Executive Summary:
Gallagher’s intranet “Gallagher One” was actually a combination of 5 different internal portals serving their 49,000 plus employees. The intranets provided information across the entire company and managed different functions including HR, Business Development, Sales, Educations, etc.. They had been merged over the years and patchworked together for the best possible experience, but the ability to find information and engage with employees had suffered greatly.
Challenge
How might we scope out the project to get an accurate estimate for the intranet consolidation and design the overarching experience?
Results
The entire process took five weeks from beginning to end. We took the feedback from the first round of user testing and performed revisions to the prototype allowing for a second round of user testing. We were quite please with the resulting improvement of the SUS score of 45 to a SUS of 80.The users would be happy with they’re much improved intranet experience, but the benefits didn’t end there.
Using the prototype as an MVP for requirement definition allowed us to identify and purchase a SharePoint template that covered 95% of the needed functionality, reducing the overall cost of the build from $3M to $1M
The details
We worked with a technology vendor to perform a two phased discovery process. One of which would be an investigation of the tech stack itself, while the second would be user centric and start in the form of a design sprint. As the Director of Experience Design, I oversaw the design, research and vendor resources as well as acted as facilitator for the design sprint.
It takes a bit to prepare for a design sprint. We found an ideal location in a nearby hotel (very swanky) and began our recruiting efforts for the sprint team, information experts and testing participants. We also used this time to educate the team on our intent and method.
Setting a baseline metric
As part of our preparation for the project, we worked with Gallagher’s Communication Team to send out a survey measuring the System Usability Scale (SUS) company wide. The results came back putting the SUS at 45. Not terrible, but definitely room for improvement.
Design Sprint
As always with design sprint the first couple days our team was a little concerned with the potential for success, but as time went by, the method proved itself (which is also normal). It’s amazing what a group of like minded individuals can accomplish.
Prototype
If you’re familiar with the design sprint process, you know the fifth day is testing day. We recruited users from various departments to get a varied perspective. The results were better than we could have hoped, but the work didn’t end there. As part of the user testing process we included the SUS metric and received a score of 75.
User Flows
We documented the results from the sprint and testing. In addition, we updated the user flows and prototype for another round of user testing. The team, being excited by our initial success, was hoping to raise the SUS score just a little bit more.
