Comments on: Beware of using opinions to design an intranet

By: James Robertson

James Robertson — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:48:45 +0000

@Moria, all sounds great! This is exactly the sort of processes intranet teams should be using. As you indicate, while these projects do take some effort, they can go more smoothly due to the strong underpinning methodologies and frameworks. Good luck with the relaunch, I’ll look forward to hearing how it goes!

By: James Robertson

James Robertson — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:47:18 +0000

@Andrew, all great suggestions! I think the initial step of identifying project objectives is particularly important. Without this, intranet projects can become “rudderless”, shifting at the whim of stakeholder and user opinions.

By: Square Eyez » links for 2009-03-28

Square Eyez » links for 2009-03-28 — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:30:11 +0000

[...] Beware of using opinions to design an intranet (tags: intranets guidelines intranet) [...]

By: Moira Fraser

Moira Fraser — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:18:48 +0000

James, Thought-provoking post. We are currently in the middle of a redesign of our intranet using a Usability company to deliver a research based approach to the redesign. Our internet redesign is due to be released in about 6 weeks and that process seemed pretty smooth. It has been more challenging to deliver a good IA for the intranet, as opinions are more strongly held. So far, we have done an open card sort and a closed card sort exercise and we are about to create a wireframe to test. It is interesting to see what a variety of views there can be about where things belong.

By: Matt Moore

Matt Moore — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:26:24 +0000

I’m very taken with the work of Ellen Di Resta & Sean Howard in the related area of understanding consumer needs: http://www.craphammer.ca/2009/02/the-latent-truths.html

Intranet needs could be split into explicit, tacit & latent.

The unreliability of self-reported opinions in market research & product development is well-known and a lot of the same issues apply to intranets…

By: Andrew Wright

Andrew Wright — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:14:51 +0000

It’s an interesting topic James…I guess in a way you asking how do you balance keeping the stakeholders happy with delivering a valuable intranet (both important goals).

In my experience when it comes to intranet redesigns almost every stakeholder has an opinion about what is should look like (stakeholders usually include the project sponsor, senior managers representing the business, IT, internal comms, marketing and of course, the end users). This is a good thing because it means they are engaged. However, quite often these groups have their own agenda and sometimes it’s a case of the wheel that squeaks the loudest getting the most grease. Sometimes to the detriment of other less vocal groups.

The big challenge I have found is how to keep the stakeholders happy (very important since they are paying for the project) while at the same time providing a solution that provides a real benefit to the whole organisation. Don’t get me wrong, these goals are not necessarily at odds – just sometimes the focus of the redesign can be influenced in a way that does not necessarily provide the biggest benefit.

The approaches you have suggested – needs analysis, usability and information architecture – are very helpful for providing a structure around implementing the redesign.

I have also found the following to be very useful in building focussed teams that deliver valuable solutions:

* Set clear, measurable, and agreed objectives at the beginning of the project. All redesign efforts are then aimed at acheiving these goals. Some examples include, reduce the number of calls to the internal help centre, reduce the time it takes to process a customer enquiry, increase the level of employee enagagement (can be measured using Hewitt survey), increase the number of people who use the intranet
* obtain intranet case studies from other organisations to support your objectives – Jakob Nielson’s 10 best intranet reports provide some good examples as does your innovation awards
* prototype asap- it’s not until people see something that they become truly engaged (I was once involved in a project where it was 5 months before we even had a home page to discuss – way too long!).