intranets and intranet projects - a few ideas and practical things learned

;) A sort of an introduction to what intranets are all about, isn’t it?

A few practical things learned in intranet

projectsJonas Söderström

EuroIA 2013 • EdinburghA few practical things that might be of use to you, if you’re in an intranet project.

@jonas_blind_hen#intranets#euroia13

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1994 -

1977-

I was once an Editor and an Art Director ... but since 94 I’ve been working with the (then early) web and it systems. I’ve done a lot of intranet projects ...

2013I’m now focusing on the dismal state of internal, corporate, business systems - the frustrating it systems countless people have to use at work. Like this. And yes, this is from 2013 - not from 1995.

stupidsystem.org

I occacionally write about it at this blog, stupidsystem.org.

It’s not just from a design / UX / IA perspectiv - I try to take a broader view. Bad it systems are a major cause of stress in the work place; and as such a real health issue. Bad it systems have also lead to a widespread ”comman-and-control”-culture in the workplace; in extreme cases leading to a new ”digital taylorism”.

IntranetsInternal news

Tools Social features

ArchivesLibraries Databases

But let’s talk about intranets.

The term ”intranet” has always been a bit hard to de!ne. It’s most often a smorgasborg of content, tools, services.

Digital workplace

It’s now common to speak about ”The Digital Workplace” instead of ”intranet”, and there are some very good reasons for that.

On the other hand, a ”digital workplace” can actually be a lot of things – like this driver’s seat of a common shuttle bus. It has no less than 11 digital devices, each with a separate screen - and of course different ways of interaction, and information representation and structure.

Here we se a new, daunting task for IAs – managing the collection of different digital devices. And this is not going away; there will only be more and more. If you’re interested, this example is on the blog stupidsystem.org.

Intranetsare tricky

So let’s just stick with the intranet label for this presentation. Here are a few things I’ve learned from intranet projects, that I hope might be useful to you.

Intranet’s are tricky. They’re made up of two of the strangest ingredients there is:

Organisations and people.

Be prepared for...

So if you enter an intranet project, here are a few things to be prepared for.

The HiddenCivil War

IT Comm.

Intranet projects are often the focus for internal politics.

I’ve had so many cases where we’ve been asked to do a project - and then only some time into it, we’ve realised that there was a full civil war between some departments over the issue. And that we had been brought in just for that reason and placed in-between those warring factions. It could be it and communications, for example – or even others.

That’s a tough spot - so be aware that you might end up there. You’ll have to decide: should we negotiate peace or a truce - or do we take a stand? In any case, expect a lot of #ak.

Another thing that seem to be endemic to organisations.

It’s very common that there’s one department, that think they are so special that they don’t have to play by the same rules as the other.

They EVEN claim, that they’re more important than the organisation as a whole! ”Our brand is bigger than the entire organisation’s!”

When working with the government’s intranet - it was the State Department. With the agency for historic buildings, it was the oldest castle, who insisted that were !ner than even the Royal Castle. Whith the Disaster managment authority, it was the department for Chemical risks - for no clear reason.

Be prepared for vicious and complex internal politics in #intranets projects #euroia13

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The Pictures Problem

Intranets are typically run by word people. They have little understanding for pictures; indeed, they are often very suspicious of them. Pictures seem unclear and possible to mis-interpret. And they’re expensive, too. ”Best not to have them!”

So intranets typically have - no budget for pictures.- no person responsible for even thinking about how to use pictures.

Too many #intranets lack pictures. Convince managers that they are important. #euroia13

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Try to explain that pictures are great tools, that they can make people understand, and that the intranet should have both a budget for pictures and a special role responsible for pictures.

The Calendar Mistake

”We must have a calendar on the intranet”

It’s very common that people say this.

1 Mon 2 Tue 3 Wed 4 Thu 5 Fri




•Perth: Kickoff •HQ: Board

•Bath: Meeting

•Ayr: B-Group

•Bath: Social

They picture a module like this on the !rst page, and separate pages for each day and item, and so on.

Seems legit.Or? Doesn’t everyone have their own Outlook calendar anyway?

Observere users

To !nd out, we turned to our core activity:

in the wildObserving users in their environment.

Did they ever look in the calendar on the intranet?

Never.They never looked in the intranet calendar, because all their important meetings were already in their personal calendars.

They did USE the calendar though - but only to put things IN it.

The calendar was advertising.

We’re doing things up

here!

It turned out, the calendar was a way for people to advertise what they were doing to other people in the organisation. For example, the branch office far away from the HQ wanted to show the rest of the organisation ”We’re doing cool and important things up here too!”

That’s a legitimate need - but the calendar was de!nitely not a good way to solve it, since nobody really looked in it.

Personal calendars could certainly have been integrated in the intranet – but again, that was not the real problem: the problem was that some parts of the organisation felt (in general, correctly) that they got too little attention.

The Journalism Solution:Make a ”news” story

about it.Or put in social.

What we recommended was: use journalism! Make a ”news” story about it. Or put it in the social component of the intranet, if there is one.

Question every ”solution”. Try to find the real drivers

behind every customer requirement. #euroia

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The Vanity Effect

So I told you people and organsations are tricky. In another intranet project, we had the completely opposite problem.

University

At the university, where the departments had a lot of academic freedom, the problem was the opposite. Professors and scientist never told the central administration when they made public appearances, gave talks to the public, took part in in discussions.

Editors got reports about that afterwards, through articles in local media.

The central editors started to make copies of all such local stories, and send them to the professors with a kind note. Quite often, professors where surprised that a) there had been an article about them, b) that the university knew that, and c) that there even was something like a central communications department. Like all humans, they we’re #attered when they realised that they had been seen.

After that, they were much more likely to tell the communication department in advance if they where going somewhere.

The Personalisation Peril

New budget

Tokyo office open

Gym closed

Change of phonesLocation, role, department,

country, interests

Location, role, department,

country, interests

”Personalisation” can mean a lot of things, but often it’s something like this managers have in mind: matching information with users by means of metadata of both.

New budget

Tokyo office open

Gym closed


country, interests

This user sees these published news items, documents, or whatever ...

New budget

Tokyo office open

Gym closed

Change of phones Location, role, department,

country, interests

And this sees other items. We were brought into an organzation were they were quite angry.

”The tagging system in the CMS doesn’t work, !x it!” They were convinced there was some kind of structural problem; like metadata not inherited properly through the system.

We doubted this was the case. We said ”we’d like to speak to the users and editors, and watch how they work”. At !rst the client refused stubbornly. ”Just !x it! No need to talk to anyone!” After long negotiaons, she agreed and took us to one of the departments. And there ...

New budget

Tokyo office open

Gym closed

Change of phones

?How does the taggingof news

Lisa, 19

e3000/ Flickr


country, interests

... we found that the working intranet editor - in charge of tagging news and documents - was the most recent employee, lowest in rank, a 19-year old girl.The other people in the comm dep were doing big important thing like strategy. No one had explained to Lisa what the tagging really did. And anyway, she had very little knowledge of the scope of the company’s business - what was important to whom.

New budget

Tokyo office open

Gym closed

Change of phones

!It only takes one mistake


country, interests Lisa, 19

e3000/ FlickrAnd it only takes one mistake from Lisa, when the user in department X doesn’t get to see the thing that he needed to - for his trust to be broken.

New budget

Tokyo office open

Gym closed

Change of phones

?What did I not get to see


country, interests

The Filtering Fallacy

But there is an alternative to !ltering.

The High-Lighting Alternative

New budget

Tokyo office open

Gym closed


country, interests

Instead, highlight. So if these are the things that !ts this guys pro!le -

New budget

Tokyo office open

Gym closed


country, interests

and highlight it.

New budget

Tokyo office open

Gym closed


country, interests

Something that can be done in several ways.

New budget

Tokyo office open

Gym closed


country, interests

A mistake won’t be such an issue

If you’re not dealing with organisations with millions of people and vast amount of news, it is a possible solution. We’re now generally good at scanning a stream of items - think Facebook. Highligting would help us to !nd the most relevant.

Who will handle your elegant solution? Make

sure they’re trained for it. #euroia

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The Buzzword Trap

Manager

interactive multimedia

socialpersonalised

drives innovation portal

”Personalisation” is a typical buzzword managers, in particular, will use when they describe their goals for the intranet - and without necessarily understanding exactly what it is.

These things may be good - but managers often have in#ated expectations of what they think an intranet should be, and what it should accomplish. Like these. Lately, I’ve heard ”drive innovation” a lot ...

Eole/ Flickr.. and other high-#ying words. But is it realistic?

So can anyone guess what company this might be?

slimmer_jimmer/ FlickrYes, IKEA, of course.I was doing intranet work for IKEA.

When entering the IKEA HQ, I noticed a poster on the wall. Camers were actually forbidden, but I managed to take a sneak picture of it - it said...

It’s a sneak photo, so it’s not that great, but the headline was ...

Design for people

And the copy said ...

At IKEA, the first thing we design

is always the prize tag.

It turned out the motto wasn’t really a secret - it was published in that year’s IKEA catalouge (so in fact, it could hardly be more public).

But the thought was brilliant: customers are under constraints - economical constraints, and that is where we (=IKEA) start the design process.

And I instantly realised ”Hey, I can use this!” So I brought the picture I took to the workshop.

Employees do have to”buy” intranet use, but...

...what are they paying with?When all the buzzwords were #owing in, I could turn the force of their own insight against them, and remind them that even their own employees are under constraints. Not money, but ...

Their work hours!

... their time!

Co-workers, employees, have a lot of things to do - their regular work: servicing customers, managing the shop, running the warehouse etc.

How much time ...

?

So, instead of having a discussion about all the things the ”intranet” might be, we asked them ..

... should an employee spend on the intranet each day?

How much time should a shop manager NOT spend with the customers? 30 minutes each day? 15 minutes? 5 minutes?

This proved a much better starting point for the discussion about functions and content.

Yes, you may argue that in some cases, the ”real work” IS ”on the intranet” - and it could de!nitely be on screen, but probably in some kind of special application (that really sucks). But then we come back to the de!nition of intranet as the sum or the parts, so let’s leave that.

How much time should an employee

spend on the intranet? #euroia

#intranets

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How much time should an employee spend on his intranet or digital workplace? It might well be that the answer is ”8 hours”, a full working day. That’s ok.

But just ask the question. Get the time budget, get the constraints. And don’t just ask the mangers – check it with the actual users. What is their real work load?

jIA-jitsu

Anyway, the concept of using their own words against them is since then called ... jIA-jitsu.

The Sunday Edition

So a !nal thing I’d like to share.

This was a merger of two organisations, where two old intranets should be replaced by one, new.

Business Impact Mapping

We’re using a method called Business Impact Mapping, that gives a good structure for !nding out what the real goals should be - not the buzzwords.

Gojko Adzicimpactmapping.org

Gojko Adzic has a great book about it that I highly recommend.

What impact?

?

So we interviewed management and stakeholders to !nd out: what impact do you want from the new common intranet?

Create a common,

shared culture

Work faster and smarter

ImpactTwo strong desired impacts

There were two strong desired impacts: efficiency and culture.

Those are two quite different beasts. So we tried to !nd out, how can we achieve both those things?

Two kinds of information

Let me step back for that for a moment, and focus on the information in the organisation - the ”internal news” part of the intranet.

We could say that there are two kinds of information.

Simple messages ...

There are relatively simple messages ...

Note: Time reports before 12.00 today!

... where the intended reaction is direct and uncomplicated

Okay, okay, I’ll do it

now

... like these. ”Your new parking permits can be collected at the receptions.” ”Window cleaning this weekend, move your desks away from the windows!” Things to do rather quickly, or ignore, or perhaps just store in your head as facts.

Others ...

But in other cases...

...when we want people to reflect, change, innovate ...

Wait, then we should

be doing ...

Surge in economy in the East gives new possibilities

... we wan’t people to think, to re#ect, perhaps change their ways.

These are two rather differnet modes, two different models about messages and outcomes.

So we combined these two ideas, the two wanted impacts and the two kind of informations.

2 intranets for 1The Intranet has the usual pro!le

Monday to Thursday.

This is the concept we presented.

Nya pensionsreglerDet har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt litteratur på latin från 45 år före år 0, och är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard McClintock, en professor i latin på Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia, översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden, consectetur, från ett stycke Lorem Ipsum och fann dess ursprung

Uppdaterad rutin X-37Genom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur. Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.

Ny tillsynsmyndighet 1 juliSkall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum bör man försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på internet tenderar att repetera Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.

VERKTYGAgressoHeroma

Katalog+Tidrapport

TJÄNSTEREgenlönÄrenden

InställningarFavoriter

DRIFT-STATUS

STOPP 14-15

KALENDERSkall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum b

ör man försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på

internet tenderar att repetera Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.

TOOLSEconomySAP/R3

DatabaseTime report

SERVICESTo-do’sTickets

SettingsFavorites

SYSTEM STATUS

DOWN 8-12

Prag office openedSkall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum bör man försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på internet tenderar att repetera Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.

New budgetDet har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt litteratur på latin från 45 år före år 0, och är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard McClintock, en professor i latin på Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia, översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden, consectetur, från ett stycke Lorem Ipsum och fann dess ursprung

Gym closedGenom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur. Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.

Monday to thursday, we publish quick, actionable items. You just need to check the headlines, and see if it’s relevant to you.





Katalog+Tidrapport



DRIFT-STATUS

STOPP 14-15




TOOLSEconomySAP/R3

DatabaseTime report


SettingsFavorites

SYSTEM STATUS

DOWN 8-12

Change of phonesGenom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur. Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.


New budgetDet har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt litteratur på latin från 45 år före år 0, och är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard McClintock, en professor i latin på Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia, översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden, consectetur, från ett stycke Lorem Ipsum och fann dess ursprung

There’s access to the most important tools ...





Katalog+Tidrapport



DRIFT-STATUS

STOPP 14-15




TOOLSEconomySAP/R3

DatabaseTime report


SettingsFavorites

SYSTEM STATUS

DOWN 8-12

New painting acquired

Change of phonesGenom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur. Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.


Det har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt litteratur på latin från 45 år före år 0, och är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard McClintock, en professor i latin på Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia, översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden, consectetur, från ett stycke Lorem Ipsum .

And items just moves down in the #ow, like your standard Facebook page. Check what’s new, then go on with your work - wheter it’s on the shop #oor or on the computer screen, doing invoices or whatever.





Katalog+Tidrapport



DRIFT-STATUS

STOPP 14-15




TOOLSEconomySAP/R3

DatabaseTime report


SettingsFavorites

SYSTEM STATUS

DOWN 8-12

New painting acquiredDet har sina rötter i ett stycke klassiskt litteratur på latin från 45 år före år 0, och är alltså över 2000 år gammalt. Richard McClintock, en professor i latin på Hampden-Sydney College i Virginia, översatte ett av de mer ovanliga orden, consectetur, från ett stycke Lorem Ipsum .

CEO to leave in DecemberGenom att studera användningen av dessa ord i klassisk litteratur. Lorem Ipsum kommer från styckena 1.10.32 och 1.10.33 av "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Ytterligheterna av ont och gott) av Cicero, skriven 45 före år 0. Boken är en avhandling i teorier om etik, och var väldigt populär under renäsanssen.

Window cleaningSkall man använda långa stycken av Lorem Ipsum bör man försäkra sig om att det inte gömmer sig något pinsamt mitt i texten. Lorem Ipsum-generatorer på internet tenderar att repetera Lorem Ipsum-texten styckvis efter behov, något som gör denna sidan till den första riktiga Lorem Ipsum.

But on Friday ...

The view from our new Tokyo office is breathtaking. And so are the opportunities of the Japanese market – if we manage to give the right kind of support to our colleagues at the new

... We get this! A completely different design and a completely different content.

This is the day when we publish stories intended to create that common culture, the ”sense of us”. Intended to make people re#ect.

This is the day when it’s ok to spend 10 minutes to read, to think, to dive into it.

TOOLSEconomySAP/R3

DatabaseTime report


SettingsFavorites

SYSTEM STATUS

DOWN 8-12

The view from our new Tokyo office is breathtaking. And so are the opportunities of the Japanese market – if we manage to give the right kind of support to our colleagues at the new

And tools are still avialable.

”Friday edition”Visual

Think

Take time

Different

It need not actually be every Friday. It could be once every two weeks, or once a month.

”Weekday edition”Fast

As little as possible

Do your work!

The difference is the important thing.

Monday through Thursday: ”simple news” are crowdsourced, created by co-workers/part-time

editors

Editorial organisation

It also solved the problem with resources and how to split up work, centralisation vs decentralisation. The editors didn’t have time to do everything.

• Central intranet editors are responsible for ”Friday” material

• Can be planned ahead

• Professional journalists – and photographers! - could be used

• Editors can create expectations with teasers from the coming Friday edition

• "This Friday: Don’t miss the report on our new office!"

”Friday edition”

And a whole new way to work for the editors: planning ahead, work with really good photographers - and by creating expectations.

Channels”Weekday

edition””Fridayedition”

You could use the ideas in other ways.

Maybe it’s about different channels, like this.

Channels”Weekday

edition””Fridayedition”

Or this.

Leverage different designs for different content and goals. #euroia #intranets

Did we try it?

Yes, and as the !rst airplane of the Wright brothers, it didn’t quite #y.

Mostly because we had a bad graphic designer, who didn’t make the difference big enough.

But the planning part worked out very well.

Continuous updates

Digital media usually brings us continous updates. Which often is a good thing.

But something is also lost.

RYTHMRYTHMRYTHM

RYTHMRYTHM

RYTHM

Rythm is an essential concept for human work and life - from the sea shanties- to the rythm of the seasons- or the day. That’s lost when we just have continous #ow.

Nah, I look at the intranet in the morning at 7, then in the

evening at 5 pm. I’ve a business to run in between!

And guess what? The users had invented their own rythms anyway.

My lessons learned• Be prepared for internal tensions or strife

• Make the case for pictures, + budget, + editor

• Observe users to !nd out their true needs and drivers

• Think about content types in terms of impact

• Leverage the power of different designs to different content

Thanks!Mail:[email protected]

Twitter:@Jonas_Blind_Hen

Site:stupidsystem.org

Speakerdeck:Jonas Söderström

Pelle Sten/ Flickr

intranets and intranet projects - a few ideas and practical things learned

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