Engaging staff in your intranet rebuild

Rebecca Jackson

Social Media Manager, Melbourne Water

@_rebeccajackson #intranetsaus

The bit about me

• Social Media Manager at Melbourne Water

• Business lead for the Intranet Redevelopment

• Sometime sketcher

• Find me on:

– Twitter: @_rebeccajackson

– Blog: rebeccajacksonblogs.wordpress.com

– www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccajljackson

Agenda

• Overview of our project

• Why bother with engagement

• How you can engage your organisation

• Tips for success

Overview of our project

Melbourne Water

• Victorian government owned

• 850-2500 staff

• $9.4 billion in assets

• Looks after

– water supply catchments

– removal / treatment of sewage

– rivers, creeks, major drainage

The old intranet

• Key issues:

– Technology end of life

– Lack of innovation

– Under-resourced and under funded

– Ownership/governance confusion

– Out of date content

The roadmap

• Project:

• New platform

• Governance

• Up-to-date content

• Improved usability

• Post project:

• Collaboration

• Social networking

• Mobile

• Forms

The new intranet

• SharePoint 2013

• Launched in December 2014

Why bother with engagement

It’s their intranet

Supports a solid business case

Early buy-in leads to project success

Different perspectives

Beppie CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 via Flickr

How you can engage your organisation

Requirements gathering

• It’s their intranet, you need to know what they NEED

• Builds initial awareness about the project

• Do it through

– Focus groups

– Surveys

– Interviews

Business Representative Group

• Representation from across the business

• Keep updated about the project

• Input into key project tasks

• Quick access to what the business needs

Personas

• Represent your typical intranet users

• Basis for design decisions

• Quick reference to user perspective

• Tool when talking to project stakeholders

Personas

Natalie the

New Starter

Anita the

Author

Karen the

Knowledge Worker

Peter the

People Manager

Austin

the Operator

Show and tell sessions

• Take every opportunity to talk about the project

• Show designs and progress

• Don’t be afraid about feedback

Information Architecture

• Based on clear principles

• Users do the work

– Card sorting

– Tree testing

Usability testing

• Users follow scenarios

• Issues are recorded

• Where practical, worked into development or the upgrade path

User acceptance testing

• Project team follows formal scripts

• Users do ‘exploratory testing’

• They become familiar with the system

• Find issues that scripts don’t

Tips for success

Ask what they need

not what they wantDuncan Hull CC BY 2.0 via Flickr

Involve early, and throughout

Budget for design activities

LendingMemo.com CC BY 2.0 via Flickr

Be clear on expectations

Mimiandeunice.com

Treats go a long wayMatt McGee CC BY-ND 2.0 via Flickr

Make it fun

Hyperbole and a half

Recap – Why bother with engagement

• It’s their intranet

• Supports a solid business case

• Early buy-in leads to project success

• Different perspectives

Recap – How to engage

• Requirements gathering

• Business Representative Group

• Personas

• Information architecture

• Usability testing

• User acceptance testing

Recap – Tips for success

• Ask what they need… not what they want

• Involve early and throughout

• Budget for design activities

• Be clear on expectations

• Treats go a long way

• Make it fun

Thank you for listening

• Twitter: @_rebeccajackson

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccajljackson

• Blog: rebeccajacksonblogs.wordpress.com