How Our Intranet Glow-Up Became My Favorite Project of the Year

Okay, let’s be honest — building an intranet is not one of the most exciting projects in the world. It’s a beast. Especially for marketers who are tech-savvy enough to be dangerous but nowhere near developers. So when my firm kicked off an ambitious 12-week overhaul of our intranet — lovingly named FRANK (Firm Resources and New Knowledge) — it felt too big to even wrap my head around. But sometimes the projects that intimidate you the most end up being the ones you’re proudest of.

If your firm is thinking about refreshing its intranet or building one from the ground up, here are a few things we did at Yeo & Yeo to keep the project on track, meet our goals, and actually hit our deadline.

Start with Goals

Like any good project, we started by asking people what they needed. Through an internal communications survey, we learned that employees struggled to navigate the old intranet, couldn’t find what they needed, and didn’t trust the search functionality. They also wanted more timely updates and better usability overall.

From that feedback, we built a wish list and sorted it into what could realistically be accomplished in 12 weeks versus what would need to wait for phases two and three. That clarity made the rest of the process so much easier.

Build the Right Team

Once we knew our goals, we pulled together a stakeholder team that met weekly. This included key users who would maintain the site, marketing, internal IT, and departments that rely heavily on the intranet — learning & development, HR, and quality control.

We quickly realized that, to meet our deadline, we needed outside help. None of us were SharePoint experts, and we didn’t have the bandwidth to build everything ourselves. After getting approval to bring in a consultant, we moved into the research phase.

Research, Research, Research

Members of our team reached out to AAM peers and BDO Alliance firms who had recently upgraded their intranets. We toured three different sites, asked what they loved, what they’d change, and what they wished they’d known before they started. Those conversations were invaluable — they reshaped our thinking on navigation, layout, and content structure.

We also talked with firms that outsourced their builds, which led us to Netsurit — a partner who specializes in both intranets and automation, which lined up perfectly with our longer-term goals.

Break it Down

With our partner selected and ideas in hand, we started breaking the site into manageable pieces. We created a wireframe, removed a lot of underused pages, and implemented a stacked navigation with drop-downs to simplify the user experience. We mapped out Hubs and the pages associated with each, which gave us a clean blueprint before diving into design.

Create, But Not Too Much

One of the biggest takeaways from our peer conversations was the importance of visual consistency. We wanted a clean, cohesive look that still allowed departments some flexibility. Most pages now include a shaded right-side box with quick links, key contacts, and the firm calendar — a simple element that ties everything together.

Using new SharePoint features, we created standardized templates with aligned colors, headings, buttons, and links. We mocked up pages in PowerPoint first, then handed them to Netsurit to build in SharePoint. From there, marketing refined content and layouts until each page worked the way we wanted it to.

Lean in to Features That Will Engage

To support our goal of more timely communication, we implemented SharePoint’s news web part on select pages. These feed into FRANK’s home page, where news is organized into three categories: firm highlights, department updates, and hot topics and resources. Since employees’ browsers open to FRANK by default, they’re seeing fresh content every day.

To improve searchability — one of the biggest pain points — we built two Microsoft Copilot agents, one for HR and one for internal IT. They crawl documents and answer questions with direct links to the source files. You can ask, “What are our 2026 holidays?” and it instantly pulls the schedule. It’s been a huge win.

Launch With Success

When the site was ready, we focused on a smooth rollout. We recorded a 20-minute on-demand training, created a resource page with videos, FAQs, and quick links to marketing and IT, and sent everything firm-wide. Browsers were automatically set to launch into FRANK, making adoption seamless.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. People loved the updated design, the improved navigation, and the new features — especially the Copilot agents.

Wrapping Up

Phase one was a massive lift, and there were definitely moments when it felt overwhelming. But taking something complex, building it piece by piece, and seeing it actually work for our people made it my favorite project of the year. FRANK got a serious glow-up — and the process taught us a lot about collaboration, planning, and what makes an intranet truly useful. If you’re gearing up for your own intranet refresh, I hope some of these steps give you a few ideas.