site structure one or many

Site StructureOne or Many

One-or-many

“Should we create a separate collaborative space for each project team, or have everyone collaborate in a single, shared space”?

I call this the “one-or-many” question. It comes up all the time.

There’s no right or wrong answer. Both approaches have pros and cons, but there are very clear criteria for when you should take which approach.

The case for many

Good reasons to have multiple workspaces (e.g., one for each project):

• There’s confidential material that’s not shareable within the organization

• Employees are intensely risk-averse and won’t participate honestly if their contributions are broadly accessible outside the immediate team

• People work in disparate areas, and will view updates from other areas as spam

The case for one or few

Good reasons to have one workspace:

• You want to support and encourage cross-silo collaboration and coordination

• You want colleagues to have greater visibility into what’s happening in other parts of the organization

• You have a small implementation and don’t want to dilute the network effects by splitting the cocktail party up into multiple private rooms

100 user tipping point

In general, I find that very small implementations (<100 participants) almost always benefit from working in one big workspace. The group is small, confidentiality is rarely an issue, and business processes are so fluid that everyone needs to be in everyone else’s business.

Once you get over 100 people, however, business processes and accountabilities become more formal, and you want to augment that one big workspace with smaller workspaces that are specific to teams, geographies, projects, etc.

One workspace – everyone sees everything

Finance• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

Marketing• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

Sales• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

Engineering• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

Support• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

Production• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

Quality• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

Inventory• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

Accounting• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

HR• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

Info Tech• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

Corporate• Projects• KPIs - metrics• Processes• News, Blogs• Knowledge base• Meeting notes

Few workspaces by business groups

FinancePages

MarketingPages

SalesPages

EngineeringPages

SupportPages

ProductionPages

QualityPages

InventoryPages

AccountingPages

HRPages

Info TechPages

CorporatePages

Product DevPages

Few workspaces by geography

FinancePages

MarketingPages

SalesPages

EngineeringPages

SupportPages

ProductionPages

QualityPages

InventoryPages

AccountingPages

HRPages

Info TechPages

CorporatePages

Product DevPages

FinancePages

MarketingPages

SalesPages

EngineeringPages

SupportPages

ProductionPages

QualityPages

InventoryPages

AccountingPages

HRPages

Info TechPages

CorporatePages

Product DevPages

FinancePages

MarketingPages

SalesPages

EngineeringPages

SupportPages

ProductionPages

QualityPages

InventoryPages

AccountingPages

HRPages

Info TechPages

CorporatePages

Product DevPages

Few workspaces by function across geography

FinancePages

MarketingPages

SalesPages

EngineeringPages

SupportPages

ProductionPages

QualityPages

InventoryPages

AccountingPages

HRPages

Info TechPages

CorporatePages

Product DevPages

FinancePages

AccountingPages

CorporatePages

FinancePages

AccountingPages

CorporatePages

MarketingPages

SalesPages

EngineeringPages

SupportPages

Product DevPages

MarketingPages

SalesPages

EngineeringPages

SupportPages

Product DevPages

HRPages

HRPages

Info TechPages

Info TechPages

ProductionPages

QualityPages

InventoryPages

ProductionPages

QualityPages

InventoryPages

Many workspaces by department

FinancePages

MarketingPages

SalesPages

EngineeringPages

SupportPages

ProductionPages

QualityPages

InventoryPages

AccountingPages

HRPages

Info TechPages

CorporatePages

Product DevPages

Workspaces by knowledge type

ProcessesCompany-wide

Customer InfoPages

KPIs - metricsFinancial

Product InfoEngineering

Market InfoCompetitionTrends

News/AnnouncementsPages

Raw Material InfoPages

FAQsWikipedia-intranet

AdministrativeHR, forms

Info TechPages

ProjectsProgram mgmt

People/staff InfoPages

Workspaces organically grown as needed

Team / Group 1Company-wide

Location 1Department 1, 2, 3, 4

Product 1Specs, documents

Market 1CompetitionTrends

Project 1Tasks, Milestones, Risks, Scope

All Staff AnnouncementsNews, AdminFAQs













site structure one or many

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