Problem Space
Initial Problem Statement
Dexterity Intranet 2.0
Redesigned Dexterity’s internal intranet to streamline information access, reduce dependency on HR, and create a centralized, user-friendly knowledge hub.
Role:
Lead UX Reseacher/Designer
Team:
Me, Blake Dy (manager), Jordan Rothe (mentor), Emilie Peck, Diane Prins Sheldahl (HR Stakeholder)
Lack of documentation?
Now that I knew the intranet wasn't being used, I wanted to talk to employees to understand why on a deeper level. Most of the employees had to use this on a frequent basis to get information, so I wanted to hear it from them to better understand how to create a well-rounded solution that makes it easier and more convenient to get simple information.
"Confluence is like using Craigslist to bake a cake... All the parts are there, but what you're expecting to find may be VERY different from the reality"
These were some of the key phrases I heard repeated in different forms. While no one could pinpoint exactly what needed to be improved, they all agreed that the intranet wasn’t meeting their needs.
Hearing this, I realized I needed to step back and reframe the problem—not just as a design issue, but as a deeper disconnect between the tool and how people actually worked.
Accessing company information is confusing and unclear, resulting in employees not using the current intranet effectively and purposefully.
Before starting this project, I had absolutely no clue what an intranet was or how it was supposed to be used. Like, what defined a successful intranet and do people actually enjoy using their intranet if it has certain features?
To better understand this and see if I could find something that I could use to better the Dexterity intranet, I read up on the evolution of the intranet to understand how its functionality has evolved over the years.
🌈 The Dreamer
In this phase, imagination leads. You’re encouraged to think freely and creatively, without any limitations. No idea is too big, too weird, or too far-fetched. The goal is to generate bold, inspiring concepts that express possibility rather than constraint.
“What would this look like if anything were possible?”
Key Takeaways:
If people know that the intranet exists, why aren't they using it more?
"We have probably changed softwares three times and absolutely NO one at the company was notified.... You would think that the company would care enough to notify us about important changes like that so we wouldn't make mistakes right?"
Ideation - Disney Creative Sprint
It was clear the intranet wasn’t just underused—it was irrelevant.
To reimagine what it could be, I led a Disney Creative Sprint with my team—a fast-paced ideation exercise designed to unlock bold, user-centered ideas.
Sprint Overview
The Disney Creative Sprint is an ideation framework inspired by how Walt Disney approached problem-solving—by separating imagination from critique. It’s designed to help teams think expansively, challenge assumptions, and balance creativity with practicality.
The sprint is divided into three distinct mindsets:
🌈 Dreamer Phase
We imagined the ideal intranet experience with no limits. The focus was on the emotional and functional “dream state” employees wanted to experience when using the system.
Results:
1. Personalization by team or role
2. A simplified, non-cluttered homepage
3. A “go-to” system employees instinctively turn to first
4. Clean navigation and trustworthy search
🔍 Realist Phase:
In the Realist Phase of the Disney Creative Sprint, we began evaluating our ideas through a more strategic lens: what’s actually feasible, and what will create the most impact for users? To guide this process, we categorized every idea into buckets inspired by the Kano Model of product thinking:
Timeline:
May 13 - August 30, 2024
Tools:
Figma, Confluence, Whimsical, Miro
The robotics startup I worked with faced major challenges around internal knowledge sharing due to a disjointed and unreliable intranet system. Critical information—ranging from HR policies to onboarding resources—was scattered across multiple platforms like Google Docs and Outline, with no centralized source of truth. As a result, employees found it difficult to locate accurate or up-to-date information when they needed it.
The existing intranet was rarely maintained and poorly organized, making it ineffective as a go-to resource. This led employees to rely heavily on word of mouth or default to asking long-time team members, HR, or office management—putting unnecessary pressure on individuals who often didn’t have answers themselves. This decentralized approach not only created communication bottlenecks but also slowed down workflows, diminished employee confidence in the system, and contributed to a general sense of frustration across teams.
Solution
To address Dexterity’s intranet challenges, I proposed a centralized, user-friendly platform that brings together all essential information in one easily accessible place. The redesigned intranet features intuitive navigation, improved search functionality, and clearly structured content to help employees quickly find accurate, up-to-date resources. By streamlining access and ensuring consistency, the new system reduces dependency on HR and office management, empowering teams to work more independently and efficiently.
There is too much of a burden on HR - Employees can't seem to find the information they need, so they keep coming to us."
When I was first assigned this problem, these were the exact words that were given to me by my primary HR stakeholder.
After having just struggled to find some team-specific information myself—and eventually resorting to asking a teammate because I didn’t even realize the intranet could help—I admitted I agreed: it was time for an upgrade.
But her comment stuck with me—
“Too much of a burden on HR.”
What did that actually mean?
Too many emails?
Too many repetitive questions?
After discussing my thoughts with my manager and sharing the initial problem statement, he paused and said:
"Just because people have a problem, doesn't mean they go straight to HR for solutions."
At first, I wasn’t sure what he meant. But after sitting with it, I realized he was prompting me to think deeper:
Were people even aware the intranet existed?
That question shifted everything.
I had been focusing on usability—how the site worked. But now, I had to ask a more fundamental question: Did anyone even know it was there to begin with?
Company Wide Survey
Disclaimer: Due to NDA, I cannot show you the full results of the survey, but I can describe them. Feel free to contact me for more questions.
In hopes of better trying to understand intranet usage on a deeper level, I decided to launch a company wide survey that would be completed during a weekly All-Hands meeting.
Do you know about the intranet?
In-Depth Interviews
Third Generation
Modern third-generation intranets adopt a user-centered approach, prioritizing communication and collaboration. They recognize that employees often seek assistance from colleagues rather than relying solely on documents and policies. These intranets embody an organization’s culture by emphasizing effective communication, curating targeted content, and providing tailored information to meet the specific needs of users.
Unlike the ideal intranet experience—where information is centralized, up-to-date, and easy to find—Dexterity’s intranet lacked all three.
1.There was no clear structure. Employees didn’t know where to start or where to look.
2. Information was outdated or missing entirely. Even HR wasn’t sure what was current.
3. There was no trust in the system. Employees bypassed the intranet altogether in favor of Slack messages, Google Drive bookmarks, or asking coworkers.
❗ The Critic
The final phase is about refinement and evaluation. It’s time to spot weaknesses, identify risks, and think through what might go wrong. The goal is not to tear ideas down, but to strengthen them through constructive critique.
“What are the challenges, flaws, or potential consequences of this idea?”
🔍 The Realist
This phase grounds the ideas generated in the Dreamer phase. It’s about thinking practically—what can actually be done with the time, tools, and resources available? Here, ideas start to take shape into realistic strategies or solutions.
“How could we make this idea work in the real world?”
Unclear about intranet existence?
What other tools do you use?
"People treat their managers and the HR team like Google when they can't find something.... I'm in the same boat as them, so how am I expected to find them what they're looking for when I can barely find what I am looking for"
Revised Problem Statement
So..... how EXACTLY should an intranet be used?
Second Generation
Second-generation intranets sought to replicate the social features of platforms like Facebook within the enterprise, introducing tools such as activity streams,status updates, and collaborative spaces. However, this approach largely failed because the focus on entertaining and engaging employees with social tools did not align with their primary need for quick and efficient access to information and resources.
Key Takeaways
1. Easy to Navigate
2. Clear information architecture
3. Intuitive menus and search functionality
4. Up-to-Date and Trustworthy
5. Content that is actively maintained
6. Clear ownership for updates and accuracy
7. Version control or timestamps for transparency
8. Centralized but Flexible
9. One place to access key info (HR policies, tools, team directories, project docs)
10. Links out to external tools (e.g. Google Drive, Slack) while keeping context in one place
11. Custom views or pages for department-specific resources
12. Searchable and Findable
13. A powerful search engine with filters, tags, and smart suggestions
Journey Mapping
Upon researching what an intranet is supposed to function like and doing competitive analysis through talking to friends and relatives at other corporate companies, one thing became seemingly clear, an intranet is not supposed to be a place you spend more than 10 minutes on, as the information should be readily accessible in a common place; essentially all employees know where to go to locate what they are looking for and can trust that it is updated.
First Generation
First-generation intranets were primarily designed for document storage and sharing. Their main purpose was to centralize access to important documents and resources. However, they often provided a static and non-engaging user experience, as they lacked interactive features and dynamic content.
⭐ Attractive
These ideas weren't essential for functionality, but they introduced opportunities to delight users, boost engagement, and make the intranet feel more enjoyable and personalized. They represented creative, forward-thinking ways to build a system that employees would actually want to use—turning the intranet into a space of collaboration, discovery, and even fun.
Some focused on adding convenience—like the ability to easily share frequently accessed pages or generate a “feed” of popular content. Others leaned into culture and gamification, with ideas like a data bounty system for keeping content fresh or incorporating company mind maps and visual storytelling.
⚙️ Performance
Performance ideas focused on the features that would directly impact usability, speed, and functionality. These are the kinds of features that users consciously notice—when done well, they improve satisfaction and efficiency; when done poorly, they create frustration and slow adoption.
Many of these ideas revolved around making the intranet smarter, faster, and more accessible. Participants suggested functionality like searching across multiple knowledge sources (Slack, Confluence, Google Drive), generative AI tools, and text-based Q&A responses to streamline how people interact with content. Other performance-driven suggestions included validated, regularly updated content, cross-platform compatibility, and collaborative features like following topics and reporting broken pages.
✅ Must-Be
These were the non-negotiables—the foundational elements that needed to be in place for the intranet to be even remotely usable or credible. Users wouldn’t necessarily notice these features when they worked, but they would absolutely notice their absence. Without them, trust in the system would break down immediately.
These ideas emphasized clarity, structure, and reliability. Users needed the intranet to be easy to navigate, up-to-date, and standardized across the board. There had to be clear ownership of content, security and access control, and backing from leadership to encourage adoption. Suggestions like common templates, company-wide coverage, and exportable content reflected the need for a robust, scalable, and maintainable foundation.
The Disney Creative Sprint was originally designed to conclude with a Critic phase, where ideas would be evaluated for potential risks, gaps, and long-term sustainability. However, due to tight timelines and shifting project priorities, I was unable to facilitate this final step. Instead, the team needed to move forward quickly into the design phase to maintain momentum and deliver on deadlines.
Results:
Users didn’t just want content — they wanted clarity. People weren’t looking for more documentation. They wanted the right documentation, in the right place, when they needed it.
Structure mattered more than features.
Regardless of department, what users were asking for was better categorization, clean navigation, and intuitive pathways — not flashy tools.
One-size-fits-all doesn't work. Different teams had different needs, but everyone agreed that the current system failed because it wasn’t tailored, organized, or role-relevant.
People were overwhelmed by options. This showed me the IA had to reduce cognitive load, not add to it. Fewer clicks, less guesswork.
Information Architecture
Guided by the outcomes of the Disney Creative Sprint, I began structuring the intranet’s Information Architecture to reflect what users actually needed to navigate with ease and confidence.
I prioritized:
1. A role-aware homepage that surfaces key tools and information upfront
2. Task-based categorization that mirrors how people search and think—not how teams are organized
3. Clear, minimal navigation paths to reduce friction and guesswork
4. Template-ready sections to support consistency, ownership, and long-term scalability
Wireframes
Home Screen
Project Space
Teams Page
Process:
Identify the problem → Define the problem → Wireframe
Do you use the intranet?
This homepage section was designed to solve a core user problem uncovered during research: employees didn’t know where to start. The original intranet lacked structure, relevance, and visibility, leaving users unsure of where to look or what was important.
By creating a personalized, modular layout, I aimed to:
1.Give employees a clear starting point with a friendly greeting and search bar
2. Surface relevant, high-priority content upfront—like leadership updates, company culture highlights, and essential memos
3. Build trust and engagement by making the homepage feel alive, timely, and human
This design helped shift the intranet from a forgotten tool into a central touchpoint—making it easier for employees to engage with information, stay updated, and feel connected.
This section of the homepage highlights Dexterity’s mission and the humans driving it forward. It’s designed to build connection and morale through:
1. A brief “About Dex” overview, reinforcing company purpose
2. A visual breakdown of key company missions to create alignment
3. Employee Spotlights to showcase individual contributions and foster recognition
A “Celebrate Our Dexers!” stream for birthdays, milestones, and shoutouts
By centering people and purpose, this section transforms the intranet into more than a tool—it becomes a space for culture and belonging.
This section gives employees a dashboard view of active projects across the organization. Designed for transparency and collaboration, it allows users to:
1. See key project details at a glance
2. Identify team members involved
3. Quickly jump to task views or explore new initiatives
4. It streamlines cross-functional work by turning the intranet into a live hub for project tracking, not just static documentation.
This view organizes active tasks by urgency, helping teams stay focused and aligned. By splitting items into “Today” and “Tomorrow,” users get a quick snapshot of what’s coming up—without digging through cluttered to-do lists. Team icons offer immediate visibility into collaborators, making accountability and communication seamless. This section brings day-to-day clarity into a broader project landscape.
This page helps employees quickly navigate to different departments across Dexterity. With a simple search bar and clearly labeled team cards, users can locate the right team, find ownership over content, or connect with colleagues across HR, IT, Product, and more. This central hub enhances transparency and reduces dependency on word-of-mouth for internal navigation.