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How we work (1): intranet needs analysis and strategy

Written by James Robertson, published August 1, 2008

Categorised under: Intranets

At Step Two Designs, we do a lot of work relating to intranet strategy and management. While the hundreds of articles we’ve published are a very visible manifestation of this, we’ve realised that not everyone knows how this is reflected in our consulting practice.

So this is the first of a series of blog posts which help to explain how we work, what’s involved, and what our clients can expect to receive.

Most organisations have an intranet, but few have fully delivered the hoped-for benefits. Intranet teams, responsible for maintaining these sites, can find it hard to work out where to go next, and how to improve their sites.

The most common piece of work we do is to conduct a “needs analysis” project to review the current state of intranets and organisational needs. From this, we help teams develop a concrete roadmap for improvements, along with an overall strategy. This is how it typically works:

What we do

  1. Project initiation and familiarisation: we spend time working with you to plan out the project, who to interview, as well as building an understanding of the current intranet and organisational context.
  2. Preliminary planning session: at the outset of the project we sit down with you to identify short-term improvements that can be made to the intranet. This gives an immediate list of priorities that can be tacked while the project unfolds, building momentum and making sure that life doesn’t go “on hold” while waiting for the final recommendations.
  3. Staff interviews and workplace observation: 5-6 days are spent with a wide range of staff, focusing on those in operational and front-line roles (information “consumers” rather than “producers”). Using a mix of interviews and workplace observation, this rapidly builds up a good understanding of staff needs and issues.
  4. Analysis: following the general rule of thumb that the same amount of time is required for analysis as was devoted to the research, we review the outcomes of the interviews and observation to uncover overall trends and key issues.
  5. Team debrief: sitting down with your team, we work through the findings of the research, outlining the key issues and recommendations.
  6. Planning session: using the 6×2 methodology, we will work with you to identify a detailed plan of attack for the coming six months, along with a general direction for the six months following that.
  7. Strategy report: a succinct strategy report is produced, explicitly targeted at the stakeholder and senior management audience. This gives an overall ’state of the nation’, highlights business benefits, and explains the planned roadmap of activities.
  8. Ongoing mentoring: to ensure that you get the greatest value from the project, we generally allocate ongoing mentoring time, such as spending one day a month with your team for 6-12 months. We have found this to be one of the most effective (and enjoyable) ways of working with intranet teams.

(Note: this is our standard approach, and we routinely adapt to fit specific circumstances or budgets. For example, where needed we’ll slot in in-house training, strategy workshops with stakeholders, or a final presentation to senior management.)

What you will get

  • A fresh perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of the current intranet.
  • Insight into the role that the intranet should be playing within the organisation.
  • Detailed findings that can be used by the intranet team to guide planning, design and implementation.
  • Concrete roadmap for the coming six months.
  • Overall strategic direction for the site.
  • Strategy report targeted at stakeholders and senior management.
  • Ongoing support to ensure project success.

Follow-on activities

This piece of work focuses squarely on the strategy and management of the intranet. Once a concrete roadmap has been determined, there is likely to be some redesign work, or specific projects relating to key areas of the site. We can assist with these in either a consulting or mentoring role, if that is needed.

Key principles

Talking with staff who do the actual work is the most valuable part of this approach to intranet planning and strategy. Instead of asking staff what they want, we use structured methods to build a understanding of real-world practices, needs, issues and bottlenecks. Patterns then easily fall out that highlight where to focus intranet efforts.

It’s important to get the right balance between practical activities that can be done in the
short-term, and longer term strategic direction. The 6×2 methodology we’ve developed helps greatly with this, and it provides teams with a framework for planning and decision making.

We also take a strongly mentored approach wherever possible, to build up internal expertise and knowledge with
the intranet team. The challenges faced today will not be the same as those in a year, and it’s vital to give
the team the tools to keep growing and improving the site.

We don’t want to spend too long doing these projects. It simply doesn’t make sense to take six months to come up with a strategy, as the goal-posts will have moved in that time. Instead, we want to get as quickly as possible to a roadmap of activities that can be done by the intranet team, using the ongoing mentoring to help build momentum from there.

What allows us to be effective at this work is the huge breadth of experience we have with intranets. We’ve
seen it all before, and can draw upon the successes (and failures!) of other teams when making recommendations. We
also have a lot of methodologies and models that can be slotted in where valuable.

If you’d like to know more

At any given point we’re doing about half a dozen of these projects throughout Australia (and beyond). If you’d think this approach could be valuable in your organisation, please do drop us a line.