Comments on: What is the biggest mistake an intranet manager can make?

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:59:04 +0000

@Suzanne Burge – I work with a large team of library and information professionals and whilst they’re hugely skilled, they don’t represent all our intranet users. For example, they tend to have a much more sophisticated approach to search, are more comfortable with larger blocks of content and rely much more on indexes than our ‘average’ users.

By: David

David — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:01:43 +0000

@Suzanne Burge – Careful! “so I’d like to think we’re less likely to make the mistakes you describe”

I’m an information professional too and just because we know information does not always make us more apt to avoid mistakes in assessing users’ needs.

Indeed, with sincerity, what you have said, as I have quoted you, indicates to me that perhaps now is the time to examine whether your beliefs really are in fact true. People’s needs change faster then the information itself.

By: » Web teams, go meet your end-users - J. Boye » Blog

» Web teams, go meet your end-users - J. Boye » Blog — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:09:57 +0000

[...] You may also want to read a recent article by James’ colleague, Catherine Grenfell, who argues that the biggest mistake of an intranet manager is to use their personal web experience to drive intranet dec…. [...]

By: Suzanne Burge

Suzanne Burge — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:54:38 +0000

Catherine – I was interested to note that one discipline you didn’t mention as a source of intranet professionals is people like me – information professionals. We have considerable experience of how people use information, and expertise in structuring it to make it easily accessible. We’re also used to using the methods you mention in your article, particularly user needs and informal research, so I’d like to think we’re less likely to make the mistakes you describe.