Why Intranet Success Depends on What You Do After Launch

I tend to care a lot about what happens the 12 months after.

After you launch.

Right. After we launch.

Mm-hmm.

So part of our process for anyone who doesn't work with us and doesn't know this is that every year we offer as like a, a partnership service, just part of how we work. It's not an additional fee or anything, is to help you develop your intranet strategy. Right. In year 1, it's kind of obvious generally what needs to happen. We still refine it, you know, cuz What one firm needs is multi-office, multi, you know, discipline firm is what they're working with is going to be a little different than a single office firm that is going from 20 to 40 employees. Right. And what their pain points are. So we just modify it. But the gist is kind of the same in a lot of ways. Like we need to get the platform up, we need to get people using it. But what happens in year 2 and 3 and 4 diverge. So in that first year, Well, in our process, we do that strategy work and then we meet with you every quarter to look at your analytics and to talk about what you're experiencing on the ground with respect to your 3 to 5 business priorities that you've identified for the platform. In the first year, I do not let clients out of that. It's like, you have to meet with me. I am going to— I'm going to help you whether you like it or not. Hopefully they like it.

Why?

Why do I— why? Yeah. Gosh, I mean, I want them to be successful. And I think when firms are like, I know, I don't know if we need to— I don't know if we need to look at this with you. Sometimes what I fear is that they think that since things have been, you know, on an upward trajectory, they're like, we did the things that it's just going to continue that way. And like, I know about the trough of disillusionment, right?

You're going to get to a high and then there's going to be a dip.

I know that things might be falling off or could fall off in the future. I know that because I've just been through this so many times.

Mm-hmm.

Just because people got their stuff on and it's like looking good does not mean they're going to maintain it. And if they don't maintain it, we're not going to have a good intranet in 2 years anymore. Right. We might have had something really great at launch, but if we do we don't continue to tweak it and build the culture of caring for this new member of our firm, we're not going to be where we want to be. So in that first year, like, it's kind of like onboarding a new employee. It's like, I brought them in, I recruited them, I brought them in. I'm not going to walk away and hope their manager does a good job. I'm going to stay with their manager and make sure that, you know, they get to their 12-month mark and it's working.

So it's that kind of like responsibility and accountability I feel like I have to them to like To get this, we are talking about the transition from being in project mode, which is launch the thing, to operational mode, which is sustain, build, evolve, grow, develop the thing as your company evolves and grows. And I think what you're saying is, you know, that change is coming even if they don't. Like, you've seen that, like, people get excited when something launches, then they kind of go back to work, and that the long work is to kind of like build adoption over time to make it the new normal.