Over the last few years there has been a lot of coverage of the use of personas in web site development but I have found the approach just as valid in intranet development projects. However most of the standard reference works on persona development pay little attention to the rather different approaches that need to be adopted in intranet persona projects. Among the best of these reference works is "The User is Always Right" by Steve Mulder and yet in the index there is no entry for 'intranet'. One of the few guides to intranet persona development was published by Step Two Designs back in 2004, and a rare published example of an intranet persona project won an award for the UK Environment Agency in the 2007 Intranet Innovation Awards. I have been using the approach for several years and the reaction of my clients has always been positive.

The initial demographic work is quite easy in an intranet environment as most HR departments are overflowing with information on staff by almost any category. The challenge is to reduce a multiplicity of potential intranets to a managable number. It is easy to end up with a dozen or more because the audience for an intranet is in general much more graular than for a web site. Problems start when more detailed work is required, if only because of the time that can be taken up in the process. Some of these personas can be very helpful in not only defining the information architecture of the intranet but also supporting the overall business case. A good example is the "New Hire". In organisations with staff turnovers at least 10% the speed with which new hires can become effective employees is crucially dependent on the way in which the intranet supports the induction process, enables internal experts to be located and also provides a way for new hires to bring their skills to the attention of all in the organisation.

A novel approach to this problem has been developed and used with success by North Carolina-based intranet and user-engineering consultant Howard McQueen. Howard identifies Persona Advocates who are able to work up some fairly detailed persona profiles without the need for extensive surveys. Howard has just published  "Using Persona Advocates to Develop User-Centric Intranets and Portals" which illustrates his approach to intranet persona projects. Howard is an Associate Consultant of Intranet Focus Ltd. and Howard and I are presenting an intranet governance workshop (W19) at KM World/Intranets 2008 on 22 September which will include a section on intranet personas.

Martin White