Content Strategy & Information Architecture for a Global Paints & Coatings Manufacturer's New Intranet
Overview
Content strategy, information architecture and editorial operations for Jotun's new global intranet, replacing a fragmented, 2002-era system across a four-segment, seven-region matrix organisation.
Who This Is For
Global manufacturing organisations with 10,000-100,000+ employees migrating a corporate intranet to SharePoint and needing to improve communication and collaboration for employees worldwide across manufacturing, commercial, and support functions.
The Challenge
Jotun's existing intranet dated from 2002 and had never been standardised: different locations had built their own versions over the years, search was widely cited as the biggest frustration, and content ownership crossed a matrix of four business segments, seven regions and country-level teams with no shared structure. Jotun's own 2014 strategy work (following a 2012 usability study) had defined the goal, one common access point, but turning that into a workable content structure and editorial operation was still open.
Our Approach
Ran user interviews and a content inventory and audit across Jotun's existing intranet, then built the information architecture and content lifecycle model the new platform needed: content kickstarter workshops with regional and segment editors, an operative content planning process, and a KPI framework connecting content to the goals Jotun's own strategy had set out. The work sat alongside Jotun Group IT's platform build, focused on content structure, editorial process and the people who would run it day to day, not the underlying SharePoint implementation itself.
Impact
Content structure and editorial operations designed to work across Jotun's actual matrix organisation, corporate, four segments, seven regions, and local country teams, rather than a generic intranet template applied on top of it. Interviews and a full content audit grounded the information architecture in how people were already searching and failing to find things, not assumption.
Delivered while employed at Making Waves (later NoA Ignite), as part of a content and information-architecture team working alongside Jotun Group IT. Any public information referenced here is used for identification and does not imply endorsement.
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