5ish ways not to fail your users - Intranet Now 2017 presentation
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There are a number of factors to ensure the success of your digital projects. This presentation specifically discusses intranet success factors, and what you can do to make sure your users are at the centre of your digital project.
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5ish ways not to fail your users - Intranet Now 2017 presentation
- 1. 5ish ways not to fail your users WHAT IâD DO BETTER NEXT TIME @lisariemers #IntranetNow
- 2. @lisariemers Original source â Lippitt, M., 1987, The Managing Complex Change Model, Enterprise Management #IntranetNow
- 4. WIIFU? WHATâS IN IT FOR US? AND THE USERS? @lisariemers #IntranetNow Vision Skills Incentives Resources s Plan
- 5. WIIFM? SO WHATâS IN IT FOR ME? @lisariemers #IntranetNow Vision Skills Incentives Resources s Plan
- 6. MVP WHAT IS A MINIMUM âVIABLEâ PRODUCT ANYWAY? @lisariemers #IntranetNow Vision Skills Incentives Resources s Plan
- 7. WAYMISH? WHY ARE YOU MAKING IT SO HARD FOR ME TO USE THIS SITE? @lisariemers #IntranetNow Vision Skills Incentives Resources s Plan
- 8. It doesnât work for me ACCESSIBILITY, COMPATIBILITY, NETWORK @lisariemers #IntranetNow Vision Skills Incentives Resources s Plan
- 9. I canât use it THIS PICTURE LOOKS FINE TO ME⌠@lisariemers #IntranetNow Vision Skills Incentives Resources s Plan
- 10. Whose responsibility is it anyway? NOTHING TO DO WITH ME⌠@lisariemers #IntranetNow Vision Skills Incentives Resources s Plan
- 11. So what DOES success look like? WELL, IT DEPENDS⌠@lisariemers #IntranetNow
- 12. Potential success metrics ⢠Subjective - If the CEO likes it? Satisfaction surveys? ⢠User behaviour - Visits/views/interactions/contributions ⢠Benchmark - Against previous site and/or industry ⢠Efficiency - Time saved/calls reduced/servers removed ⢠Qualitative â anecdotes and tangible examples @lisariemers #IntranetNow
- 13. Itâs (probably) not as bad as you think SELL YOUR SUCCESSES @lisariemers #IntranetNow
- 14. The best intranet TICKED ALL THE BOXES? @lisariemers #IntranetNow
- 15. STAY IN TOUCH! @lisariemers #IntranetNow You are not alone
Editor's Notes
- Iâve worked in and around intranets and digital projects for several years and Iâve been reflecting on what has gone well, what didnât work so well, and what Iâd do better next time - the three questions to ask in any retrospective. The title of my talk is 5ish ways not to fail. It was nearly called 5ish ways to fail your intranet project â but Iâd already fallen into the trap of thinking of an intranet as a project, rather than an ongoing product which needs time, attention and nurturing to continue to evolve to meet the needs of its users.
- As I was comparing projects, I started drawing out a model, and then came across this in my LinkedIn feed. If youâre a change manager itâs something you may have seen before. There are endless variations of this model on the internet â the most common one cited is from a teacherâs conference (which, is interesting in itself and coincidentally is where I started too) but originates from Dr Mary Lippitt, Founder and President of Enterprise Management, Ltd back in 1987. Noone likes reinventing the wheel â so Iâve adapted this adaptation and will show how it applies to intranets.
- In my experience thereâs not (usually) just one point of failure in practice â but these are the elements needed to succeed. That includes having a strategy which links to business, owned at a sufficiently senior level, with the right mix of technical and comms skills (including leadership and advocacy), a business AND end user case, the tech, team and TIME and a plan to make it happen, including governance to make sure responsibilities are understood.
- Looking at the strategic vision and business incentives, why are we doing this in the first place? And how does that translate to meaningful use cases on your intranet? If you donât have any clearly defined, it may be an uphill struggle. Speak to your users and make sure theyâre involved in the process. I was once recruited as a community manager, with key objectives to âincrease engagementâ and âmonetise the networkâ for a super niche, closed (but external) community. A clear example of where the business objectives didnât match user needs. And it had become expensive, bloated and buggy. I closed the separate network site, keeping only the bits that WERE useful. Achieving future cost savings, and improving overall customer experience.
- Helping people understand HOW but more importantly WHY they should use your site is vital. Even the most seemingly engaged people in your organisation may need help understanding whatâs in it for them. <hands up whoâs on Facebook? Keep your hands up if you remember when you signed up to it. Keep your hands up if you did it after being either pestered or shown how to by someone you know? Iâm a pretty heavy user of social media now, but Iâm not an early adopter. I needed to hear from someone who already understood WHY Iâd want to bother before I signed up. You canât sit with everyone in your organisation. Go out and find your early adoptors, ask first for volunteers who will be your champions (or pioneers/disciples) and help you spread the word.
- You may have heard Agile evangelists enthuse about the Minimum. Viable. Product. Viable isnât just something that you can get away with, or the smallest piece of work that looks done from a distance. If your intranet launches with skeleton content and nothing of any use to anyone then people arenât likely to come back anytime soon. Prioritise those useful features, seed that content and donât stop after launch day.
- I once heard an excellent presentation when I was attending a sales conference about WAYMISH â why are you making it so hard for me. Whether youâre talking about customers buying your services or interacting with your intranet http://www.waymish.com/) make it as easy as possible for users to do the things they need most often â donât bury useful stuff past corporate content, as people will find a shortcut to get there, or go elsewhere. Pick a couple of top use cases, perhaps split between universal and something particularly dear to your sponsors to keep your budget - and make it as easy as possible to do those things.
- Whether itâs an ageing desktop, thin client or your CEOâs smartphone, know the tech youâre dealing with. Can users access it from their device? Engage IT early on to make sure you have the infrastructure to cope so that your tool is accessible to everyone, and where there are limitations that you canât change, plan how youâll get around them, ask awkward questions of your suppliers (or go back to the drawing board!)
- The horror of distorted imagery and multicolour text still haunts me⌠Do your content managers have digital understanding? Can they create and edit their content? Do they understand how to write for the web and use a spell check? Do they have the tools they need, and the training? Are you going to need an approval workflow or model? Is there a style guide? Consider the skills in your organisation, and plan accordingly!
- Who IS accountable for that departmentâs area anyway if they have messed up their content? Who SHOULD be issuing launch communications, and making sure the IT helpdesk knows whatâs coming? What do you do if someone is on leave, changes role, or leaves? The politics of projects that go across organisations and departments has the potential to de-rail your programme. Involve your key players early and often, agree a responsibility matrix and governance model that works â not just at a high level project plan, but who owns and is responsible for the product after go live. At a department, not just individual level.
- Success will depend entirely on your organisationâs objectives, your particular set-up and the KPIs that link with your strategy.
- Success may be entirely subjective â but there are ways you can prove if your intranet is successful. This isnât an exhaustive list, but a few starting points - if your CEO thinks it was a success then thatâs brilliant news for your project team, but is that still the case months on? Look at user behaviour â and measure it against your previous site, if you have access to that, along with industry benchmarks. There might be specific tasks or outcomes you can measure â or examples of shared information and equipment. Keep a note of them and share where possible! Real anecdotes can help tell your story, even when you might not have the stats to back it up just yet. The important thing is to get consensus what you ARE going to measure, and as early as possible, so you are able to gauge whether youâre meeting your objectives.
- Remember, when comparing your company to others youâre unlikely to find an exact match, so donât beat yourself up if the metrics donât seem as high. Donât be afraid to shout about your successesâ it may not come naturally. Recognise contributors, share successes with your superiors. If something hasnât gone so well, be open and transparent about what happened, and what youâre doing to fix or improve it. And aim not to do that next time!
- One of the best intranets I worked on met all the factors within the model. It was endorsed by CEO, owned by director, it wasnât simply a box-ticking exercise, but had a (revised) realistic time frame that allowed for internal approvals. I went out to present at lots of operational meetings, department meetings, making sure the intranet had a place on EVERYONEâs agenda. It had ownership before, during and after launch, without an end point, with some genuinely useful tools (site locator, people search and a brand new ESN to get excited about). Conversely, at the same organisation, an ideation platform didnât go so well â with a critical part missing â ME. Not me. But SOMEONE given the ownership, mandate and time to respond. The most popular idea ended up being âwe should all get a 10% pay-riseâ closely followed by âwe should all get another dayâs holidayâ with no justification. if you want to chat over lunch Iâd love to share my teaspoon theory
- I always felt as though I was the only one doing what I do as an intranet manager in the organisation. Events like this are great, to learn from people in a similar position â although stay connected with people inside. Make connections and keep talking â donât let yourself get isolated in a project bubble. Aim to get out to sites, phone, email, message, like and contribute to your own community to help your intranet flourish!