AN AGILE APPROACH TO CONTENT

Last updated May 2015

RICHARD PROWSE

IWMW15

THE UNIVERSITY OF BATH DIGITAL TEAM

BATH’S DIGITAL PRINCIPLES

• Put users’ needs first • Make decisions based on data • Release iteratively and often • Keep things simple and consistent • Provide ongoing support • Work in the open

ROSS FERGUSON: DELIVERING A DIGITAL STRATEGY FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF BATH

WHAT IS AGILE?

WATERFALL

AGILE

PROJECT TIMELINE

DESIGNDISCOVER DEVELOP TEST

TEST

ITERATION 1 ITERATION 2 ITERATION 3

DELIVER

DELIVER

SPRINT 1 SPRINT 2

DELIVER

DISCOVERTEST

DESIGNDEVELOP DESIGNDEVELOP

DISCOVER

DELIVER

DESIGNDEVELOP

DISCOVERTEST

CONTENT STRATEGY

Content strategy is a roadmap that guides content development. Agile is a way to deliver that vision

AGILE CONTENT

AGILE CONTENT:

applying agile techniques to the planning, creation, publishing and governance of digital content.

AGILE CONTENT MANIFESTO

MARLI MESIBOV: OUT OF THE SILOS AND INTO THE FARM

•Adapt to agile methodology •Build intuitive user experiences •Develop usable guidelines and strategies •Increase cross-team collaboration

PLANNING

DISCOVERY

USER STORIES

HOW TO RUN A USER STORY WORKSHOP

•Invite members of the sprint team •Explain why you’ve come together •How the workshop will run •How to write a user story

As a prospective student I want to search for engineering courses So that I can find out what I can study at Bath

HOW TO WRITE A USER STORY

As a <role> I want to <goal> So that <benefit>

BATH

�I

As a prospective student I want to search for engineering courses So that I can find out what I can study at Bath

HOW TO WRITE A USER STORY

As a <role> I want to <goal> So that <benefit>

BATH

�I

User stories help us to put people at the heart of bath.ac.uk and create content which meets their needs.

CREATION & PUBLISHING

SPRINTS

ONE TEAM DIFFERENT

DISCIPLINES

HOW TO SPRINT

•Organise a planning meeting •Create a task board •Hold daily stand-ups •And a retrospective at the end.

A TYPICAL SPRINT TEAM

HEAD OF DIGITAL DEVELOPER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EDITOR CONTENT PRODUCER

SUBJECT EXPERT

+

PRODUCT-LED

DIGITAL TEAM DEPARTMENT

TECHNICALARCHITECT

DELIVERY MANAGERPRODUCT OWNER

A TYPICAL SPRINT TEAM

HEAD OF DIGITAL DEVELOPER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EDITOR CONTENT PRODUCER

SUBJECT EXPERT

+

PRODUCT-LED

DIGITAL TEAM DEPARTMENT

CONTENT-LED

DIGITAL TEAM

DELIVERY MANAGERPRODUCT OWNER PRODUCT OWNER

HOW TO RUN A TASK BOARD

TASK BOARD FOR CONTENT ON BETA.BATH.AC.UK

HOW TO RUN A TASK BOARD

TASK BOARD FOR CONTENT ON BETA.BATH.AC.UK

Sprints allow us to develop content quickly and help to make sure we continually improve people’s experience.

PAIR WRITING

GOVERNANCE

DEVELOPING USABLE GUIDELINES AND

STRATEGIES

Publishers are people too.

RICHARD PROWSE: VIDEO GUIDELINES FOR CONTENT CREATORS UNIVERSITY OF BATH STYLE GUIDE

GUIDELINES

UNIVERSITY OF BATH’S EDITORIAL CALENDAR FOR FIRST YEAR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN FLOW

TOOLS

EXAMPLES

THE FINAL ITERATION OF THE CHANCELLORS INSTALLATION PAGE

MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCTS (MVPS)

WWW.BATH.AC.UK/IRO - THE FIRST ITERATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OFFICE SECTION

MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCTS (MVPS)

BATH.AC.UK/ALUMNI – LANDING PAGE

INTUITIVE USER EXPERIENCES

PUBLISHING INTERFACE FOR THE PROSPECTUS ALPHA

INTUITIVE USER EXPERIENCES

ALPHA.BATH.AC.UK – HOME AND SUBJECT LANDING PAGE

ALPHA.BATH.AC.UK

Agile is hard work. It requires practice and discipline.

Q&A

Rich is Editor-in-chief at the University of Bath where he leads a 7 strong team responsible for bath.ac.uk. For the past 10 years he has led on digital content efforts at top-ranking English universities. Rich is Co-founder of Bath’s first content meetup. He also regularly blogs on content strategy, agile content development, and user experience.

RICHARD PROWSE

@RICHPROWSE

CONTENTBEAR.CO.UK

WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/IN/RICHPROWSE

R.W.PROWSE@BATH.AC.UK

FURTHER READING