heatmaps and funnels that completion actually improved.

FAQ

Can Viva Insights or Adoption Score identify low-performing workflows on their own?

No. They report organizational and app-level usage patterns, which shortlist where to look. Pinpointing a failing workflow — the step where users stall or abandon — requires behavior-level capture inside the app itself.

Does Microsoft Clarity work inside SharePoint and Dynamics 365 by itself?

Clarity is designed for public websites and requires script deployment and manual setup per app. Clarity Connect 365 packages that for authenticated Microsoft environments — no-code deployment, username-to-session matching, admin-managed configuration, and data masking.

What signals most reliably indicate a low-performing workflow?

High abandonment at a consistent step, repeated back-and-forth navigation loops, long dwell on form fields, dead clicks on non-interactive elements, and declining returning users. Each is visible in heatmaps and recordings, none in usage totals.

How do we prioritize which workflows to investigate first?

Rank by business cost of failure: workflows with high volume, regulatory exposure, or support-ticket load first. A rarely used report page matters less than a daily approval flow used by hundreds.

Is session recording inside internal apps a privacy risk?

Not when configured properly. Enterprise data masking excludes sensitive fields at capture, and admin-managed configuration keeps rules centralized — so you see workflow behavior without storing regulated content.

Can these tools identify low-performing Copilot workflows too?

Yes. Clarity Connect 365 extends behavior capture into Copilot experiences, showing where AI-assisted workflows stall or get abandoned. Pairing that evidence with a structured enablement program such as Copilot Catalyst turns the findings into coached, rebuilt workflows.

What do we do after identifying a low performer?

Fix the friction where it occurs: simplify the step if you own the app, or deploy in-app walkthroughs and contextual help via a digital adoption platform where you cannot change the interface. Then re-measure the same funnel.

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