Without attention to information architecture, users just end up with a really expensive network drive.

I say that bluntly because I have seen it happen more times than I can count. The licenses were there. The features were there. The platform was technically rolled out. And yet all anyone did was dump files into one massive library and hope search would save them.

It never does.

Somewhere along the way, we started treating document libraries like plumbing. Necessary, but boring. The focus shifted to homepages, navigation, web parts, and portals that looked impressive in screenshots.

Meanwhile, the actual work never left the document library.

Every Teams channel points to one. Every Copilot response depends on them. Every retention policy, sensitivity label, and audit trail lands there. Microsoft has been very explicit for years that document libraries are the foundation of SharePoint, as outlined in their SharePoint document libraries overview.

You can build the prettiest SharePoint homepage in the world, but if the libraries behind it are a mess, the experience collapses the moment someone tries to do real work. Search is a perfect example. It does not magically fix bad structure. It reflects it, which Microsoft calls out clearly in their guidance on planning SharePoint search.

This is where information architecture stops being theoretical and starts being operational.

Document libraries force decisions.

What belongs together.
What does not.
Who owns it.
How long it lives.
How people are expected to find it six months from now.

When those decisions are avoided, users fall back to what they know. Folder dumps. Files named Final_v7_REAL_FINAL. Tribal knowledge. At that point, SharePoint is not enabling collaboration. It is just hosting chaos more expensively than a file share ever did.

I often hear teams say they want to keep things simple by avoiding structure. What they usually mean is they want to avoid uncomfortable conversations early. The cost of that avoidance is well documented in Microsoft’s own guidance on information architecture in modern SharePoint, even if it is rarely followed.

Good document libraries do not happen by accident. They are designed. They are opinionated. They reflect how people actually work, not how an org chart looks.

This is also why document libraries age better than most custom solutions. Pages change. Navigation gets redesigned. Portals come and go. Libraries, when designed well, keep working quietly in the background.

Don’t get me wrong, SharePoint can do much more. But if you actually want it to succeed, stop starting with the homepage. Start with the document libraries.

If you have ever opened a SharePoint library and thought this is just a network drive with better branding, you know exactly what I am talking about. And if you have seen a library done right, share what made it work.

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This post is part of my 25 days of SharePoint series, created to celebrate SharePoint’s 25th anniversary and lead up to the SharePoint at 25 digital event on March 2.

Each post reflects on what actually made SharePoint last 25 years, the wins, the mistakes, and the lessons learned from building, breaking, and rebuilding it in real organizations.

You can find all posts in this series here.

If there’s a topic you think I should cover next, a SharePoint mistake you keep seeing, or a question no one ever answers straight, leave a comment. This series is shaped by real experiences, not marketing slides.