Field Testing

Once you get the confirmation from the Starmind team and your Teams and Microsoft 365 administrators that the Prerequisites are completed, you can install the app and start testing it with a defined user group.

Installation

Open your Microsoft Teams app
Select Apps in the side bar
Search for Starmind
Select Add. Once the app is ready, you will be presented with the Microsoft Teams Personal App login screen.

In any Microsoft Teams client, add the Starmind Personal App — Add the Microsoft Teams Personal App to any Microsoft Teams client

💡If you can’t find the Starmind App, it is not available to everyone in your organization by default. Please get in touch with your Microsoft Teams administrator to make the Starmind Personal App available for the test user group.

Allow everyone or the field testing group to install the app — Allow everyone or your user testing group to install the app

Testing the Home tab

Open the Microsoft Teams Personal App from the Teams sidebar or the Apps menu. Proceed with testing the authentication for your Starmind network. If successful, the Starmind network should be accessible right inside Microsoft Team.

Proceed with the login to your Starmind network — Experience Starmind in MS Teams after successful authentication

Repeat this step in Microsoft365 and in Outlook.

Test Starmind Integrated App in Microsoft 365 — Starmind's integrated app in your Microsoft 365 environment

Testing the Message Extensions

Open a chat with somebody in your organization. In the compose box, open the actions and apps menu. Then, search and select Starmind.
You can search for questions or experts in the following step.
Go through the initial Authentication Flow and see the results returned from Starmind.
Select a result. The extension renders the information directly in your message compose box, ready to send.

Testing Starmind Message Extensions — Testing our Message Extensions

Testing Link Unfurling

Copy a Starmind link a question, solution or comment via context menu or directly from the browser address bar

Copy link to Starmind content
Create a chat with any user and past the link into the chat. The Starmind app will enrich the url with a Starmind question card deep linking to the Starmind Teams Personal app.

Testing the Copilot integration

Ensure your user has access to a valid Copilot subscription. Open the Copilot app in Teams via the sidebar or in the Teams chat view.
Select "Plugins" in the Copilot compose box and activate Starmind.
You can test our Copilot integration with the prompt "Show me 10 unsolved questions on Starmind with the most viewed ones listed first" or "Search for the top three experts in functional programming and information security".
💡 Depending on your prompt and the previous context of the Copilot chat, it is not necessary to mention the plugin name (Starmind). However, it can be helpful to force Copilot to use the Starmind plugin during testing.
Click on "Sign in" the Copilot response as part of the initial Authentication Flow and resubmit your prompt.

Enable Starmind Copilot plugin — Activate the Starmind Copilot plugin

Testing Copilot Starmind integration — Testing the Copilot Starmind integration

Testing the Activity Feed Notifications

Open the Microsoft Teams Personal App from the Teams sidebar or via the Apps menu.
Select any question from the Feed. You can share it with any user of your testing user group.
Check with the user to see if they have received a notification in their Teams Activity Feed.

Starmind Teams Activity Feed notification — Testing Starmind's notification in your Teams Activity Feed

Testing Starmind Bot

Login Flow

The bot will first prompt you to authenticate via Single Sign-On (SSO) using your Microsoft Entra ID.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the authentication process.

Once this succeeded, the user will be prompted to connect their Starmind account with the bot to get access to the expertise directory. This message will reflect the custom app branding, "Starmind Demo" in this example.

You only need to complete these steps once. Type logout, to retest the authentication flow.

Experts (Personal / Group Scope) prompt

Open the Starmind Teams Personal App from the Teams sidebar or via the Apps menu.
Start using the "Experts" prompt by writting "Experts" followed by a question or keywords.
1. Personal scope: In the Starmind Personal App, select the Chat tab and type or select the Experts prompt. For example, type "Experts How do storage conditions impact functional ingredient release in healthy chocolate bars?"
2. Group Chat scope: In a group chat where the Starmind Personal App was added, type @Starmind Experts Who can help me with me with setting up a MS Graph Connector development environment?
In the resulting message, you will be presented with the Starmind suggested experts. You are also able to adjust the results. Once ready, start the collaboration by inviting them to a group chat. Starmind bot will create the chat and initiate the conversation for you.

Once field testing is completed successfully, you are ready to roll out the Microsoft Teams Personal App to every user in the organisation with access to Starmind 🥳.