Preparing content for an Intranet redesign project

Content and the way it is presented is key to a successful Intranet. In a decentralised Intranet where content is contributed from the various subject matter experts, the challenge is to get all of them to write using common web conventions and follow a content style guide.

In my experience, preparing content authors through web writing trainings and briefings on how and which templates they should be using is not enough. Most content authors will normally chuck what they have learn aside, and if we're lucky, they give us content based on the correct template. When this happens, an unplanned web editor needs to emerge to make it all right!

This is what I think as a better approach:

1. Prepare the site structure. This could be done in a spreadsheet showing the main content sections, their sub-content sections/pages, which web templates each page should be using, the content owners of each page and the most-likely audience of that page.
2. Prepare the web templates. If using a CMS, it is preferred that all templates are developed and implemented before content writing. This cuts the step of content conversion (where content is migrated from a different platform), and probably just a migration from the development to the production platform that can be done by the IT vendor.
3. Collect the content from various content owners.
4. Develop the Intranet style guide consisting of the language and web conventions of the Intranet. You may like to refer to the BBC news style guide for a sense of what this is.
5. Employ a team of web content editors (the size of the team depends on budget). Brief them on the style guide, desired web conventions, site structure and web templates. Give this team an office space so that they can interact directly with the content owners and the project team. A project team member should constantly be in touch with the content editors for both learning and review.
6. Start training the content owners on web writing near to the Intranet launch date and commission them as content authors. Moving on, it should be a pre-requisite for content authors to be familiar with web writing, style guide, site structure, web templates and the CMS (if any).
7. Once the content writing is completed, orientate the content authors to their content and let them take over from there. Let them be accountable for their content. The project team can design a plan to keep the content vibrant.

The good things about this approach is that:

• Content is professionally written. The content authors are not naturally writers. This sets the stage for the content authors to proceed.
• The content pattern is consistent, making the Intranet predictable and easy to understand. This speeds up navigation and improves findability.
• Content authors apply what they learn immediately after the launch. The writing skills they acquire is still fresh in them. They are working on live content and is more exciting than asking them prepare the content for launch.
• It's much faster to ask content authors to contribute content than to ask them to write it. Asking the various content authors to prepare content invariably impose risks to the project schedule.