“What’s in a name? That what we call a rose
Any other word would make it smell so sweet.”
In this famous quote from Act II of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention and the fact that he is a Montague and she is a Capulet (belligerent families) means nothing to their love.
However, there is strong evidence from the UK’s Cranfield University – and elsewhere – that the name given to a project has a clear impact on the behavior and motivation of the people involved. It may surprise you, but the name you give your intranet project could be the most important decision you make in the early stages of mobilization!
The direct way
There’s a good reason to call your intranet project the – wait a minute – “intranet project”! Often, so-called “secret squirrel” names (which require you to find out from peers what Project Banana is about) serve only to add an unnecessary air of mysticism (suitable only for secret M&A projects). They can also serve to divisive, separating “in the know” from those outside the immediate project audience.
The functional approach
A functional name focuses on what the intranet does (e.g. search, find, access). This enjoys the same benefits as the direct approach, but offers a little more poetic freedom. What about names like “Project Connect” or “Project Gateway” that serve to signal the core “must have” requirements for the project?
The conceptual approach
There is a problem with the direct or functional approaches; Research by Cranfield has shown that people involved in projects tend to be very strongly influenced in their actions by the name of the project itself. If you name your project the intranet project, you get a working intranet (ie the technology). If your ambition was something much more visionary, such as B. a completely new way of working for your employees, you will probably be disappointed!
The conceptual name focuses on what the functionality achieves, not the functionality itself. For example, if your company name is BigCo and your goal is to get everyone in the company to work together, you can use the Project OneBigCo project. or call it “Project Unity”. For the above goal of the new ways of working, you could use the “Project Future Workplace”.
The abstract approach
The abstract approach deals with how the project makes people feel. For example “Project Bliss” (for luck), “Project Wizard” (for magic) or “Project Pulse” (for fast pace). Although one world doesn’t typically capture everything you want to achieve with an intranet portal, this approach can prove very effective (especially when dealing with a counterculture).
If everything’s falling apart
Nothing grabbed you yet? Well, then there is no salvation! I suppose there are always the standard fallback options: names of Greek or Roman gods, names of planets, names of birds and names of dances. These have the added value that – if you produce follow-up projects in a sequence – you have ready-made logical follow-up project titles. By the way, “Project Mercury” would be my recommendation for planets or gods (because Mercury was the Roman god of communication).
See my presentation at for more project name ideas Chapter 10 my (freely accessible) Intranet Portal Guide.
Thanks to David Viney | #Intranet #project #names #ideas
