Reﬂection on Learning Launch Tool

Challenge: I work in communications & marketing for a business-to-business company. At the  start of the year, I was tasked to revamp our company’s intranet website, either by  upgrading our existing one or buying a third-party software.

Our existing intranet is a legacy, self-proprietary software with inadequate technologies  to support telecommuting, ﬁle-hosting, and real-time communications, mostly due to  lack of internal resources (i.e., IT manpower). Employee use of the intranet was  therefore low, with only 43 percent of employees accessing it at least once a week. To  solve the challenge, we wanted to increase this number to at least 80 percent.

Selection We had previously conducted surveys among our employees to learn about what they  like and dislike about the website. But by taking this Design Thinking course, I saw the  opportunity to use a better framework to tackle our challenges, beginning with the idea  generation process. I speciﬁcally chose the Ethnography Tool to get a feel for our  stakeholders’—in this case, employees’—lives, including their problems and  unarticulated needs. I believed this would widen the ﬁeld of data which we have  collected from the previous survey, which was limited in questions and hampered by  biases in perceived challenges and ideas anyway. The Ethnography Tool would have  allowed us to deconstruct those biases as well.

Alas, the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in lockdown measures and restrictions, forcing  the need to roll out remote work and telecommuting solutions at low-cost and  immediately. Given the constraints in time and resources, I opted to switch to the  Learning Launch Tool to conduct fast, cheap experiments while learning about our  employees’ intranet habits and testing our key assumptions about them from the result  of our previous survey.

Application As soon as our network and work-from-home (WFH) infrastructure was set up, we  began improving on our existing intranet. (At this point, buying a third-party software  had been ruled out due to logistics and cost concerns.) Our criteria for our solutions  were that they could be implemented by two web developers, with no added cost  except for internal resources.

With employees scattered across several cities and regions, one of the ﬁrst things we  did was roll out communications-related initiatives on our intranet, including daily  updates on the latest health guidelines about Covid-19 and links to trusted resources.  A special Q&A section on the intranet was also created, pooling all questions and

answers about the latest company policies on our work-from-home setup, as well as  salaries and leaves information. To secure our ﬁles, we created a dedicated server to  enable peer-to-peer ﬁle sharing so employees did not have to use external and third- party ﬁle-sharing websites, which may not be secure. We also improved our staﬀ  directory, which previously only included oﬃce phone numbers, to include their mobile  phone and messaging apps information. Employees were also asked to share their  stories and tips about working from home, which were posted on the website.  Commenting sections and a forums section were also created to increase employee  engagement.

On the back end, we asked our web developers to prioritize making the website  mobile-responsive.

Insight The results couldn’t have been any better. In the ﬁrst week that these have been  implemented, we recorded a 280 percent increase in page views. So far, 98 percent of  employees are accessing the intranet at least every day.

We realized that this was something we could have done even before the pandemic but  because we were so obsessed with getting our business plan right to justify the  purchase of our new intranet software, we weren’t as responsive to the current needs  of our stakeholders. The existing intranet could have much earlier helped us launch  small, cheap experiments to gain perspective on what would work should we go  forward with the new purchase. For example, we have been asking senior management  to allow employees to publish comments on posted news and announcement, but now  that it has been implemented, we ﬁnd that not many employees don’t use this feature;  same with the new forums section.

Thus, the Learning Launch Tool has allowed us to push through with our winning  experiments (continued internal communications push, daily important updates,  lighthearted stories on colleagues, and mobile-friendly pages) and focus less on  unsuccessful ones (forums section and to an extent, employee self-publishing in  general). But as far as we felt that the Learning Launch Tool served us well given the  circumstances which we found ourselves, it is still important that we utilize the  Ethnography Tool as soon as logistics and resources allow it. This will allows us to  delve deeper into our employees’ journey and recognize their functional and emotional  requirements. Maybe, we don’t even have to buy a new intranet at all and we only need  to keep improving the functionalities and user-friendliness of the existing website.  Ultimately, this well help us not only come up with the best intranet solution but  become a better company for our employees.


Reﬂection on Learning Launch Tool Challenge : I work in communications & marketing for a business - to - business company . At the start of the year , I was tasked to revamp our company ’s intranet website , either by upgrading our existing one or buying a third - party software . Our existing intranet is a legacy , self - proprietary software with inadequate technologies to support telecommuting , ﬁle - hosting , and real - time communications , mostly due to lack of internal resources ( i.e. , IT manpower ) . Employee use of the intranet was therefore low , with only 43 percent of employees accessing it at least once a week . To solve the challenge , we wanted to increase this number to at least 80 percent . Selection We had previously conducted surveys among our employees to learn about what they like and dislike about the website . But by taking this Design Thinking course , I saw the opportunity to use a better framework to tackle our challenges , beginning with the idea generation process . I speciﬁcally chose the Ethnography Tool to get a feel for our stakeholders’—in this case , employees’—lives , including their problems and unarticulated needs . I believed this would widen the ﬁeld of data which we have collected from the previous survey , which was limited in questions and hampered by biases in perceived challenges and ideas anyway . The Ethnography Tool would have allowed us to deconstruct those biases as well . Alas , the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in lockdown measures and restrictions , forcing the need to roll out remote work and telecommuting solutions at low - cost and immediately . Given the constraints in time and resources , I opted to switch to the Learning Launch Tool to conduct fast , cheap experiments while learning about our employees ’ intranet habits and testing our key assumptions about them from the result of our previous survey . Application As soon as our network and work - from - home ( WFH ) infrastructure was set up , we began improving on our existing intranet . ( At this point , buying a third - party software had been ruled out due to logistics and cost concerns . ) Our criteria for our solutions were that they could be implemented by two web developers , with no added cost except for internal resources . With employees scattered across several cities and regions , one of the ﬁrst things we did was roll out communications - related initiatives on our intranet , including daily updates on the latest health guidelines about Covid-19 and links to trusted resources . A special Q&A section on the intranet was also created , pooling all questions and answers about the latest company policies on our work - from - home setup , as well as salaries and leaves information . To secure our ﬁles , we created a dedicated server to enable peer - to - peer ﬁle sharing so employees did not have to use external and third- party ﬁle - sharing websites , which may not be secure . We also improved our staﬀ directory , which previously only included oﬃce phone numbers , to include their mobile phone and messaging apps information . Employees were also asked to share their stories and tips about working from home , which were posted on the website . Commenting sections and a forums section were also created to increase employee engagement . On the back end , we asked our web developers to prioritize making the website mobile - responsive . Insight The results could n’t have been any better . In the ﬁrst week that these have been implemented , we recorded a 280 percent increase in page views . So far , 98 percent of employees are accessing the intranet at least every day . We realized that this was something we could have done even before the pandemic but because we were so obsessed with getting our business plan right to justify the purchase of our new intranet software , we were n’t as responsive to the current needs of our stakeholders . The existing intranet could have much earlier helped us launch small , cheap experiments to gain perspective on what would work should we go forward with the new purchase . For example , we have been asking senior management to allow employees to publish comments on posted news and announcement , but now that it has been implemented , we ﬁnd that not many employees do n’t use this feature ; same with the new forums section . Thus , the Learning Launch Tool has allowed us to push through with our winning experiments ( continued internal communications push , daily important updates , lighthearted stories on colleagues , and mobile - friendly pages ) and focus less on unsuccessful ones ( forums section and to an extent , employee self - publishing in general ) . But as far as we felt that the Learning Launch Tool served us well given the circumstances which we found ourselves , it is still important that we utilize the Ethnography Tool as soon as logistics and resources allow it . This will allows us to delve deeper into our employees ’ journey and recognize their functional and emotional requirements . Maybe , we do n’t even have to buy a new intranet at all and we only need to keep improving the functionalities and user - friendliness of the existing website . Ultimately , this well help us not only come up with the best intranet solution but become a better company for our employees .