Employee Setup Wizard
After an administrator provisions a Personal Assistant for an employee, the employee receives a setup email with a link to the PA Hub. The Employee Setup Wizard guides the employee through personalizing and activating their assistant in seven steps.
Before You Begin
Your administrator has already:
- Assigned you the PA User role
- Selected a shared mailbox for your PA
- Chosen which tools and AI models you can use
- Configured working hours and execution limits
You will now personalize how your PA works, what it focuses on, and how it communicates. The entire setup takes about 5 minutes.
Accessing the Wizard
- Click the link in your setup email, or navigate to the PA section in Control Bridge
- If your PA has not been set up yet, you are automatically redirected to the setup wizard
- Complete all seven steps to activate your assistant
Your progress is saved in your browser as you move through the wizard. If you close the page and come back later, you will resume from where you left off.
Step 1: Welcome and Introduction
The welcome screen introduces your Personal Assistant and shows its email address. This is a read-only step that explains what the PA can do:
- Monitor your inbox and draft replies
- Research topics and summarize findings
- Track your goals and manage projects
- Help with writing, analysis, and brainstorming
- Perform tasks using connected tools
Your PA's email address is displayed with a Copy button. You can reach your assistant by:
- Sending an email to the displayed address
- Chatting directly in the PA Hub
- Messaging via Microsoft Teams (if the Outermind app is installed)
Click Get Started to proceed.
Step 2: About You
Tell your assistant about yourself so it can work more effectively. All fields are optional but highly recommended for the best experience.
Fields
| Field | Description | Pre-filled? |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Role | Your job title or function (e.g., "Sales Manager", "Marketing Director") | No |
| Department | Your department within the organization | No |
| Daily Activities | What you spend most of your day doing | No |
| Short-Term Goals | Your goals for the next 1-3 months | No |
| Long-Term Goals | Your goals for the next 6-12 months | No |
| Manager | Your direct manager | Yes (from Microsoft Entra) |
| Direct Reports | People who report to you | Yes (from Microsoft Entra) |
The more context you provide, the better your PA can assist you. For example, knowing your role helps the PA tailor research results, and knowing your manager helps it understand your reporting structure. Fields that are empty show a "Highly recommended" badge as a reminder.
Manager and direct reports are pre-filled from your organization's Microsoft Entra directory when available. You can edit these values if they are incorrect. If Entra data is unavailable, these fields appear as empty text inputs.
Step 3: Language Preference
Choose the language your PA uses when composing emails, chat messages, summaries, and other written output on your behalf.
Configuration
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Language | The language the PA uses for all written output it generates |
The picker defaults to your organization's configured locale. If you communicate primarily in a different language, select it here so your PA writes in that language from the start.
This setting controls the PA's output language - the language it writes in. It does not affect the language of the Control Bridge interface. You can change this preference at any time from PA Hub > Settings.
Supported languages include English (UK and US), French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese, among others. Contact your administrator if a language you need is not listed.
Step 4: Set Goals
Define what your PA should focus on. You can select from example goals, create custom goals, or combine both approaches.
Example Goals
Click any example goal to add it to your list:
| Goal | Description |
|---|---|
| Inbox Management | Monitor your inbox and draft replies to routine emails. Categorize and prioritize incoming messages. |
| Daily Briefing | Prepare a daily summary of important emails, calendar events, and action items for the day ahead. |
| Research Assistant | Research topics you assign and provide concise summaries with key findings and recommendations. |
| Meeting Preparation | Review upcoming meetings, gather relevant context, and prepare briefing notes before each meeting. |
| Performance Improvement | Research ways to improve your performance in your role, suggest best practices, tools, and techniques. |
| Follow-Up Tracker | Track emails and tasks that need follow-up. Send reminders when items are overdue. |
| Writing Assistant | Help draft documents, presentations, and reports. Review and improve your writing when asked. |
| Knowledge Curator | Organize and summarize important documents, links, and resources you share into a personal knowledge base. |
Creating Custom Goals
Click Add Custom Goal to create your own:
- Enter a goal title - a clear, concise name
- Enter a description - explain what success looks like
- Be specific - "Draft replies to routine vendor emails" is better than "Help with email"
- Define success - "Prepare a daily briefing by 9 AM with top 5 priorities" gives the PA clear criteria
- Start small - Begin with 1-3 goals and add more once you see how the PA handles them
- Provide context - Use the description field to explain why this goal matters to you
While goals are not strictly required, your assistant works best with at least one goal. If you proceed without any goals, a reminder will suggest adding one for the best experience.
You can change goals or add new ones anytime from the PA Hub after setup. Goals default to Medium priority, which you can adjust later in the PA Hub.
Step 5: Assign Tools
Choose which tools to give your PA from the pool your administrator has approved.
Tools are grouped by category (Communication, Research, Data & Analysis, etc.). Each tool shows its name and a brief description of what it does. Select the tools that align with your goals.
A counter shows how many tools you have selected out of the total available. You can add or remove tools anytime from PA Hub > Settings.
You will only see tools that your administrator has approved for your PA. If you need access to a tool that is not listed, contact your administrator.
No minimum selection is required, but selecting tools relevant to your goals will allow your PA to take more meaningful action.
Step 6: Personalize Your Assistant
Make your PA your own with these personalization options:
Name
Give your assistant a name (e.g., "Alex", "Friday", "Jarvis"). This is how your assistant will introduce itself in emails, chat messages, and reports. If you leave this blank, it defaults to "Personal Assistant." Names can be up to 100 characters.
Avatar
Choose from pre-designed avatars across several categories (Abstract, Robot, Human, Animal, Nature) or upload your own image.
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Supported formats | PNG, JPG, JPEG, SVG, WebP |
| Maximum file size | 2 MB |
| Minimum dimensions | 128 x 128 pixels |
Communication Style
Select how your PA communicates. This affects emails, chat messages, summaries, and all written output:
| Style | Description | Email Example |
|---|---|---|
| Professional | Clear, polished, business-appropriate tone with proper greetings and structured responses | "Dear Sarah, I've reviewed the Q1 report and have the following observations..." |
| Casual | Friendly, conversational, and relaxed with warm greetings and natural language | "Hey Sarah! Took a look at the Q1 report - here are some things that stood out..." |
| Concise | Brief and direct with bullet points and minimal greetings; prioritizes efficiency | "Sarah - Q1 report review attached. Key findings: 1) Revenue up 12%. 2) Churn increased." |
| Detailed | Thorough and comprehensive with full explanations, headers, and supporting context | "Hi Sarah, I've completed a thorough review of the Q1 report. Below is a comprehensive analysis..." |
Custom Instructions
Add specific behavioral instructions in the free-text field (up to 5,000 characters). Examples:
- "Always sign emails with 'Best regards, John Doe'"
- "I prefer bullet points over paragraphs"
- "Never schedule or suggest meetings before 10 AM"
- "When drafting emails to executives, use a more formal tone regardless of my general style preference"
- "I'm based in London but work with US teams - be mindful of time zones"
- "For research tasks, always include source links"
- "Don't send emails without checking with me first via chat"
Custom instructions customize your PA's behavior but cannot override core safety guidelines, tool restrictions, or organizational policies. Instructions that conflict with safety rules are automatically ignored.
Data Access
Grant your PA access to your Microsoft 365 data. These permissions are entirely under your control and can be changed at any time from PA Hub > Settings.
| Permission | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Mailbox | No access / Read-only / Read & write | Controls whether the PA can monitor your personal inbox and draft or send emails from it |
| Calendar | On / Off | Allows the PA to read your calendar for scheduling context and meeting preparation |
| Contacts | On / Off | Allows the PA to search your contact list |
| OneDrive | On / Off | Allows the PA to read files in your OneDrive for Business |
| Meetings | On / Off | Allows the PA to access your Teams meeting transcripts to extract action items and tasks |
Selecting "Read & write" for your primary mailbox allows your PA to create draft replies in your personal mailbox. The PA saves them as drafts by default and will not send them automatically unless you specifically instruct it to in your custom instructions.
Step 7: Review and Activate
Review all your selections and configure your PA's schedule before activation.
Configuration Summary
The review screen displays a read-only summary of everything you have configured: your profile, goals, selected tools, personalization choices, and data access settings. Review these to confirm everything is correct. You can use the Back button to return to any previous step and make changes.
Schedule Settings
| Setting | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Wake-up Frequency | Once a day / Twice a day / Three times a day / Four times a day | Twice a day |
| Weekend Work | Allow the PA to work on weekends | Off |
| Summary Reports | No summaries / Daily summary / After each cycle | Daily summary |
| Summary Channel | Email / In-app notification / Both | In-app notification |
Your PA also responds immediately when it receives an email at its shared mailbox address, a chat message from you, or a manual "Wake Up Now" request, regardless of the scheduled frequency.
Wake-Up Schedule
Your PA distributes its scheduled wake-ups evenly across the working hours configured by your administrator:
| Frequency | Typical Schedule (9 AM - 5 PM example) |
|---|---|
| Once a day | 9:00 AM |
| Twice a day | 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM |
| Three times a day | 9:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 3:00 PM |
| Four times a day | 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 3:00 PM |
Activation
Click Activate Personal Assistant to complete setup. The system will:
- Create your PA agent with all your configured settings
- Set up your selected goals and tool assignments
- Create an email subscription on the PA's shared mailbox for real-time email triggers
- Trigger the PA's first wake-up cycle immediately
- Redirect you to the PA Hub Dashboard
A success notification confirms: "Your Personal Assistant has been activated!"
If activation fails (for example, due to a network error or the shared mailbox being unavailable), all changes are rolled back automatically. You can safely retry by clicking the activation button again. If the problem persists, contact your administrator.
After Activation
Once your PA is active:
- Visit the PA Hub to monitor activity, manage goals, and chat with your PA
- Your PA begins working on your goals according to the configured schedule
- You can modify any setting from PA Hub > Settings at any time
- Send your PA an email at its shared mailbox address to make requests outside of scheduled wake-ups
- Chat with your PA directly from the PA Hub for immediate responses
Troubleshooting
Setup Email Not Received
If you did not receive the setup email:
- Check your spam or junk folder
- Navigate directly to the PA section in Control Bridge - you will be redirected to the setup wizard automatically
- Contact your administrator to confirm your PA has been provisioned
Activation Fails
If the activation step fails:
- Check your internet connection and try again
- If the shared mailbox is no longer available (it may have been assigned to another agent during your setup), contact your administrator
- If you see an error about your PA being deactivated, your administrator may have made changes during your setup - contact them for more information
Administrator Changed Settings During Setup
If your administrator modifies PA settings while you are in the wizard (for example, removing an available tool), you will see a message explaining the change. Refresh your wizard to see the updated configuration.