LEXI, the organization's intranet, had been a pain point for a long time. Articles were outdated, information was inconsistent, and the search engine made it hard to find anything quickly. The deeper issue was structural: the OD team owned the intranet, but they depended on every department to tell them when procedures changed. When that communication broke down, the information on LEXI became stale and staff were making decisions based on outdated content. The 2024 employee engagement survey made it official. Intranet quality was one of the most prominent pain points across the organization.

Before the organization committed to Guru, I was brought into early evaluation meetings to weigh in on whether it would be an effective solution. I assessed its AI search capabilities, its collection-based ownership model where each department would own and maintain their own content, and its verification system that flags outdated cards and notifies collection owners automatically. I gave my recommendation to move forward. Once the decision was made I moved immediately into design and development.

The Guru homepage from scratch, which was the most complex piece of the transition. It included a new employee spotlight section, a staff calendar, an incentive goal meter tracking the organization's five performance targets, a volunteer impact meter showing progress toward community goals, a volunteer opportunity board, and quick-access buttons to the ten most commonly used internal tools including Jira, the LMS, and others.

A pre-launch commercial for Guru shown at an all-staff town hall to build excitement before go-live. It was a hit.

Two instructional videos: one for collection owners on how to manage and maintain their collections, and one for all staff on how to search, favorite cards, use the AI search correctly with question marks, and understand the new terminology.

A Scribe-based training on how to add Guru as a browser extension in Edge and use it without ever navigating to the site directly.

Ten office hour sessions: five for collection owners focused on inputting accurate content before go-live, and five for all staff on using the platform.

The homepage alone took significant time because it was pulling together live data, dynamic meters, and multiple content types into a single cohesive experience. The ownership model also required getting every department to take responsibility for their own content, which meant training collection owners not just on the tool but on the mindset of owning their information. The terminology shift from LEXI to Guru was also a real adoption barrier that had to be addressed head on.

100% adoption. Switching to Guru was not optional. LEXI ran in parallel for one month during the transition and then went offline. Since go-live in November 2024 there have been no reports of inaccurate information in Guru. Search satisfaction is strong with less than 5% thumbs down ratings on searches. The verification system and automated update notifications to collection owners mean the intranet now maintains itself in a way LEXI never could.