Transforming the BBC’s intranet into a task-based internal service

Transforming the BBC's intranet into a task-based internal service

Challenge

The BBC's internal service platform is a 10,000+ page ecosystem supporting departments including HR, Procurement, Commercial Rights, and Production.

The system had become fragmented and difficult to navigate. Employees struggled to find services and complete tasks. The content was inconsistent, unstructured, and maintained using legacy workflows.

Editorial teams also faced operational challenges, including a lack of clear standards, tooling, and governance.

CLIENT

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

INDUSTRY

Media

MY SERVICES

Information Architecture, Content Strategy, Content Operations, UX

Outcomes

✅ +20% year-on-year increase in positive feedback across service pages

✅ Reduced CMS training and editorial onboarding to 1-day

✅ Template-driven intake reduced editorial time by 50%

✅ Dramatically reduced content duplication and inconsistent user flows

✅ Enabled a common metadata-driven content infrastructure for the internal CMS

Goals

  • Develop a scalable content infrastructure to support internal services
  • Align editorial operations with organisational priorities and user needs
  • Reduce friction and duplication across 10,000+ intranet pages
  • Empower 300+ contributors to work efficiently in a new CMS
  • Increase accessibility and findability across service areas

My role

I led Content Design within a cross-functional delivery team, shaping the product vision, editorial architecture, and system governance for the new platform.

My focus was on translating complex editorial workflows into a content model that could support the immediate migration and future scalability.

This included:

  • Defining product scope, user needs, and operational priorities
  • Leading discovery with senior stakeholders across the organisation
  • Designing task-based information architecture and metadata models
  • Developing reusable templates, workflows, and governance
  • Coordinating CMS migration, onboarding, and change management for 300+ editors

Discovery and research

We conducted a full-service audit across the organisation to understand where the platform was failing users and editors alike.

I led discovery activities to surface structural issues and opportunities for improvement:

  • Facilitated workshops and interviews with senior stakeholders and SMEs to map needs, friction points, and priorities

  • Audited 10,000+ pages across legacy systems — including metadata, document types, and publishing workflows

  • Analysed adoption and findability patterns to pinpoint high-impact areas for redesign

Strategy and system design

I partnered with UX, Editorial, and Product stakeholders to architect a unified experience grounded in the BBC’s GEL standards and operational goals.

Our strategy reframed fragmented intranet sites into cohesive, task-based service areas.

  • Designed a new, user-centred IA structure, reducing friction and enabling discoverability
  • Mapped end-to-end service journeys across departments, from HR to Commercial Rights
  • Defined modular content types and a metadata model that supported reuse, search, and compliance
  • Established scalable templates and editorial patterns to reduce ambiguity and accelerate delivery
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Co-creation and change management

I partnered with Internal Communications to develop governance and lead workshops that surfaced overlapping workflows, legacy constraints, and aligned our opportunities.

This helped introduce new concepts and allowed teams to own uptake.

  • Led workshops to align on IA and content patterns and models
  • Developed an internal style guide in partnership with Central Editorial
  • Built a knowledge base of technical guides and training support systems
  • Led onboarding and CMS migration workshops for 300+ internal editors

Testing and iteration

I built feedback loops into every stage of delivery and aligned data, prototypes, and live content to drive informed, iterative decisions.

  • Partnered with UX Researchers to test IA concepts and navigation flows 
  • Prototyped designs to validate service models and editorial patterns
  • Released MVPs into live environments to gather behavioural data and qualitative insights
  • Iterated models, templates, and governance based on real-world pain points and outcomes

Why it matters

This was a foundational shift in how internal content was managed and delivered.

We re-imagined guidance as a structured service layer that empowered people to get things done.

This work helped reduce reliance on support teams, and the process was promoted as a way to save time and money in other internal service channels.

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