How to Structure Teams and Channels in Microsoft Teams
Lily Howell
Mar 20, 2020 12:00:00 AM

Teams lets you set up permanent groups so that your teams, departments or areas know where to go to share news and updates that everyone would find useful, as well as storing your shared files and documents. You can also make one to one or group phone and video calls from wherever you are, there’s even an option to share your screen with the team!
Groups, commonly known as Channels, can be open to everyone in the company or private, and by default can be created by anyone! In order to avoid confusion or sharing documents with the wrong people, you need to carefully consider how to set up your teams.
With this information to hand, you will be able to set up a sensible Team structure with spaces for sensitive information or chat, and also open areas to help share information between all team members.
(If you don’t see the Create a new team option, you may not have the necessary permissions to create your own teams. Please check with your IT administrator if this is the case)
Teams is made up of channels, each channel is dedicated to a specific topic, department, or project. It’s where you have conversations with your teammates, share files etc.
By default, all members of a team can create channels. A standard channel is open for all members and anything posted is searchable by others. If you need a smaller audience for a specific project, you can create a private channel for your team. For a deeper look, see Teams can have standard or private channels.
To create a standard channel, start in the team list. Find the team name and click More options > Add channel. You can also click Manage team, and add a channel in the Channels tab.
If you want a focused place to discuss sensitive information such as budgets, resourcing, strategic positioning and so on, create a private channel for your team. Only owners or members of the private channel can access it.
To create a private channel for a team:
As a private channel owner, you can add or remove members, and edit private channel settings. Each person that you add must first be a member of the team.
To add members of your team to a private channel:
When you’re ready, select Done. Members can now post messages on the private channel.
Teams is designed to be flexible. You can easily add new teams and channels if you find that things do not fit into the existing structure.
If you decide to remove a team make sure that any files have been moved to another location first, or they will be deleted.
By default, files can be shared with guests. This can be disabled or restricted across the organisation by your IT Administrator.
There are lots of features built into teams that can be added on as needed, for example, notebooks, wikis, todo lists and Kanban boards.
If you don’t have an Microsoft 365 subscription, there is a free version of Teams available for up to 300 users. Or talk to us about getting a full licence!