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Chapter 10  Change management

Launch & user training

We started the new site as a pilot, launching as the 

source of information for a relocation of our head 

office. (Nothing drives traffic like the seating plan for a 

new office!) Information around the relocation was fast 

moving and changing daily for the two weeks between 

announcement of the move and our actual relocation.

Building on that success, we obtained executive 

approval to replace the existing intranet. Over the next 

two weeks we worked with key content owners (most 

particularly HR) to show them how to create pages and 

migrate appropriate information. We made the deci-

sion to not automatically migrate any content, mostly 

because it was so old and trust in the existing intranet 

information was so low.

Our launch was timed with an informal head office 

monthly meeting, where around 100 people stand 

and listen to an update from senior management. We 

switched the site to live during the meeting, and had 

5 minutes to present:

1 

1 min: Highlight the desire for a trusted source of 

information that was simple to use.

2 

3 mins: Full training that showed how easy it was to 

view, search, edit & maintain.

3 

1 min: Point out that responsibility for building that 

trusted source is now in your hands!

That launch presentation remains the only formal train-

ing we’ve ever provided on how to use the system.

Continuing training has been provided through short 

one-on-one demonstrations (we only show, we never 

do) and a detailed help section (I’m happy to show you 

now, but for future reference here is the help page).