Enterprise Digital Workplace Solution
Redesigned enterprise intranet solution, boosting user satisfaction to 4.57/5
Role
Design Lead
Sevice
Product Design, Concept Vision, Project Execution, Design Systems
😟 SITUATION
As the world grappled with the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, our client—a large enterprise with over 75 subsidiaries—faced an unprecedented challenge. With employees abruptly transitioning to remote work for an unforeseeable future, the company's digital infrastructure posed challenges, revealing critical weaknesses in their employee experience.
At the heart of the problem lay the old intranet—a digital ecosystem that had evolved over years into a complex web of hundreds of micro-sites. Each site, created by different teams for various purposes, operated in isolation. What was once seen as a solution to departmental needs had become a fragmented landscape, hindering rather than helping employee productivity in this new remote work era.
The biggest challenge in this project was building trust with a client unfamiliar with design processes, who often underestimated the effort required. Overcoming this hurdle demanded constant communication, strategic presentations, and negotiation over the first five months, gradually establishing credibility and aligning expectations for the successful 1.5-year project duration.
The challenge before us was multifaceted and complex:
Fragmentation: Hundreds of existing micro-sites needed meticulous assessment.
Strategic Consolidation: Disparate elements required reimagining into a cohesive experience.
Scalability: The solution needed to be adaptable across all 75 subsidiaries.
Remote Optimization: The intranet had to be optimized for a distributed workforce.
Change Management: Ensuring adoption by employees accustomed to familiar digital workspaces.
As the Design Lead, under the guidance of the Design Director, the role encompassed:
Team Leadership: Managed and mentored a dynamic team of 15+ designers based on project requirements. Provided regular feedback, led brainstorming sessions, fostered skill development, and ensured cohesive design output.
Full Accountability: Responsible for all project details and overall success.
Hands-on Design: Perform design work while guiding the team in creating wireframes and high-fidelity visuals.
Project Management: Facilitate engineer handovers and manage project timelines.
Strategic Planning: Demonstrate value through strategic planning, presentations, and client negotiations.
Trust Building: Overcome the client's lack of familiarity with design processes and build trust over time.
Education: Present design processes to make the client more comfortable and trusting.
Negotiation: Advocate for better working conditions and resources.
Additional tasks to build trust included:
Regular communication and transparency about project progress and challenges
Delivering quick wins to demonstrate value early in the project
Involving key stakeholders in the design process through workshops and feedback sessions
Providing clear documentation and rationale for design decisions
Being responsive to client concerns and adapting the approach when necessary
💡 INSPIRATION
The Evolution of Intranets: From Administration to Employee-Centricity
To fully appreciate the magnitude of our challenge, it's crucial to understand the historical context of intranet development. Over the past three decades, intranets have undergone a significant transformation, reflecting the changing needs of organizations and advancements in technology.
1994 - The Era of Administration: In the mid-1990s, intranets emerged as internal networks primarily focused on administration. These early intranets were essentially digital filing cabinets, storing and organizing company policies, procedures, and forms. They were static, one-way communication tools, designed for top-down information dissemination. The primary users were HR and IT departments, with limited engagement from the broader employee base.
2000s - The Rise of Communication: As we entered the new millennium, intranets evolved to become communication hubs. Organizations recognized the need for more dynamic internal communication. Intranets began featuring company news, announcements, and basic employee directories. This era saw the introduction of primitive social features, such as comment sections on news articles. However, the flow of information was still largely top-down, with limited opportunities for employee-generated content.
2010s - The Shift to Collaboration: The 2010s marked a significant shift towards collaboration. Influenced by the rise of social media and cloud-based tools, intranets began to incorporate features that facilitated teamwork and knowledge sharing. Discussion forums, wikis, and project spaces became common. The introduction of mobile-responsive designs allowed employees to access intranet resources on-the-go. This era saw intranets transform from mere information repositories to active platforms for employee engagement and productivity.
2020 - The Dawn of Employee-Centricity: As we entered the 2020s, accelerated by the global shift to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, intranets evolved once more. The focus shifted decisively towards employee-centricity. Modern intranets are designed with the employee experience at their core, offering personalized dashboards, AI-driven search capabilities, and seamless integration with productivity tools. They serve as digital workplaces, supporting not just communication and collaboration, but also learning, wellbeing, and company culture in a distributed work environment.
Our task was not just to consolidate hundreds of micro-sites, but to leapfrog through these evolutionary stages, creating a truly modern, employee-centric digital workplace that could support the needs of a distributed workforce.
Lessons from Failed Intranets: Avoiding Common Pitfalls
Before embarking on our intranet transformation journey, we conducted extensive research into previous intranet projects, both successful and failed. This investigation provided crucial insights that shaped our approach. Here are key lessons we gleaned from failed intranet initiatives:
Neglecting User Needs: Many failed intranets were built based on what IT or management thought employees needed, rather than what employees actually required. These top-down approaches often resulted in platforms that were technically sound but practically unusable.
Overemphasis on Features, Underemphasis on Usability: Some intranets failed because they were overloaded with features but lacked intuitive navigation and user-friendly interfaces. The result was a complex system that employees found overwhelming and avoided using.
Lack of Mobile Optimization: As workforces became more mobile, intranets that weren't optimized for smartphones and tablets quickly became obsolete. Employees expect to access information and tools on-the-go.
Poor Search Functionality: Many intranets failed due to inadequate search capabilities. If employees can't quickly find the information they need, they'll abandon the platform.
Lack of Integration with Daily Workflows: Intranets that existed in isolation from other business tools and processes were often underutilized. Employees prefer not to switch between multiple systems to complete their tasks.
Insufficient Change Management: Even well-designed intranets failed when organizations didn't invest in proper change management. Employees stuck to old habits without proper training and communication.
🎯 APPROACH
User Research and Persona Development
As Design Lead, the project initiated with a critical 3-month user research and concept phase. This involved conducting extensive workshops to deeply understand user needs, behaviors, and challenges across the organization. The research culminated in the creation of seven distinct personas that became cornerstone tools, guiding design decisions and ensuring the solution addressed the diverse needs of the organization's workforce throughout the project lifecycle.
The seven personas identified were:
The Pragmatic Leader
The Strategic Manager
The Curious Newbie
The Dynamic Seller
The Passionate Innovator
The Accessible Facilitator
The Sensible Administrator
From Business Needs to Business Vision: Our UX Strategy
After thoroughly understanding the user needs and existing challenges, we aligned our approach with the broader business vision. Our goal was to transform the intranet from a collection of fragmented tools into a cohesive, employee-centric digital workplace that would drive productivity, engagement, and cultural alignment across the organization.
To achieve this vision, we developed a three-step UX strategy that would progressively enhance the intranet experience:
Core Functionality: The first step was to ensure that the new intranet delivered on the essential functions required by employees across all levels and departments.
Experience Elevation: Once the core functionality was in place, we focused on elevating the overall experience elevation.
Embedding Company Culture: The final step in our UX strategy was to deeply integrate unique culture into the digital experience.
This three-step approach allowed us to progressively transform the intranet, ensuring that we met immediate functional needs while working towards a more ambitious vision of a truly employee-centric digital workplace. It also provided a clear roadmap for development, helping to manage stakeholder expectations and prioritize features throughout the project lifecycle.
Another important initiative I led on this project was building and publishing a design system on Zeroheight. This crucial step in our intranet transformation journey laid the foundation for scalability and impact.
The comprehensive design system served as the cornerstone for all our design work, ensuring consistency across the platform while enhancing scalability and efficiency in our design process. By establishing this system, we created a unified visual language that could be applied across all 75 subsidiaries, streamlining future development and maintaining a cohesive user experience.
Our approach to building a scalable and impactful design system included six key steps:
🏆 IMPACT AND LEARNINGS
The year-long initiative drove remarkable outcomes:
User Satisfaction: Achieved a 4.57/5 user satisfaction score across work-streams.
Successful Delivery: Implemented over 10 work-streams successfully.
Client Trust: Established a strong, trusting relationship with the client, overcoming initial skepticism about the design process.
Cultural Integration: Successfully embedded the company's unique culture into the digital experience.
Scalable Solution: Created a framework that could be adapted across all 75 subsidiaries.
This program has delivered over 10 work-streams successfully with an average user feedback of 4.57/5 across work-streams. This program has been exemplary in demonstrating design thinking, agile development, team work and active collaboration - towards achieving a common goal and target of freeing up employee time and to improve employee experience.
Chief Technology Officer (Sponsorer of the project)
Lessons Learned
Flexibility in Approach: Remaining adaptable and willing to pivot when faced with new insights or challenges is crucial for success.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Breaking down silos and fostering a truly integrated team environment is essential for complex projects.
Scalability as Core Consideration: Designing with future growth in mind allows for solutions that can evolve with the organization.
Balancing Quantitative and Qualitative Feedback: While metrics are important, qualitative feedback provides invaluable insights into the true impact of the work.
Trust-Building is a Process: Establishing trust with clients unfamiliar with design processes takes time and consistent effort, but is fundamental to project success.
Education as Part of the Role: Taking the time to educate clients on design processes can lead to better collaboration and outcomes.
Strategic Negotiation: Advocating for necessary resources and working conditions is crucial for project success and team morale.