moving a company from chaos to content management
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About Pam
• 20 years experience in communications, content management, and technical writing
• Specializes in content reuse, topic-based content creation, DITA conversions, and trends in user assistance
• Researches and implements new ways to involve customers in user assistance
• BS in English/Spanish Education from The Ohio State University
• MA in English/Professional Writing from Wright State University
• SR STC Member
• UXPA Member
• Sr. User Experience Content Specialist (aka – Information Architect) at ACI Worldwide
Session Results • Case study for my position • Content Specialist initiatives • Quest for change • Start - know where you are (data inventory) • Build the foundation
• Obtain the business goals • Gather the business requirements • Determine content strategy pieces
• Write the content strategy (iterate, iterate) • Deploy the solution • Measure the success
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Case Study for Content Specialist
What is your reality? • Disparate content • No standardization • No repository • No content reuse • Not ready for translation • Reactive not proactive to change • Not ready for mobile • Producing static non-interactive content
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Content Strategist Initiatives • Create a unified content strategy that crosses business units • Implement a common lexicon • Implement embedded help and training into products • Create content communities where needed • Generate revenue from content initiatives • Establish partnerships with key business units • Establish partnerships with customers • Be a content evangelist, strategist, and leader
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Quest for Change • Hire an expert from the outside or someone who is greatly
respected from within • Look for someone with a successful track record
• Leads people without managing them • Delivers to deadlines and produces results • Has a great story and can tell a great story • Earns the respect of others • Provides honest and timely feedback • Motivates others to success
• Culture change is required and you need a team dedicated to results
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Start - Know Where You Are
Create a data baseline
• Complete a content inventory • Complete a tools inventory • Complete a skills inventory on
your personnel • Complete a styles inventory • Complete a processes inventory • Document the current workflow
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Reality - Data Baseline
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It Takes a Small Village • Research what others are doing in your
industry • Socialize your ideas with others • Engage the masses in your company for
ideas, feedback, and company metrics • Seek out and secure an executive sponsor • Create a team that spans multiple sites
and business groups (create partnerships) Important: Success cannot be had if you work in a silo.
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Build the Foundation
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• Formulate specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely (SMART) business goals
• Determine the business requirements • Marry the goals to the business requirements • Create a pitch deck with these business goals and
requirements • Socialize the pitch deck with an executive sponsor • Build out your high-level steps and major milestones (content
strategy, project plan) • Add the steps and milestones to the pitch deck • Seek approval to proceed – Present your pitch deck, get
commitment to the time and resources needed to proceed
Typical Business Goals
Improve Effectiveness of Deliverables for Customers
Improve the Time to Delivery
Reduce Operational Costs and Increase Revenue
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Every piece of my strategy, every task, and every decision must align with these three business goals.
Typical Business Requirements • Common tools • Common content repository • Content reuse • Standardized outputs • Standardized processes and styles • Standardized workflow
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Content Strategy
Must be unified to consider current and future content and delivery platforms
Way more than just tools – tools will not fix the
problems (culture change and mind
shift)
Good news – You have a start on
the strategy with goals and
requirements
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Content Strategy Pieces • Data baseline results • Business goals • Business requirements • Standardized outputs – now/future • Standardized processes and styles • Standardized workflow • Standardized tools and repository • Content migration • Content reuse • Required training and deployment • Measure success • Iterate, iterate, iterate – the strategy is never done • Report to executive sponsor every step of the way
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Outputs – Now/Future 1. Know the current needs – data inventory 2. Research the industry for standards 3. Determine future needs 4. Plan to re-evaluate annually and iterate (evolution not
revolution)
• You must engage product owners, architects, developers, and business analysts to standardize output delivery (embedded help, online help, etc.)
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Bitter Truth • Quote from a close colleague/friend, “Documentation
initiatives will never be a part of the plan until it becomes so painful that they have to address it, and then it becomes a panicked, patch-worked plan.”
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Processes, Styles and Workflow • Create a team and empower them to standardize processes,
styles, and workflow • Select which processes and styles need to change from your data
inventory • Implement industry standards where they make sense for
processes and styles • Determine the governance of the processes and styles (let the
CMS govern styles) • Standardize the workflow (let the CMS govern) • Iterate as needed
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Tools and Repository • Create a tools team and empower them • Create requirements for the tools • Research tools and narrow the selection to 2 or 3 • Demo tools and collect feedback • Complete customer reference checks • Schedule proof-of-concept training • Complete proof-of-concept use-case testing document • Complete use-case testing with a team • Complete testing report • Make a recommendation for the tools
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Proof-of-Concept Report
Pass vs Failed Use Cases Pros and Cons from Testers
Vendor Response and Support
Value Stream Mapping •Baseline of current time and effort based
on current processes •Approximate time and effort for the
processes with new tools •Report savings back to company
Report
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Content Migration
Talk to others – What have others done?
• Manual content migration • Consulting firm to complete the content migration • Automated migration with a tool such as Stilo Migrate
Determine the migration path
Determine the migration process – checklist
Prioritize the content for migration
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Content Reuse
Other options Software that will analyze
content for reuse Companies that will analyze
your content for reuse
Use the priority list
Start with the most obvious – copyright, overviews, notes, etc.
Analyze high-priority content for reuse
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Required Training and Deployment
Determine required training • Topic-based authoring • Process training • Styles training • Workflow training • Tools training
Create a project plan for solution deployment • Include the training
schedule – phase it in • Include the tools
schedule – phase it in
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Remember the Business Goals 1. Improve Effectiveness of Deliverables for
Customers 2. Improve the Time to Delivery 3. Reduce Operational Costs and Increase Revenue
• Every piece of the strategy, every task, and every decision must align with these three business goals. Co
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Measure Success
Improve effectiveness • Measure content consistency through content reuse • Determine support calls related to content for a period of time and verify
whether it trends down or up after implementation
Improve time to delivery (time savings) and operational costs • Cutting and pasting content • Searching for content • Publishing content manually • Manual processes • Manual workflows • Content delivery times • Content reuse
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Know Where to Put Time Back • Beware – Businesses see savings in relation to the number of
employees • Be prepared to justify where employees will spend the time
they gain in efficiency • Strategy is never done • Customer satisfaction is key • Partner with Sales, Support, and Marketing to take your content
to the next level (revenue) • Seek out additional value that content can add now that you have
more time. • Create a backlog or determine what gaps exist in content that writers
can now address • Resolve customer satisfaction issues with content. • Ready yourself for mobile • Create a content repository for your customers
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Content Strategy Pieces - Review • Data baseline results • Business goals • Business requirements • Standardized outputs – now/future • Standardized processes and styles • Standardized workflow • Standardized tools and repository • Content migration • Content reuse • Required training and deployment • Measure success • Iterate, iterate, iterate – the strategy is never done • Report to executive sponsor every step of the way
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Session Results – Review • Case study for my position • Content Specialist initiatives • Quest for change • Start - know where you are (data inventory) • Build the foundation
• Obtain the business goals • Gather the business requirements • Determine content strategy pieces
• Write the content strategy (iterate, iterate) • Deploy the solution • Measure the success
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Thank You • Pam Noreault • [email protected] • Twitter – pnoreault • LinkedIN – Pamela Noreault
• Please share your successes and your frustrations with me
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