Sam Marshall is the director of ClearBox Consulting and has 15 years of experience with intranets and digital workplaces. The document discusses common mistakes made with intranets, including losing executive sponsorship, over-personalizing content, getting carried away with design principles, forgetting about late adopters, and having over-zealous governance. It provides tips for getting intranets right such as cultivating champions, measuring metrics before and after changes, reflecting organizational structure, piloting with different user types, and having basic governance principles rather than extensive rules.

2. Sam Marshall
Director of ClearBox Consulting
 15 years intranet and digital
workplace
 Former global portal manager
at Unilever
 Consulted on & benchmarked
over 70 intranets
 Comms, KM & IT background
sam@clearbox.co.uk
@sammarshall

3. In the beginning…

5. 1. Disappearing
sponsor

6. Getting it right…
 Cultivate 2-3 champions
 Maintain a business case even if you’re not
asked
 Measure the ‘before’ so you can show the ‘after’
@sammarshall

7. Who leads your intranet?
Organisation Need Intranet Flavour Sponsor
Improve communication
2-way, same message for all
Communication Comms Corp Affairs
Work effectively across silos Collaboration HR IT
Reduce operating costs Services Finance
"One Company" initiatives Communication Comms Corp Affairs
Improve Capability of a
Function (e.g. Marketing,
Sales, R&D)
Knowledge
Management
Head of Function
Support flexible working Digital Workplace HR
See: www.clearbox.co.uk/what-flavour-is-your-intranet/

8. Intranets need leaders not managers
 Enthusiasm counts as much as role
 They need to understand the benefit early
 They can help you across the ‘delivery gulf’
 They are in the right meetings to champion the
intranet as a solution

9. 2. Over-personalizing

10. Things on an intranet
home page
Things people want from
an intranet
Message from
CEO
Quarterly results
Pictures of SVPs
Stock price
Mission statement
Weather

11. Things on an intranet
home page
Things people want from
an intranet
Message from
CEO
Quarterly results
For sale
& wanted
My own
documents
Bonus
calculation
Rumours
Expense
forms
Photos of office
party
Phone numbers
Pictures of SVPs
Stock price
Mission statement
Weather

12. Things on an intranet
home page
Things people want from
an intranet
Message from
CEO
Quarterly results
Lunch
menu
For sale
& wanted
My own
documents
Bonus
calculation
Rumours
Expense
forms
Photos of office
party
Phone numbers
Pictures of SVPs
Stock price
Mission statement
Weather

13. Home
London Paris Rome

14. Global
Rome
GlobalGlobal
ParisLondon

15. Global
Profile
Location = London
London

16. Global
Rome
Profile
Location = Rome

17. Getting it right…

18. Getting it right…

19. Getting it right…

21. Getting it right…

22. 3. Carried away with design principles
All we asked
for was fish
and chips??

23. Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yandle

25. Some of your intranet should
look like your org chart

26.  Intranets should reflect how an organisation works
 If the company does a re-org, is it such a big deal
to change the intranet?
 Employee services are the exception
 If in doubt, test!
Getting it right…

27. Department Sites
Department
About
Us for
others
Info by
us for
others
Info by
us for
us
Brochure
• What we do
• Who to contact
Services
• Raise a
purchase order
• Request a
laptop
• Hiring process
Our work
• Announcements
• Templates
• Team members
• Specialist
resources

28. Department Sites
Department
About
Us for
others
Info by
us for
others
Info by
us for
us
Structure by task
Structure by org chart
Structure by
how we work

29. 4. Forgetting the late-adopters

30. Dear Jeremy
I work for a national charity with about 4,000 employees across
a range of UK sites. The organisation has recently told all staff
they must complete a "personal profile" with headings such as,
"What's important to me" and, "How best to support me" which
will be available on the intranet to all its employees.
Team leaders and site managers know staff very well at my site,
and I can reasonably guess this is true at other sites, so the
rationale seems invalid.
A manager has said it's mandatory to complete this, but if I feel
uncomfortable doing so, can they enforce this?

31. I think it's a nerve for an employer to ask for this kind of thing.
Who the hell do they think they are?!
They're probably planning to get rid of some employees and are
using this to decide who to boot out. Be very careful how you
answer the questions.
When you have completed your fictional profile, with the
appropriate bullshit bingo words, do make sure to make use of
everyone else's profile, by asking them for assistance in your
work of taxidermy of parrots, banging in little metal bottle tops
on floors etc. Then make a point of contacting management on
a regular basis to tell them how helpful you have found the new
system. Try to use their profiles more than anyone else's.

33. Experi-
mental
Will try
because its
new
Like to feel
exclusive
Thought
leaders
Pragmatic
Want proven
benefits
Do what is
‘normal’
Risk
averse
Trend
must be
very
visible
Listen to
laggards
Focus on risk above
all else (and may be
right!)
Need to feel in control

34. Show off
latest
features
Pilot
access
Let them
experiment
Exclusive
preview
Showcase
their good
work
Recruit as
champions
Widespread
comms –
buzz
Leaders set
example
Help &
support
Make it
easier
(reduce
features)
low-risk
Talk to
current
adopters
Refine based on
earlier adoption
lessons
Give control over how
& when
‘No commitment’ trial
Take time to answer
objections

35. Next time…
 Don’t rely on a business case that demands high
adoption levels everywhere
 Don’t assume enthusiastic pilots scale linearly
 Focus on specific communities and grow from
there
Getting it right…

36. 5. Over-zealous governance

37. You only need a 100 page
governance document if you
plan to hit somebody with it as
a means of enforcement

39. Next time….
 Governance is about changing behaviour not a set
of rules
 Define the basic principles
 Governance is also about encouragement,
modelling & conversation
Getting it right…

40. 5 levers of governance
Steering
Policy
Constraints
Monitoring
Comms /
Training

43. sam@clearbox.co.uk www.clearbox.co.uk
@sammarshall

44. Credits Original cartoons commissioned
by ClearBox from: Duncan Scott

45. Learn more about our Intranet CMS,
Evoq Intranet
Evoq: An Intranet CMS from DNN