An intranet earns its place when people go there to find news, documents and each other. Matt designs and builds SharePoint and Teams intranets, and organizes the content behind them so Copilot and agents can use it too.
See what makes an intranet useful
Bring sites used by Finance, Operations and project teams into a common inventory. Different work may need different controls, even when it uses the same platform.
A shared inventory gives the organization a way to compare those contexts without assuming they need identical treatment.
Assign an owner who can explain why each site exists and who needs it. Later decisions about sharing and cleanup need someone able to act on the findings.
Confirm that ownership with the responsible team. An empty field or an outdated name leaves the review without a decision-maker.
Review what is sensitive and how it is shared at each site. A broad audience may be appropriate for one collection and wrong for another.
Considering them together helps the owner assess whether the audience fits the content’s purpose and sensitivity.
Use the inventory to assign review work, with ownership and sharing questions attached to the relevant sites. The example records illustrate what to collect, not findings from a client tenant.
The useful outcome is an inventory that leads to decisions, with responsibility for keeping those records current.
Bring sites used by Finance, Operations and project teams into a common inventory. Different work may need different controls, even when it uses the same platform.
A shared inventory gives the organization a way to compare those contexts without assuming they need identical treatment.
Assign an owner who can explain why each site exists and who needs it. Later decisions about sharing and cleanup need someone able to act on the findings.
Confirm that ownership with the responsible team. An empty field or an outdated name leaves the review without a decision-maker.
Review what is sensitive and how it is shared at each site. A broad audience may be appropriate for one collection and wrong for another.
Considering them together helps the owner assess whether the audience fits the content’s purpose and sensitivity.
Use the inventory to assign review work, with ownership and sharing questions attached to the relevant sites. The example records illustrate what to collect, not findings from a client tenant.
The useful outcome is an inventory that leads to decisions, with responsibility for keeping those records current.
Give each department, project and team a site with a purpose and an owner, so people know where work belongs. An inventory of sites, owners and sharing makes the later decisions possible: what to keep, merge or archive.
The business team belongs to an assigned group. Membership expresses who should participate in the shared work.
Keeping that assignment current gives the organization a practical place to manage collaboration access as people change roles.
The assigned group connects people to Teams and its SharePoint library. The files come from the connected site.
Reviewing the group and the working space together helps the owner understand who can reach the team’s material.
A guest without the required membership does not receive access through that group. Review separate sharing grants as well before concluding the guest cannot reach the content.
A guest identity alone does not establish this assignment. Any intended collaboration needs its own reviewed access decision.
The application follows a separate route: app registration, service principal, then an Azure role and scope.
Application access deserves the same attention as people access. Its grant must fit the resources needed for its job.
Groups simplify the people side of collaboration. Applications still require their own appropriate grants.
A useful access review accounts for both routes and checks that their scope still matches the business purpose.
The business team belongs to an assigned group. Membership expresses who should participate in the shared work.
Keeping that assignment current gives the organization a practical place to manage collaboration access as people change roles.
The assigned group connects people to Teams and its SharePoint library. The files come from the connected site.
Reviewing the group and the working space together helps the owner understand who can reach the team’s material.
A guest without the required membership does not receive access through that group. Review separate sharing grants as well before concluding the guest cannot reach the content.
A guest identity alone does not establish this assignment. Any intended collaboration needs its own reviewed access decision.
The application follows a separate route: app registration, service principal, then an Azure role and scope.
Application access deserves the same attention as people access. Its grant must fit the resources needed for its job.
Groups simplify the people side of collaboration. Applications still require their own appropriate grants.
A useful access review accounts for both routes and checks that their scope still matches the business purpose.
Teams is where the conversation happens; SharePoint holds the files and pages behind it. Plan them as one system, with navigation between the intranet, Teams and department sites. Groups carry access to both, so a change of role is a change of membership.
A policy, a template and an approved example serve different purposes. Together they explain the rule, the expected form and what accepted work looks like.
Maintain those sources before relying on them for a draft. A better tool cannot settle a contradiction in the underlying guidance.
A SharePoint agent can help answer questions from the sources selected for its scope. Check the answer against the policy and approved example before using it to guide the task.
Keep it distinct from the working draft. The answer informs the work; it does not by itself approve a document.
In this proposed workflow, reusable instructions guide the draft alongside the source material. Configure that method in the chosen agent experience; storing a document in SharePoint does not make it an executable skill.
Check the actual workflow against the team's requirements. Keep the method current when review reveals a missing rule or exception.
A human reviews the draft before it becomes an approved record. The reviewer checks whether the work fits the task and the governing sources.
Carry useful corrections back to the source or method. The next draft should benefit from the review that just happened.
The pattern combines maintained SharePoint sources, an answer, a working method and human review. Each has a distinct purpose on the way to an accepted result.
Start with a document workflow the team knows well. That makes it possible to judge whether the assistance is useful.
Copilot and SharePoint agents answer from the content they can reach. A current policy, a template and an approved example give them something reliable to work from. Keep those sources maintained, with owners, and review answers before they become records.
Facilitator can capture AI-generated notes during a Teams meeting. That gives participants material to check while the discussion is still fresh.
Treat the captured material as something the team still needs to review. A record is useful when it reflects what people actually agreed.
The notes distinguish decisions, open questions and actions. Those categories tell the next person what is settled and what still needs attention.
Review the notes while the context is fresh. Correct a missed qualification before it becomes the basis for later work.
Ask the team to confirm decisions and actions before relying on the notes for later work. This is a review practice for collaborative notes, not a private approval stage built into capture.
Use that record to carry work into the next task or meeting. Keep unresolved questions visible instead of letting them read as decisions.
Revisit the shared notes when an action changes or a question is resolved. Update the record so the next meeting starts from what is current.
Maintained notes reduce the need to reconstruct context. The team still owns what the record says and what happens next.
Facilitator can capture AI-generated notes during a Teams meeting. That gives participants material to check while the discussion is still fresh.
Treat the captured material as something the team still needs to review. A record is useful when it reflects what people actually agreed.
The notes distinguish decisions, open questions and actions. Those categories tell the next person what is settled and what still needs attention.
Review the notes while the context is fresh. Correct a missed qualification before it becomes the basis for later work.
Ask the team to confirm decisions and actions before relying on the notes for later work. This is a review practice for collaborative notes, not a private approval stage built into capture.
Use that record to carry work into the next task or meeting. Keep unresolved questions visible instead of letting them read as decisions.
Revisit the shared notes when an action changes or a question is resolved. Update the record so the next meeting starts from what is current.
Maintained notes reduce the need to reconstruct context. The team still owns what the record says and what happens next.
Teams meetings can capture notes that separate decisions, open questions and actions. Review them while the discussion is fresh and keep them current, so the next meeting starts from what is settled.
Launch with what people come for: news, the documents they use most, and search that shows each person only what they may see. Train by role with real examples, then check that the intranet is used.
Matt's intranets include a law firm intranet in the Nielsen Norman Group Intranet Design Annual, a search solution with a Step Two Platinum Innovation award, and 125+ collaboration sites for a foundation in 14 months, on time and under budget.
Role-specific guidance explains the task through clear goals and examples.
That gives people a practical starting point tied to the work they are expected to perform.
People practice together using realistic work, supported by the same guidance.
Practice creates an opportunity to find the questions and gaps that a written instruction may miss.
The task becomes part of daily work with support and feedback.
That continued support helps the organization see whether the guidance fits the situations people actually encounter.
Feedback from practical use returns to the role-specific guidance. Learning and operating the task remain connected.
The result is a maintained practice that can improve with the team’s experience, rather than a training event that ends at attendance.
Role-specific guidance explains the task through clear goals and examples.
That gives people a practical starting point tied to the work they are expected to perform.
People practice together using realistic work, supported by the same guidance.
Practice creates an opportunity to find the questions and gaps that a written instruction may miss.
The task becomes part of daily work with support and feedback.
That continued support helps the organization see whether the guidance fits the situations people actually encounter.
Feedback from practical use returns to the role-specific guidance. Learning and operating the task remain connected.
The result is a maintained practice that can improve with the team’s experience, rather than a training event that ends at attendance.
Start with what people cannot find today. We plan the intranet around that, then build it on the Microsoft 365 you already have.
Talk to the people who will use it, then design the sites, navigation, search and ownership around the content they need.
Build the hub, department sites and search on SharePoint and Teams, move the content that matters, and train people by role.
An intranet people use, organized so AI can use it too.
Matt interviews the people who will use the intranet, designs it around their content and builds it on SharePoint and Teams. Remote first, and in person across Toronto, Mississauga and the Golden Horseshoe for workshops.
Bring the intranet people have stopped using, or the one you have not built yet.