APRIL HAMILTON | PORTFOLIO
Intranets & Employee Communication Platforms
Building places where employees can find information, follow company news, and stay connected.
From an underused SharePoint site to a working communication hub
At Research Now / Dynata, I designed and developed The Zone, a global WordPress intranet for more than 1,200 employees.
It replaced an underused SharePoint site and became a central place for company news, department information, HR resources, leadership updates, recognition, and shared tools. Use grew to about 400 active daily users and 1,000 active monthly users—evidence that employees found enough value to keep coming back.
1,200+
Employees served
400
Active daily users
1,000
Active monthly users
SharePoint → WordPress
Platform transformation
More than moving pages
The project worked because I treated the intranet as a communication system, not a storage site. I organized content around what employees needed to find, created custom page templates departments could maintain, connected Google Drive resources, and built secure content areas where needed.
I also trained department owners, HR partners, and employees on how to update content, find resources, and use the platform.
What employees could do there
The platform brought company communication and practical employee resources into one place.
Follow company news
Company updates, announcements, events, and recurring news.
Find HR resources
Benefits, policies, programs, and practical employee information.
Hear from leadership
Leadership updates and company priorities employees could revisit.
Recognize colleagues
Recognition, celebrations, milestones, and employee participation.
Search and navigate
Clear navigation and search helped employees get to useful content faster.
Access shared resources
Department pages, Google Drive resources, and secure content areas.
The system behind the site
An intranet succeeds when employees can find what they need and contributors know how to keep the information useful.
01
Organize the content
Shape navigation, categories, and page structures around what employees need to find.
02
Build for findability
Use clear navigation, search, and predictable layouts to reduce the hunt for information.
03
Create reusable pages
Give departments templates they can maintain without rebuilding the experience each time.
04
Train contributors
Help department owners, HR partners, and employees confidently update and use the platform.
05
Maintain and improve
Administer the site, support contributors, and keep the platform useful as needs change.
The visible site was only one part of the work. The content model, contributor support, and maintenance structure are what allowed it to keep working over time.
Administering a platform I did not build
At PCI, I administered a ThoughtFarmer intranet within the platform’s existing framework. I did not control the underlying product or redesign its core interface. My opportunity was to use the available skinning and content tools thoughtfully.
Each year, I created a visual skin tied to the company’s annual theme. The designs refreshed the employee experience without disrupting the navigation and functionality people already knew.
Annual visual skin applied within the existing ThoughtFarmer platform.
A new annual theme while preserving familiar navigation and platform behavior.
Related internal communications work
The platform was one part of a larger communication system that included leadership content, recurring video, company updates, employee campaigns, and culture communication.
Keeping a Fully Remote Workforce Connected
How the intranet worked alongside CEO content, weekly video, quarterly meetings, and culture communication.
Executive & Internal Communications
Leadership communication, employee campaigns, culture content, and the systems behind them.
Looking for someone who can build the platform and make the communication work inside it?
I’m especially interested in internal communications, employee experience, intranet, and culture-focused roles where content, systems, and hands-on production all matter.
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