In a recent blog post, we talked about planning as one of the 6 keys to delivering your intranet project successfully. Here, we delve a bit deeper into and look at the steps involved in this critical phase.
Look at the history
Before you can move forward with your intranet project, it’s important to look back. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What have we done up till now to get to this point?
- What are we currently doing?
- What are the pain points?
Look at the functionality
Next, you want to review your intranet’s functionality. If it’s not fulfilling its purpose (or purposes) within your organisation, what features can you implement so that it will? What can you add? What are other businesses doing that would work well for yours? (In other words, what can you steal?)
Look at the scope
Planning an intranet can be a lot like looking at the menu at your favourite restaurant – your eyes are often bigger than your stomach. You want to do everything at once, but usually, this is unrealistic or beyond your budget. Instead, look at the project in phases. Again, there are a couple of questions you should ask:
- What do we absolutely need to do?
- And what’s going to get the leadership team – and your users – excited about their new intranet?
Look at costs and timelines
Intranets can be a massive investment, in terms of both time and money. Be sure you crunch the numbers and map out a schedule.
Look at the risks
You want to have a well-documented and comprehensive list of the risks involved with your intranet project, and your list should also address how you’re going to mitigate them.
Look at what your employees have to say
Surveying your staff members is a no-brainer, as they’ll be the ones using the intranet (you hope). And this survey doesn’t have to be arduous – for you or for them. It can be as simple as the following five questions:
- What do you like?
- What don’t you like?
- What sections do you visit?
- What documents do you download?
- Any other comments?
Look at the analytics
Look to these to see what people are actually doing on your site.
Look at your content
Finally, before you get started, it’s a good idea to undertake a content audit. You want to find the nuggets of gold on your existing site and make sure they move over to the new site!