Which 6 mistakes do most companies make when introducing a new Intranet or Digital Workplace?
Published September 7, 2023 by Stephan Schillerwein
[This article was translated using automated translation software]
“In practice, one can actually observe that the same mistakes are made again and again. Most of these mistakes are also easily avoidable, so that it is not at all difficult to carry out your own intranet or DWP project with significantly better chances of success if only a few essential points are taken into account.”
This article is part of the “Featured” series by Denise Remund, Remund Communications.
From my personal point of view, the most important mistakes when introducing a new intranet or digital workplace are the following:
- Neglecting the question of scope: just like the Internet, intranets and digital workplaces do not have a fixed area of application defined from the outset. So they are no more just news and content platforms than the Internet consists only of news portals and reference works. Nevertheless, many companies take such an extremely limited application scope as a given. Instead, the first step in the project should be to work out what the scope should look like in order to create as much added value as possible for employees and the company.
- Getting the analysis wrong: an analysis phase at the beginning of a project will not only provide fundamentally important insights for the scope, but also many valuable insights for the further course of the project and the design of the future intranet. Unfortunately, however, analyses are often approached incorrectly, be it because unsuitable analysis techniques are used, because a one-sided inclusion of the target groups takes place, or simply because the wrong questions are asked. The “cardinal sin” here are questions in the style of “what do you want from the future intranet?” or “would you need function XYZ for your work?”. Such approaches are not able to uncover the real needs, problems and potentials that a Digital Workplace can address.
- Start with the technology: an almost ubiquitous problem today is to start with the technology, rather than the question of “why?” (i.e., strategy, vision and goals). The fact that in most companies the technology for the Digital Workplace is already set should not be used as an excuse to omit these fundamental questions. If then the existing software platform can add value to the identified strategies, all the better. Before saddling and mounting the horse, however, you should have thought about the motivation and goals of the ride.
- Leave culture out of the equation: any properly conducted analysis in this topic area will also bring to light a substantial number of culture-related needs, problems and potentials. Intranet project teams are often then quick to define these issues as “out of scope” for the project. In reality, however, the Digital Workplace and corporate culture are in such a close, mutually dependent relationship that one will very quickly reach a limit without the other. This is especially the case for all application areas around collaboration, networking and knowledge management.
- Not considering the implications of trade-offs: a Digital Workplace project consists of hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions. These may be small or large – but they always have an impact on the project and its outcome. And the more trade-offs that are made, the higher the likelihood that at the end of the day, the solution will no longer be able to solve the problems it is supposed to solve, or will do so only with severe limitations. While it is unrealistic to avoid all suboptimal decisions and tradeoffs, one can always be transparent about the implications of those tradeoffs and hopefully find better decisions.
- Underestimating King Content and Queen Context: the presence of the right content and its quality (including appropriate metadata, i.e., meaningfully usable context) have always been a weak point of intranets. The evolution to multi-functional digital workplaces has usually only made this worse, as there are now so many other things besides content that the chronically understaffed intranet team has to take care of. But the digital workplace also thrives primarily on relevant information and its good findability and usability. So there is still no way around content and context. Artificial intelligence can and should help, of course, but the goal of high-quality information will not materialize on its own, even in times of ChatGPT and the like.
Of course, there are many other mistakes that project teams can make in an intranet or digital workplace project. However, the topics outlined here cover the basics of such a project and thus significantly increase the prospect of success and real added value.
Picture credits & rights:
- Header picture: Thomas Hawk: „Wrong Direction“, https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/47958105647/, CC BY-NC 2.0
- „Featured“ banner: copyright by Remund Communications, 9/23