- A look at Melbourne Water’s new SharePoint 2013 intranet
- Why engagement is important to your project
- A brief overview of tools and techniques to engage your staff in the intranet build
- Tips for success
Rebecca JacksonDigital and Visual Communicator / Microsoft MVP
Engaging staff in your intranet rebuild (Ark Intranets Strategy and Design)
1. Engaging staff in your intranet rebuild
Rebecca Jackson
Social Media Manager, Melbourne Water
@_rebeccajackson #intranetsaus
2. 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
3. Agenda
• Overview of our project
• Why bother with engagement
• How you can engage your organisation
• Tips for success
5. 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
6. The old intranet
• Key issues:
– Technology end of life
– Lack of innovation
– Under-resourced and under funded
– Ownership/governance confusion
– Out of date content
8. The roadmap
• Project:
• New platform
• Governance
• Up-to-date content
• Improved usability
• Post project:
• Collaboration
• Social networking
• Mobile
• Forms
25. 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
26. 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
27. Personas
• Represent your typical intranet
users
• Basis for design decisions
• Quick reference to user
perspective
• Tool when talking to project
stakeholders
32. Usability testing
• Users follow scenarios
• Issues are recorded
• Where practical, worked
into development or the
upgrade path
33. User acceptance testing
• Project team follows formal
scripts
• Users do ‘exploratory testing’
• They become familiar with the
system
• Find issues that scripts don’t
41. Recap – Why bother with engagement
• It’s their intranet
• Supports a solid business case
• Early buy-in leads to project success
• Different perspectives
42. Recap – How to engage
• Requirements gathering
• Business Representative Group
• Personas
• Information architecture
• Usability testing
• User acceptance testing
43. 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
44. Thank you for listening
• Twitter: @_rebeccajackson
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccajljackson
• Blog: rebeccajacksonblogs.wordpress.com
Editor's Notes
Primary reason we build, redevelop and improve on intranets is for staff.
Intranets support business processes, bring staff together, make their jobs easier (ref essential intranets).
An intranet built without engaging staff, might have a purpose but is unlikely to serve core staff needs.
One of the hardest tasks with an intranet build or redevelopment is the business case, getting the funding.
Starting with user research can help to identify areas of quick win or big bang for buck.
Finding where efficiencies can be gained, what peoples issues are, is the starting point for your project.
Compelling evidence and strong figures will speak to senior executives and assist in getting the resources required to build or improve.
While doing a huge unveiling of the intranet and surprising staff with a dazzling new system might sound great for marketing, from a change management perspective it’s a big risk.
By involving people in the project early
A project team can get a bit of project tunnel vision
If not for professionals, ensure time/resources to DIY
If you are asking people for their time, you need to be clear exactly what you need them for.
You should also be really clear what you DON’T need them for.
Feed them and they will come
Meme of the day
Chicken chilli zilla
Feel free to jump into the Yammer group to ask questions
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