tip 1: don’t think about the intranet · successful intranets help drive business value –so...
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Your Intranet Shopping List: Must Have Capabilities for your Modern, Intelligent IntranetA baker’s dozen of planning tips
90% of
intranets fail
to achieve
their initial
goals
Gartner: Traditional Intranets are Dead – Modern Intranets are alive and well (November 29, 2019)
Tip 1: Don’t think about the intranet
Don’t think about the intranet … think about the business
▪ What are the “big rocks” for our organization?
▪ Key elements of the organizational strategy
▪ How success is measured for the business as a whole
▪ Successful intranets help drive business value – so before you even think about the technology, think about the business!
Tip 2: It’s the big picture that matters: more than tech
Successful intranets and collaboration solutions have …
▪ A clear vision that describes what is important and how objectives will be achieved
▪ Fresh, engaging, accurate content▪ News and information that people need every day
… and only occasionally▪ Organized in a way that makes it easy to reliably
find when▪ I know what I want and I know where it is (browse)
▪ I know what I want and I don’t know where it is (search)▪ I don’t know what we have (browse and search)
▪ Governance – so people know they can trust the content, and everyone understands their responsibilities
▪ Shared ownership▪ Designated content owners/”curators” (data
stewards) accountable for content
▪ Search that works – because content is organized and governed
▪ Training for those who need it – especially content contributors – but easy to use for content consumers
▪ Task focus▪ Tools to help people get their jobs done – ideally
targeted to users based on role or location or membership in a group
▪ Data and information that informs key decisions and inspires new ideas
▪ Opportunities to connect and collaborate▪ Engage with team and colleagues▪ Find expertise when needed with comprehensive
employee profiles
▪ Ongoing attention to metrics to ensure that the digital workplace tools are used, useful, and provide value
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Usable, Useful, and Up-to-Date
Usable
• Friendly, with an engaging interface
• Easy to use
• Aligned with how work gets done
Useful
• Organized
• Personalized wherever possible
• Helpful, with relevant content for users across all departments
• Searchable and “browseable”
Up-to-Date
• Supported by clear ownership and responsibilities for content
management
• Governed
• Adaptable as needs change
Focus on experiences
Traditional intranet
Browse to find
Corporate news
FAQs
Department-based structure
Collection of web sites
Modern, intelligent intranet
Online communities
Search AND browse to find
My news and insights from around the
organization
Intelligent and social Q&A
Role/task-based portals and dashboards
Collection of experiences and services
Tip 3: Governance first!
“Governance first” is about key decisions
• Internal/External
Sharing
• Who can create sites?
Provisioning
• Are responsibilities built into job descriptions? If not, can they be?
Roles and Responsibilities
• Freshness dating!
• No more roach motels – where content checks in and never checks out!
Content Management
• Site Designs – embed training in templates
• Apply actions automatically when a site is associated to a hub site to ensure permissions, metadata, column types, and policies are applied consistently
• Send follow-up information with site creation workflow
• Training/adoption/governance “center”
• SharePoint Admin Center
Risk Mitigation
Good governance balances risk with outcomes – and the governance
decisions that you make should align with the outcomes you are trying to
achieve AND the business environment in which you operate.
Two resources for governance planning and delivery
Use these questions to guide your decisions. Review the “up
front” decisions early in your journey. Defer the others until you
are further along in your site architecture and intranet planning.
Tip 4: It’s iterative, but you need to plan the journey
Navigation is a journey … and so is your site architecture
▪ Bottom up - because each unit of work or topic gets a site)
▪ Top down - because planning navigation could mean connecting to individual sites, hubs, or pages (but usually NOT documents)
Use insights from content, business, and outcomes to plan navigation
• Key business processes
• Major projects
• Key business roles
• Key tasks or services
• Organizational units
Groups of related information
• What do users need to easily find?
• Key information for their job
Quick access to commonly needed tools
• Help place my work in the context of the organization
• Understand what is available in the intranet as a whole
Context
Do something visual to document and collect feedback
Mind mapping tool (or
PowerPoint or Visio)
Excel
Navigation labels matter! Each label is a promise to the reader.
Specific
• Tell people what they will find: 5 Tips for Improving Collaboration
Comprehensive
• Describe all the content - Policies & Procedures
Uniform
• All items are the same kind - News
Succinct
• Short and to the point - History
Substantial and Sincere
• No surprises, mutually exclusive - About Us, Contacts
• Easy to understand when read on their own
Familiar
• HR not “People on the Job”
Front-Loaded
• Company Information not “Information about our Company”
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/better-link-labels/
Tip 5: Until we get global nav, consider a navigator site
Global navigation is not yet available in Office 365
Do you need it (yet)?
Could a “navigator site” work? (e.g. Home Home)
Plan to have your Office 365 logo point to the
“navigator site.”
Add the navigator site to the Featured sites area of
the SharePoint Start page
Now, every site is 1-click away from global
navigation!
Tip 6: Plan your hub families … but allow them to be organic too
Hub before you sub
▪ Three “hubification” models▪ Function/Organization▪ Geography/Location▪ Portfolio
▪ New: Associated hubs
▪ Sites are not required to be part of a hub!
▪ There may be some obvious hubs – but you may also want to allow for some organic hubs (sites that become a family over time)
▪ Think about search experiences as a critical element of hub planning – because hubs create an automatic search scope
HR
Benefits
Pay and
Compensation
Talent
Acquisition
Performance
Management
Professional
Development
“Manager
Portal”
(restricted)
HR Team Site
(private)
https://aka.ms/PlanningSPhubsites
Inside
Austria
Austria
Finance
Austria
HR
Austria
Legal
Austria
Quality
Project
1
Project
2
Project
3
Project
4
Intranet
Modernization
Portfolio
Communication
Site Migration
Team
Team Site
Migration Team
Infrastructure
Upgrade Team
Examples: Engineering, HR, Legal, Product Line,
Division
Examples: Sales Regions, Location-based offices Examples: Related projects, Inactive
collections of sites (archives)
Tip 7: Metadata wars - just like cupcake wars but less tasty
Enterprise terms FTW▪ Plan enterprise term sets
▪ Locations▪ Regions
▪ Countries
▪ Offices
▪ Offices▪ Countries▪ Products
▪ Inline
▪ Pipeline
▪ NOT Document Types▪ Organizations often try and fail▪ Each part of the org has their own way of grouping content
▪ Enterprise Content Types? It depends …▪ Policy Center easier to manage than distributed policies (so one Policy content type in a single site collection)▪ Contract Center?▪ Proposal Center?▪ Think about what you need to do with the content – find all docs of a certain type, replicate a process on
multiple sites, etc. ▪ If you have a business outcome that needs them, yes, but …
Content type hub or scripted content types?
Content type hub:
• Pro: Manage and maintain in one place
• Cons:
• Hard to use if users can create their own doc libs that need to leverage
content types from the hub
• Can’t control the timing of propagation in Office 365
Use site designs to add shared content types and columns to
sites when they are created
• Pro: Values immediately added to the site when it is created
• Cons:
• Requires a site design script and template
• Content types and columns will share the same GUID, but they won’t be
synchronized. Script will need to be re-run to update values
Project Cortex inspired, but available to all
• Modernization of content type experiences
If you are going to use ANY type of shared metadata
▪ Plan on training
▪ Lots of training
▪ Refresher training
▪ Did I mention that Site Owners are going to need training?
Tip 8: Plan search experiences – don’t leave search to chance
Planning Search | Know your users and understand top tasks
▪ Out of the box: based on the Graph, personalized results
▪ Configure additional experiences:▪ Bookmarks for keywords▪ Q&A▪ Locations▪ Floorplans
▪ Specialized search experiences▪ Custom verticals (result sources and filters and refiners) https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-
search-blog/creating-custom-search-results-pages-in-sharepoint-online/ba-p/1141515▪ Modern Search Web Part https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/blogs/pnp-webcast-sharepoint-
framework-modern-search-web-part/▪ Custom connectors
▪ Key Resources▪ Microsoft Search in Bing Admin Essentials:
https://spdocs.blob.core.windows.net/search/Microsoft%20Search%20in%20Bing%20Admin%20Essentials.pdf▪ Microsoft Search Resources: https://resources.techcommunity.microsoft.com/microsoft-search/ - everything you
ever needed to know (including adoption kits in multiple languages, presentations, and information for admins)▪ What’s New and Next for Microsoft Search customization and development (Ignite 2019):
https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sessions/85238?source=sessions
Make external
content searchable
via custom verticals
and layouts
Set up bookmarks,
locations, answers.
Change default
scope, search box
behavior
Solve specific business via
custom pages using
community or custom
developed web parts, or
stand-alone solutions
Enough for most,
if not all search
needs. When in
doubt, use out of
box
Do I need to configure or customize?
Use out of
boxConfigure
Develop &
Customize
Less complex, least effort More complex, most effort
Tip 9: There’s no place like home
Invest in a great home page experience
▪ Eight important roles of the intranet home page:▪ News▪ Navigation▪ Key tools▪ Key information▪ Community and culture▪ Internal marketing▪ Collaboration▪ Me!
▪ Think about what is important to your organization – every org is different - and you need to plan about how you will balance the key roles
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_homepage/
The home page should look good … but VALUE is more important
Every element on a homepage
should earn its right to stay
there.
It’s not “do you spark joy,” but
do you add value?
People don't come back to an
intranet because it's beautiful,
but because its useful!
A balance of me + us: The Home Site
▪ Targeted content
▪ Personalized content▪ My documents▪ My tasks▪ My favorites▪ My news
▪ Frequently needed content for all▪ Help links▪ Corporate news▪ Promotions – e.g. open enrollment, etc.▪ Most visited pages
Home Site superpowers …
Great design
Designated as an organizational news site by default
Includes search scoped to the entire tenant
Used to be integrated with the SharePoint Start page (the My
SharePoint link in the sample image) – link and branding and
megamenu was removed Q1 2020 – hopefully, will return!
Special "affordances" (Initially, the link via the Home icon in the
mobile app but additional special “affordances” are planned.)
… support the key roles for the intranet home
Connect the workplace with intelligent search and
rich navigation to sites and applications
Showcase news and information to the right people
with audience targeting
Discover personalized, relevant content from
Office 365 and across your digital estate
Foster connections across the organization with social
conversations
Share compelling communications with
intelligent video
Create a beautiful, dynamic employee experience
that is accessible and available across devices
Tip 10: Training, training, and more training
Invest in training
▪ Make it easy to do the right thing▪ Create page templates and embed links to training in the templates
▪ Use site designs that include links to training content
▪ Create a library of examples, guidelines, and standards – ideally, in a User Resource Center for Office 365. Want to learn how? http://tiny.cc/SPGovStepbyStep
▪ Take advantage of the Microsoft 365 Learning Pathways site – brings Microsoft training to you inside your tenant https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/customlearning/
▪ Help site owners plan awesome communication sites▪ http://tiny.cc/CommSitePlanningGuide
Suggested training for everyone
▪ Overview of the different types of sites and services and how they combine to create the digital workplace experience for the organization
▪ Understanding search
▪ Updating your profile
▪ OneDrive best practices▪ Uploading a document or folder
▪ Sharing a document or folder
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Example Training Curriculum for Site Owners▪ SharePoint Basics
▪ Getting Started with Office 365: Overview of the services in Office 365, with an emphasis on tools available for communication and collaboration.
▪ Sites, Pages, Lists, Libraries, and Web Parts: Learn how to pull all the pieces together to create user experiences
▪ Adding and Configuring Site Pages
▪ Uploading Documents – and when and how to use folders and metadata
▪ Adding and Configuring Web Parts
▪ Adding and Configuring Images
▪ Adding News – and best practices for News pages
▪ How to create a News Digest
▪ Adding and Configuring Links on a Page
▪ Adding and Editing List Items
▪ Designing Your Site▪ What is a communication site
▪ Communication site planning best practices
▪ Planning site navigation
▪ Using the hero web part: pros and cons and best practices
▪ Choosing the best layout for your pages
▪ Writing great page content
▪ Writing news articles that get read
▪ Creating views in lists and libraries
▪ Managing Permissions
▪ Understanding and Gaining Insights from Site Usage Metrics
42
Note: Most of these topics are equally appropriate for team site
owners. Team site and Teams owners also need to understand
how to manage Group membership and about the services
that you get when you create an Office 365 Group.
Tip 11: Lessons from award winners – sites and content that engage
Content and sites that engage
Employee Directory
•Find people by Name,
Department, Location, Role
•Bonus points if the directory
includes a map to their cube or
office
Travel Resources: before,
during, and after (combing
expense reporting with travel
booking)
Personalized content
•Role-specific portals and
dashboards
•My tasks and actions
Leadership Blogs
Leadership connection –
embed the Leadership
Connection Yammer group
on a communication site
New Kids on the Block –
meet our new employees
Virtual Water Cooler or Yard
Sale (Yammer) for employee
exchange, ride sharing, etc.
Sites to support key events:
Community Volunteer Day
Yammer for communities of
interest and practice (social
and professional)
Tip 12: Celebrate your launch and major milestones
Channel your inner Spielberg
Find more in the wonderful curated collection of
intranet promotion videos by Ellen Van Aken:
https://list.ly/list/27Yb
Announce your new digital
workplace like Heathrow airport
(HUB+)
https://vimeo.com/219539876
https://vimeo.com/258929235
Launch activities include communications
▪ Plan communications before, during, and after major changes
▪ Engage your “champions” to help with communicating key changes
▪ Consider fun launch activities
▪ Match the baby picture to the user profile
▪ Add some interesting facts to profiles:
▪ Find who taught Carlos Santana how to waltz? (launch campaign at Penn State)
▪ Scavenger hunt
▪ Games and competition to complete your profile
▪ Bring in a professional photographer to take head shots for profiles
Tip 13: Plan for change – you’re never done
Plan for change
▪ It takes a village – you need a team!
▪ Build a champions program
▪ Assign team members to track the roadmap – no surprises
▪ Change management and training – be realistic about your budget
▪ Align initiatives with strategic drivers – and communicate using all your channels
The shopping list for success
1. Don’t think about the intranet
2. It’s the big picture that matters - more than tech
3. Governance first!
4. It’s iterative, but you need to plan the journey
5. Until we get global nav, use a navigator site
6. Plan your hub families … but allow them to be organic too
7. Metadata wars - just like Cupcake Wars but less tasty
8. Plan search experiences – don’t leave search to chance
9. There’s no place like home (sites)
10. Training, training, and more training
11. Celebrate your launch and major milestones
12. Lessons from award winners – sites and content that engage
13. Plan for change, you’re never done
100% of your
intranet meets
or exceeds
expectations!
Susan Hanley
susanhanley
www.computerworld.com/blog/essential-sharepoint
www.susanhanley.com
• Information Architecture
• User Adoption
• Governance
• Metrics
• Knowledge Management
• Intranets & Collaboration
Solutions