Intranet managers and consultants are the consummate knowledge workers. And as Francis Bacon has screamed to us from over the ages, knowledge is power!
In particular, an intranet manager needs to intimately know:
· the requirements of the business
· best practices
· the preferences and needs of employees
On the last point, understanding the needs of employees, there are a number of tools at the disposal of managers including log analysis, surveys, focus groups and usability testing.
Each tool has its place and its pros and cons. A recent attendee to a seminar of mine in
The answer is, of course, it depends. It depends on…
· the organization’s culture
· the present position of the intranet on the evolutionary curve
· the extent of “research fatigue” at the organization
· what data “sells” best
While not necessarily applicable to other commodities such as, say, consumer packaged goods, I prepared the following table as a quick cheat sheet for comparing the various tools applicable to researching intranet target audience requirements.
What to use first?
The enquiring mind was also having a debate with their boss about what should be done first – in-depth interviews or usability testing or focus groups or survey – when orchestrating their site design. I personally think it’s best to lead with in-depth interviews of the business stakeholders as the first step. It’s critical to understand what the business needs and expects from the site.
Generally speaking I like to do in-depth interviews first, followed by a target audience survey, followed by planning and information architecture and design, followed by focus groups, and then do usability testing once you’ve built a prototype. Focus groups can come at anytime… depending on the issues at play. Sometimes it’s good to do FGs up front if there are contentious issues or you want to explore new ideas or concepts. If not, leave them until after you’ve done your site plans and played with a couple of design concepts.
There are of course many subtleties to site research – and always exceptions to the rule. Many factors come in to play when choosing your research tools and the time to implement each. A lot depends on the culture of the organization and the intranet’s position on the evolutionary curve. For example, if money is the only thing that sells a project, it’s better to invest your time and energy in measuring return on investment.
A final note: never conduct the research yourself on your own product (website or intranet) as your results will be biased and the end result flawed. No, this isn’t a sales pitch (I’m busy enough as is!). I money is an issue there is always a way to conduct low-cost research… just make sure the person spearheading the research knows what they’re doing! (When we recently began work with a new intranet client who convinced us they need not do any employee research as they had recently completed a survey they proudly produced the survey… three questions, all open-ended.)
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Intranet kingdom remains an unknown quantity
Intranet measurement strategy (case study)
© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media