blog.frederique.harmsze.nl my world of work and user experiences

January 31, 2012

Barriers to a successful adoption of the intranet

Filed under: Adoption,Governance — frederique @ 23:08

We’re developing a new intranet at my client. But we know we don’t just need a great system – we’ll also need things like communication and governance to make it a success. So we’ve been looking at the barriers that the users may encounter and how we can overcome them.

Generically, we see the following barriers to a successful adoption of intranet features and the following solutions for it:

  1. Don’t know about it. So:
    • Communication: Intranet, local communication vehicles, announcement mailing
    • Getting started kit: show and tell what’s available, in the site and outside (flyer, QRC)
    • Champions: drive adoption
  2. Cannot access it. So:
    • Opens by default in browser
    • Simple URL: redirect if technical url too hard
    • Invitation: get account data on Day 1 (user management)
    • Support for forgotten account data (ongoing user management)
  3. Don’t understand how to use it, afraid to mess up. So:
    • User friendly site
    • Help content, link to help and handy navigation + search within help
    • Policies
    • Training of contributors of News, Blogs and Files
    • Support in case you get stuck
  4. I see nothing relevant here. So:
    • Make sure the site works (incl good performance)
    • Relevant content at the start
    • Ongoing relevant content (content governance)
    • Releases of relevant new features
  5. Not worth the effort to contribute, what’s in it for me. So:
    • Incentives (recognition, games, gadgets,..)
    • Management commitment: it’s part of your job
  6. Disappointed in the lack of response. So:
    • Set an example (e.g. HR)
    • Champions make extra effort
  7. No time for it. So:
    • Management commitment to make time for it
  8. Afraid to stick out their neck. So:
    • Set an example (e.g. HR)
    • Open culture where management encourages contributions actively

1 Comment »

  1. […] are not new – they fit into the barriers to a successful adoption I already talked about in 2012. But they still need to be taken care […]

    Pingback by 3 prerequisites for Office 365 adoption « blog.frederique.harmsze.nl — May 31, 2019 @ 23:52

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