If your users were asked to vote on a “SharePoint Exit”, would they vote “YES”?
We’ve all heard the impact of the recent Brexit vote and impending consequences for the UK, the EU, and the rest of the world. This got me thinking…what if we asked SharePoint users to vote on staying with or leaving SharePoint?
How confident are you that a Sharexit vote would turn out better for your SharePoint environment than it did for the EU? For those of you who are not so sure, I’ve gathered five things that you should do now, just in case your SharePoint deployment is ever put to a vote!
Vote “NO” for Sharexit – Tip #1: Abandon the default UI and make sure you do little things to help improve user experience
If you’ve not branded your SharePoint site and your users are still seeing the default SharePoint UI, then this is for sure something to look at. UI frameworks and design patterns change rapidly. Applying a fresh coat of paint to your SharePoint environment will breathe some fresh air into it. Introducing support for mobile, or customizable landing pages, gives users better access and better control. You should also identify easy UI add-ons that can help deliver value to your users.
A great place to start is by providing more than the out of the box refiners. Follow this link for more information on that strategy. Other things to consider are improving type ahead and search suggestions, as both are small improvements to the search box that have huge payback. If you decide to do this, then you should do it without customization. We have a tool kit that does this for you.
Vote “NO” for Sharexit – Tip #2: Give your users an Identity
Vote “NO” for Sharexit – Tip #3: Ask for, and react to, feedback
You probably already have an email that users can send feedback to, or a contact us form for help. This is not the kind of feedback this tip is talking about. The real way to gauge overall user satisfaction is to make contextual feedback easy and available in a number of places. Simple things like “Rate the usefulness of this content” or “Did you find what you were looking for? (yes or no)” makes it easy for users to send quick feedback, and for system owners to judge the overall satisfaction of the users. You could also ask them to “Please tell us your ideas for new features/enhancements.” This makes it easy to identify future improvements that can deliver big value to users, by addressing the specific problems users are facing with the system.
A more automated and sophisticated approach would be to use meaningful analytics to really understand what the users are doing and use the results to improve the platform. You do it for your website, why not for your SharePoint implementation? Are your users not citizens? We have done free POCs to accomplish this through our Smart Analytics product, and would be happy to do something similar if this is of interest.
Vote “NO” for Sharexit – Tip #4: Who should I listen to and where are the experts?
Vote “NO” for Sharexit – Tip #5: Make SharePoint the epicenter of the information universe
If you are already doing some of these things, then great, you’ve got a head start. If you’re not, then these are easy ways to boost user satisfaction of a SharePoint environment and ensure it is delivering real business value. Feel free to share your top tips in the comments, as these five are just a beginning.
Remember, Vote “NO” for Sharexit!
This is a great article! thanks! Great suggestions and the tie to Brexit is brilliant!