On Tuesday, 18 April we kicked off the first research phase for the EMBL intranet project. This first phase, or sprint, will run until 12 May and we’ve codenamed it ‘intra1’. The purpose of this sprint is to:

• understand current user behaviours
• define audience segments
• establish the scope of problems and the functions of EMBL’s intranet(s)
• communications – informing people that this intranet project is happening.

The intranet project is a long-term project that will run for at least several years. We will work on it in short sprints and communicate via this blog about it (we’ll also reach out in lots of other ways to the EMBL community, of course). If you’d like to get involved or have questions, please just let us know.

Who is taking part in this sprint?

As we work through this project we’ll need a range of different viewpoints, skills and approaches. So who will take part in each sprint will vary. For this first sprint we pulled together the following people:

• Chloë Cross – EMBL’s internal communications manager
• Matthias Helmling – manager of software and solutions development, Heidelberg IT team
• Jonathan Hickford – team leader of web development at EMBL-EBI
• Laura Howes – EMBL’s social media manager
• Michael Müller – web and collaboration manager
• Revathi Nathaniel – user experience designer at EMBL-EBI
• Dan Noyes – joint-head of Strategy and Communications
• Tabea Rauscher – EMBL’s art director
• Mary Todd Bergman – senior communications officer at EMBL-EBI
• Agustin Villalba Casas – web developer, Heidelberg IT team

What we are doing

We agreed on our first meeting that we’d run the following research activities to generate insights into current use of EMBL’s intranets:

• Surveys – Chloë
• Digital diaries – Dan
• Analytics and data – Matthias / Jon
• Observation and interviews – Ravethi
• Risk assessment for opening access to content – Dan / Michael

You’ll hear more about all this as we progress.