Allen Huish, he of British Airways fame, has written a great post on asking people about what they want on an intranet:
Is it worth asking people what they want on your intranet?
How's that for a controversial question? But I really mean it.
When you go to the doctors does he ask you what drugs you want? Do you tell the tv repair shop just how to fix your tv? I thought not. So why is there no end of people telling us how we should be designing our intranets.
Often one of the first steps we take with Step Two intranet reviews is a series of needs analysis discussions with employees - ranging in number anywhere from 25 to 50 or so with a broad mix of people from the organisation or department you're working with.
In these discussions you're not asking people what they want, you're trying to find out what it is that they need - as in actually need to be able to do their jobs effectively and more effectively. You're aiming to find out the processes, the blocks, the barriers, what works, what doesn't work.
What you come out with at the end is a pretty clear picture of the resources that are used and need improving, and the systems or areas of work that are completely terrible.
At no stage of the serious conversation do you venture into "what would you like" on the intranet, because Allen's example of chocolate versus apples is right. You get a wish list of what people ideally want or would do - in his example it's passengers saying they want to eat healthily on a flight.
People often say they'd do one thing in theory, but in practice do something completely different (this is why it's also helpful to have a computer with the intranet there so the person you're having a chat with ca show you exactly how they do something - quite often it varies and is more detailed than they can remember as well).
Not only that, but there aren't many circumstances in which wish lists go down well, unless you're Bill Gates or Warren Buffett.
You may have picked up that I said above, "at no stage of the serious conversation do you ask what people want". That's because ultimately there's no significant harm in asking - provided you've got the really important stuff first and it's clear that people know it's a want list, a wish list, a dream - but perhaps in the long-term, not a pipedream.
This is not a slight or criticism of people in any way, it just seems to be human nature. I might well have to have a read of the Ben Goldacre book that Allen mentions.
