Melinda Belcher and Robin Wellington define themselves as content experience designers. A shared vocabulary includes content strategy, which includes content design, which includes UX writing.
Content design is based on research and empathy.
What happens when content isn't included in the design process? Understand what different teams care about. Make sure other teams are set up for success with content.
If you can create a style guide and socialize it, that's helpful. It helps to start relationships. Helpful also when working with designers.OTOH, it helps to understand the systems that designers work in. We invited ourselves to design review meetings.
Make the case for clarity of content as a great way to not get sued, when legal starts getting in the way.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Building the Next Generation Tech Docs Portal
Jim Edmunds and Jerry Thorner brought a case study about how to build a unified documentation portal. A portal is an entryway. Tech doc portals need to be more than just connecting users to information.
Current generation portal tend to have monolithic content. Modern portals have modular content. Can use the latter in multiple ways for multiple purposes. They are structured and tagged.
We're seeing a proliferation of content and applications that create that content, further expanding siloing of content. We even see silos within departments.
The Internet is a hungry beast. It wants more and more content.
A unified content portal is about bridging silos. Can use existing tools and processes.
Content aggregation is about identifying and mapping all the sources of content in the enterprise.
Current generation portal tend to have monolithic content. Modern portals have modular content. Can use the latter in multiple ways for multiple purposes. They are structured and tagged.
We're seeing a proliferation of content and applications that create that content, further expanding siloing of content. We even see silos within departments.
The Internet is a hungry beast. It wants more and more content.
A unified content portal is about bridging silos. Can use existing tools and processes.
Content aggregation is about identifying and mapping all the sources of content in the enterprise.
Using Style Guides to Achieve Content Collaboration and Consistency
Liz Fraley began the last day of LavaCon 2019 talking about style guides. Style guides are to create consistent experiences for end-users, no matter where the content is delivered or who wrote it. Also, style guides are an offloaded effort, institutional memory, and good for onboarding. Documentation on how we write our content. If something is never written down, it does not get reported.
How you write tells people what community you belong to.
Style guides are references for writing style. Included writing practices, writing usage, terminology, and voice/tone. Your corporate voice. Include guidelines that are unique to you, that fit your context. List company/product specific issues, such as proper/improper use of your product names.
Not only do you need to include rules, but include examples. And not only good examples, but bad examples. With both, it makes the rules easier to interpret.
If you have teams contributing content in different languages, then it's good to have the style guide in those languages.
Formatting style guides describe the official look and feel of your output. Defines the implementation of your templates, CSS, XML transforms, and more. A format style guide is a specification.
In XML environments, there's another style guide: XML style. What tags to use and their context. Here it's extra-important to have examples. And if you're a DITA shop, you want to add your DITA rules.
How you write tells people what community you belong to.
Style guides are references for writing style. Included writing practices, writing usage, terminology, and voice/tone. Your corporate voice. Include guidelines that are unique to you, that fit your context. List company/product specific issues, such as proper/improper use of your product names.
Not only do you need to include rules, but include examples. And not only good examples, but bad examples. With both, it makes the rules easier to interpret.
If you have teams contributing content in different languages, then it's good to have the style guide in those languages.
Formatting style guides describe the official look and feel of your output. Defines the implementation of your templates, CSS, XML transforms, and more. A format style guide is a specification.
In XML environments, there's another style guide: XML style. What tags to use and their context. Here it's extra-important to have examples. And if you're a DITA shop, you want to add your DITA rules.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Who Are You Talking To? Using Personas To Create Unified Content Experiences
Donna Barkson of State Farm is telling us about creating end-user personas. It's about humanizing who we're writing content for.
Personas are representations of user groups. Archetypes of customer segments--and they are not marketing personas. Based on data and research, they express user needs, define user goals, and highlight user expectations.
Personas help keep the focus on user goals. They help writers structure voice & tone.
Create personas by doing research about users, analyzing the data, and deciding what information is going to be important for them. Look for patterns in the data. How many personas you create depends not on the amount of your content or the size of the company or the number of your customers, but on what emerges from your analysis.
Use empathy mapping to learn about users. This can be used to discover customer pain points.
Things to include in personas:
From the personas, can prioritize content, avoid assumptions, create a better and persuasive content strategy, get buy-in from stakeholders.
Personas are representations of user groups. Archetypes of customer segments--and they are not marketing personas. Based on data and research, they express user needs, define user goals, and highlight user expectations.
Personas help keep the focus on user goals. They help writers structure voice & tone.
Create personas by doing research about users, analyzing the data, and deciding what information is going to be important for them. Look for patterns in the data. How many personas you create depends not on the amount of your content or the size of the company or the number of your customers, but on what emerges from your analysis.
Use empathy mapping to learn about users. This can be used to discover customer pain points.
Things to include in personas:
- Quotes
- Demographics
- Motivators
- Goals
- Frustrations
- Preferred channels
- Favorite brands
- Influencers
From the personas, can prioritize content, avoid assumptions, create a better and persuasive content strategy, get buy-in from stakeholders.
Bringing Everyone Along: Unifying Distributed, Siloed Internal Content at Salesforce
Kameran Kashani of Salesforce talks about "port:80," an internal doc portal at Salesforce. It's internal and aimed at a dev audience.
Because of growth, there was a fractured content terrain and isolated pockets of knowledge. And no starting point for people. We did what any good content team would do: survey the landscape. Easy for internal docs, can just talk to people next door. We created a wish list. Found the missing peice: a central place.
But Salesforce has many tools for publishing content.
Time is a feature. That drove a decision to buy an outside platform rather than build from within.
Research distilled into a taxonomy: learn, do, discover.
Building the portal was evolutionary, using a cross-disciplinary team, with multiple design iterations and lots of reviews. Ended with key facets of dev experience, customized search, blog aggregation, and organized around activity modes.
"Sometimes the carrot is the stick." To get the word out about what we'd done, we engaged with our champions and overcommunicated.
Because of growth, there was a fractured content terrain and isolated pockets of knowledge. And no starting point for people. We did what any good content team would do: survey the landscape. Easy for internal docs, can just talk to people next door. We created a wish list. Found the missing peice: a central place.
But Salesforce has many tools for publishing content.
Time is a feature. That drove a decision to buy an outside platform rather than build from within.
Research distilled into a taxonomy: learn, do, discover.
Building the portal was evolutionary, using a cross-disciplinary team, with multiple design iterations and lots of reviews. Ended with key facets of dev experience, customized search, blog aggregation, and organized around activity modes.
"Sometimes the carrot is the stick." To get the word out about what we'd done, we engaged with our champions and overcommunicated.
This Time with Feeling: Bringing the Arts and Humanities to Tech
Jonathan Foster of Microsoft says that we need different talents in tech. And it's not the obvious thing, but it's critical to the way we work. To bring more people from the arts and humanities into tech.
People experience emotional connections to objects. Tech is creating objects that enable human-like experiences.
Microsoft Voice principles are warm & relaxed, crisp & clear, ready to lend a hand. Empathetic starting point. Voice principles are foundational to work in designing personality.
Core responsibility is to make the right choices so we don't let things loose that cause harm.
Interestingly, they reject the Turing test. Don't want to ever let users misunderstand that Cortana is human.
People experience emotional connections to objects. Tech is creating objects that enable human-like experiences.
Microsoft Voice principles are warm & relaxed, crisp & clear, ready to lend a hand. Empathetic starting point. Voice principles are foundational to work in designing personality.
Core responsibility is to make the right choices so we don't let things loose that cause harm.
Interestingly, they reject the Turing test. Don't want to ever let users misunderstand that Cortana is human.
Rage Against the Machine: Overcoming the Four Main Barriers to Content Strategy Success
Noz Urbina says many of his roles have been in large, regulated industries.
4 barriers are
Today's content is multichannel. It's not only about pushing content into channels but about finding the right message for the right people. Like "omnichannel" better, a different mentality. Channels are what the customers want to do. Customers move fluently between channels. Channels can be more than the sum of their parts.
To overcome, think like a product manager. There's that "content as product" again. Use design thinking, journey maps, and holistic views.
Content is not king. It is currency. Only valuable when you can exchange content for something of value.
Don't just provide a training course. Provide a support program, the long game.
Build cross-functional standards groups. Journey-based KPIs. What does success look like in each department, and are they pulling in the same direction? Build RACI charts.
Build a content strategy for your content strategy. Messaging architecture, editorial calendar, communications cadence, etc. Write stuff down, but concisely, in easily accessible places.
Natural language processing, the right tools, and a good taxonomy can scale tagging and personalization. Proper measurement requires consistent tagging.
4 barriers are
Thinking like a publisher
Can't stand the word "publishing." Conjures old paradigm of few powerful who have the power of what's published. The model is outdated. Not how we interact with audiences today.Today's content is multichannel. It's not only about pushing content into channels but about finding the right message for the right people. Like "omnichannel" better, a different mentality. Channels are what the customers want to do. Customers move fluently between channels. Channels can be more than the sum of their parts.
To overcome, think like a product manager. There's that "content as product" again. Use design thinking, journey maps, and holistic views.
Content is not king. It is currency. Only valuable when you can exchange content for something of value.
Hanging on to the past
The most dangerous phrase in the language is "we've always done it this way." Mentality holds back projects.Don't just provide a training course. Provide a support program, the long game.
Working in silos
If you look too closely, you miss the big picture. Measure individual interactions, you miss the satisfaction from the journey.Build cross-functional standards groups. Journey-based KPIs. What does success look like in each department, and are they pulling in the same direction? Build RACI charts.
Build a content strategy for your content strategy. Messaging architecture, editorial calendar, communications cadence, etc. Write stuff down, but concisely, in easily accessible places.
Death by tagging
Build meaningful models. The more structure and semantics in your original template, the less retrospective tagging is required. Without a good content model, reuse won't happen.Natural language processing, the right tools, and a good taxonomy can scale tagging and personalization. Proper measurement requires consistent tagging.
Let's Get Personal
Back to keynotes, Megan Gilhooly of Zoomin talks about everyone has a story. Organizations that provide custom content are interested in building relationships. Customers feel better when we provide content that aligns with individual stories.
There are risks.
Personalization should address a person, not demographic or segmentation. Ask if the personalization is helpful?
But there is segmentation. Ask if meaningful. For example, writing for AARP, segmentation by age can be useful.
You can ask users about themselves to help define the content to give them.
When done poorly personalized content can feel creepy and annoying.
Recognize, remember, relevant, and recommend.
There are risks.
Personalization should address a person, not demographic or segmentation. Ask if the personalization is helpful?
But there is segmentation. Ask if meaningful. For example, writing for AARP, segmentation by age can be useful.
You can ask users about themselves to help define the content to give them.
When done poorly personalized content can feel creepy and annoying.
Recognize, remember, relevant, and recommend.
Content Without Borders: Using Ontologies to Publish Content Created by Different Departments
In 2017, Gartner declared ECM (enterprise content management) as dead. Meant we cannot live with a single repo or system for the entire enterprise. Each department has own rules, processes, responsibilities. We live in a multi-repo world.
A taxonomy, a classification system, was a partial solution to bridge the gaps between repos. Quite a few things a taxonomy does not tell us. Does tell us what products are involved in doc projects, if projects are region-specific, what characteristics should an activity have to be defined as a project.
Ontology includes taxonomy as its foundation, but also includes:
To create an ontology, start with a taxonomy. Analyze how current content is linked. Do the links also represent semantic relationships? Figure out what the taxonomy does not tell us?
A taxonomy, a classification system, was a partial solution to bridge the gaps between repos. Quite a few things a taxonomy does not tell us. Does tell us what products are involved in doc projects, if projects are region-specific, what characteristics should an activity have to be defined as a project.
Ontology includes taxonomy as its foundation, but also includes:
- Semantic relationships (which provide multiple perspectives, but amount can be huge and hard to foresee)
- Inference (dynamically generated new information that is logically based on existing information, which doesn't require us to foresee all possible combinations and enables multiple perspectives)
- Linkage (connection to your content)
- API (formats such as RDF, OWL, Semantic Web Rule Language, or Cycl)
To create an ontology, start with a taxonomy. Analyze how current content is linked. Do the links also represent semantic relationships? Figure out what the taxonomy does not tell us?
Unified Content Strategy in the Real World
What is content? Books, articles, white papers, videos, anything that engages with an audience. Content is king, yes, but it is also a product.
Craft it as a product, package it as a product, measure it like a product.
One of the steps is to take a content inventory. Want to map content to a customer journey. A content inventory template might include the topic, it's purpose, format, and owner, and also look at how it is used through buying stages.
Again in this session, we're talking about target personas. Then, content analysis, is it accurate, is it up-to-date, is it findable. Content SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.
Used an editorial roadmap to determine the decisions to make as content is developed.
Apparently, spreadsheets are really useful for content inventories and content planning and content requirements. The spreadsheets help because it helps visualize while moving fast.
Content can be political, just agreeing on what tools to use for its development. Having similar goals helped build unified teams.
Craft it as a product, package it as a product, measure it like a product.
One of the steps is to take a content inventory. Want to map content to a customer journey. A content inventory template might include the topic, it's purpose, format, and owner, and also look at how it is used through buying stages.
Again in this session, we're talking about target personas. Then, content analysis, is it accurate, is it up-to-date, is it findable. Content SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.
Used an editorial roadmap to determine the decisions to make as content is developed.
Apparently, spreadsheets are really useful for content inventories and content planning and content requirements. The spreadsheets help because it helps visualize while moving fast.
Content can be political, just agreeing on what tools to use for its development. Having similar goals helped build unified teams.
Actualizing a Role-Based & Personalized Content Portal
Kristine Murphy and Margaret Collins of Progress Software, a company that's a platform for building software, so their content is technical.
The old doc website is 30 years of reference content. We did reference materials really, really well, but we didn't tell users how to do things.
Had to define "modern" content strategy. Lot of people interested in content, spent 2 days in a conference room to define exactly what problem to solve. In 2 words: findability & usability.
The mission was deliver a self-service. measurable experience, with compelling content that would help users do their jobs.
We don't do docs anymore; we do content. Created a content portal at docs.progress.com.
Each product's content portal lets users choose content right for them by role and category. We learned there is some information that "thou shalt not take away." We could not remove all that old reference material. We did not want to break all of our users' old links to information.
Defined 4 personas. Each has its own landing page.
We trying to "think outside the book." Viewing topics, TOC is not visible by default.
Phase 2 is expanding the site to including enablement, such as training. Self-assessments can help users feel confident in what they are learning from the content.
Under the covers, using Ixiasoft as a DITA CCMS, then Zoomin to create the front end.
Phase 3 will make the content totally customizable for each user. Not only accessing content defined by the persona, but use machine learning to recommend content.
Along the way, mission statement helped keep us focused.
The old doc website is 30 years of reference content. We did reference materials really, really well, but we didn't tell users how to do things.
Had to define "modern" content strategy. Lot of people interested in content, spent 2 days in a conference room to define exactly what problem to solve. In 2 words: findability & usability.
The mission was deliver a self-service. measurable experience, with compelling content that would help users do their jobs.
We don't do docs anymore; we do content. Created a content portal at docs.progress.com.
Each product's content portal lets users choose content right for them by role and category. We learned there is some information that "thou shalt not take away." We could not remove all that old reference material. We did not want to break all of our users' old links to information.
Defined 4 personas. Each has its own landing page.
We trying to "think outside the book." Viewing topics, TOC is not visible by default.
Phase 2 is expanding the site to including enablement, such as training. Self-assessments can help users feel confident in what they are learning from the content.
Under the covers, using Ixiasoft as a DITA CCMS, then Zoomin to create the front end.
Phase 3 will make the content totally customizable for each user. Not only accessing content defined by the persona, but use machine learning to recommend content.
Along the way, mission statement helped keep us focused.
Connecting the Dots in Content Creation
This early morning session was by Sharon Austin, of Amplexor. She talked about a content journey map. And that journey map is very dependent on location and culture.
One notion is to culturally adapt language. The end result may not be an exact match in each culture, but it is more important to be culturally relevant.
Consumers look for language that is relevant to them.
Pillars of content adaption. In design, images don't translate well. Colors mean different things in different cultures. Emojis don't translate well.
In voice and style, it is the most complex area to adapt. So many ways of addressing an audience. An audience adaptation really has to take the audience into consideration.
When you create content, you have a lot of reuse power.
One notion is to culturally adapt language. The end result may not be an exact match in each culture, but it is more important to be culturally relevant.
Consumers look for language that is relevant to them.
Pillars of content adaption. In design, images don't translate well. Colors mean different things in different cultures. Emojis don't translate well.
In voice and style, it is the most complex area to adapt. So many ways of addressing an audience. An audience adaptation really has to take the audience into consideration.
When you create content, you have a lot of reuse power.
Monday, October 28, 2019
This is not a manual. This is an experience.
Stefan Gentz of Adobe tells us that things are an experience. Like with making a hotel reservation, you're getting the experience, not just a room. People don't buy products; they buy experiences.
When we create our documentation, we are participating in the customer's experience. Content experience management is about managing all the touchpoints of content in an organization. Start with the first contact. Could be, for example, advertising or other marketing campaign, something that brings a customer to that brand.
Then customer goes into investigation phase. Learn about the product, maybe interact with others to learn about their experiences with the products. Then maybe marketing, and even community forums.
What is the purchase experience like. Easy or hard to buy?
Once the product has been purchased, the user experience begins. Not always easy to use. So then go to support and user assistance experience.
There are challenges with all these touchpoints in content management. Multiple touchpoints have a cumulative impact on customer experience. Inconsistent content experiences create a fuzzy brand experience. Content silos are disconnected "content worlds." C-levels struggle with cluttered IT ecosystems. Holistic content strategies fail on technical challenges.
Yet customers expect a satisfying experience through all the touchpoints.
Technical documentation is part of the decision making products, especially for highly technical products.
When we create our documentation, we are participating in the customer's experience. Content experience management is about managing all the touchpoints of content in an organization. Start with the first contact. Could be, for example, advertising or other marketing campaign, something that brings a customer to that brand.
Then customer goes into investigation phase. Learn about the product, maybe interact with others to learn about their experiences with the products. Then maybe marketing, and even community forums.
What is the purchase experience like. Easy or hard to buy?
Once the product has been purchased, the user experience begins. Not always easy to use. So then go to support and user assistance experience.
There are challenges with all these touchpoints in content management. Multiple touchpoints have a cumulative impact on customer experience. Inconsistent content experiences create a fuzzy brand experience. Content silos are disconnected "content worlds." C-levels struggle with cluttered IT ecosystems. Holistic content strategies fail on technical challenges.
Yet customers expect a satisfying experience through all the touchpoints.
Technical documentation is part of the decision making products, especially for highly technical products.
Get In the Game - Creating Personalized Customer Experiences with a Unified Content Strategy
Wendy Richardson, of MasterCard, tells us that teams get things done, and we're a critical part of our organization's team. We want a competitive spirit, but in our organization, we wont to focus that competitive spirit on how to make our organizations better.
Knowing your customer is an ever-changing race. How do we understand our target audience when they are moving targets? As people interact with us, we are able to gather information, information about what they are doing and what they need and target information to them. Customers don't always use content the way they thought they would.
We also want to understand if the content we're delivering maximizes its value. Talking with customers helps in this.
We want to communicate and know the value of our team. When we talk to executives, we tailor the messages to what's important to them.
Our brand as communicators and our brand as a team is important. We all as individuals have a brand within our organizations. What is that brand, and is it the right one to get us to greater goals?
Knowing your customer is an ever-changing race. How do we understand our target audience when they are moving targets? As people interact with us, we are able to gather information, information about what they are doing and what they need and target information to them. Customers don't always use content the way they thought they would.
We also want to understand if the content we're delivering maximizes its value. Talking with customers helps in this.
We want to communicate and know the value of our team. When we talk to executives, we tailor the messages to what's important to them.
Our brand as communicators and our brand as a team is important. We all as individuals have a brand within our organizations. What is that brand, and is it the right one to get us to greater goals?
Three Steps to Customer Success
Sara Kanz of Intuit says that focus on the customer will give great business results. 3 ways:
Enable everyone to feel customers' pain, everyone. Deep customer empathy. Not through surveys. Spend time with people. Intuit uses "follow me homes." Observe, not only how they use products, but their daily lives. Observe, don't just interview. What people say isn't what they do. Observation is where surprises come, and surprises lead to insights.
Teaching framework to convert customer insight into action. The framework at Intuit is called Design for Delight. Encourage people to get lots of ideas to try and find the good ones. Get diverse people for brainstorming, not just the traditional idea of diversity, but diversity of business units, locations, and more.
Rapid experiments with customers. Lots of experiments that can be run, but the goal is to learn fast. Build as little as possible to learn as much as possible.
Measure customer benefit. You get what you measure. The improvement is what matters to the customer, not the business.
Enable everyone to feel customers' pain, everyone. Deep customer empathy. Not through surveys. Spend time with people. Intuit uses "follow me homes." Observe, not only how they use products, but their daily lives. Observe, don't just interview. What people say isn't what they do. Observation is where surprises come, and surprises lead to insights.
Teaching framework to convert customer insight into action. The framework at Intuit is called Design for Delight. Encourage people to get lots of ideas to try and find the good ones. Get diverse people for brainstorming, not just the traditional idea of diversity, but diversity of business units, locations, and more.
Rapid experiments with customers. Lots of experiments that can be run, but the goal is to learn fast. Build as little as possible to learn as much as possible.
Measure customer benefit. You get what you measure. The improvement is what matters to the customer, not the business.
Developing Your Organizational Power and Influence
Andrea Ames says there are 3 pieces of advice to get what you want and need:
Resources are out there. Start with 7 Habits. Become emotionally intelligent, which is about understanding and managing your own thoughts and emotions, and then managing your relationships with other people. Lead well, and to do that, you have to lead yourself exceptionally well.
The best thing you can do is to make your leader look good. Be the person you would like to be led by. Be the person to be wanted on your team.
Ask yourself great questions. Investing in myself? Interested in others? Authentic? Spending time with the right people?
You may not want to be a leader, but if you want to get something done, you have to be the right one to make the request.
Communicating the right evidence goes toward team culture. Understand your stakeholders, and then communicate with them in their language.
Our stakeholders don't care about content. This is why they don't get us. So, measurements about content are the leading indicators of the success of content. Stop talking about content, then, and start acting on the outcomes of content. Many outcomes: product adoption, customer success & retention, customer advocacy, customer lifetime value. Content is the vehicle for delivering those outcomes, but not what stakeholders care about.
- Be the right person to make the ask
- Clearly communicate the right evidence
- Make an emotional connection
Resources are out there. Start with 7 Habits. Become emotionally intelligent, which is about understanding and managing your own thoughts and emotions, and then managing your relationships with other people. Lead well, and to do that, you have to lead yourself exceptionally well.
The best thing you can do is to make your leader look good. Be the person you would like to be led by. Be the person to be wanted on your team.
Ask yourself great questions. Investing in myself? Interested in others? Authentic? Spending time with the right people?
You may not want to be a leader, but if you want to get something done, you have to be the right one to make the request.
Communicating the right evidence goes toward team culture. Understand your stakeholders, and then communicate with them in their language.
Our stakeholders don't care about content. This is why they don't get us. So, measurements about content are the leading indicators of the success of content. Stop talking about content, then, and start acting on the outcomes of content. Many outcomes: product adoption, customer success & retention, customer advocacy, customer lifetime value. Content is the vehicle for delivering those outcomes, but not what stakeholders care about.
Heroes and Villians of Content Strategy
Alan Porter claims that we're the heroes.
Captain Content is the hero that we all want to be, understands the value of content, understand the customer point of view, and they are there to help those who need it. The holistic view of what content can and should be.
Up against the Slick Copy Man. Enamored with the latest technology, wants the thing of the day. Get people who think about that thing in isolation and make content for just it. You wonder why they thought that was a good idea. Ask them where it fits within the strategy.
The least glamorous hero in the content world is the Content Auditor. Needs a systematic, pragmatic person.
They come across the Invisible Owner. The sort of person who creates content once and forgets about it. Content that's not tracked, not reviewed, no one knows where it is. Easy to find content, hard to find who owns it.
The Channel Master is the Dr. Strange of the content world. The empathetic magician of knowledge, understanding that content flows across the organization.
They come against the Content Slinger, who writes content and just throws it out into the world. Was asked to do this one thing and I did it. No idea if it fits into the company voice.
Hero with the biggest challenge is the Agent of C.H.A.N.G.E. Change is hard. Technology is easy, but if you don't think about people first, how the technology will affect people, then the change will fail.
Nemesis is Corporate Inertia. Feet firmly planted, "we've always done it this way." The hardest thing to move.
Even though we know what needs to get done, often we're at a standoff because of our nemeses. We'd like to get to everyone working together. How to do this in practice?
New operating model for content: content services organization. Global org that understands content as a corporate asset. A central group that orchestrates content practices across the org.
Three disciplines on this team: content strategy, content engineering, content operations. Collaborate with info architecture, data science, and more.
Captain Content is the hero that we all want to be, understands the value of content, understand the customer point of view, and they are there to help those who need it. The holistic view of what content can and should be.
Up against the Slick Copy Man. Enamored with the latest technology, wants the thing of the day. Get people who think about that thing in isolation and make content for just it. You wonder why they thought that was a good idea. Ask them where it fits within the strategy.
The least glamorous hero in the content world is the Content Auditor. Needs a systematic, pragmatic person.
They come across the Invisible Owner. The sort of person who creates content once and forgets about it. Content that's not tracked, not reviewed, no one knows where it is. Easy to find content, hard to find who owns it.
The Channel Master is the Dr. Strange of the content world. The empathetic magician of knowledge, understanding that content flows across the organization.
They come against the Content Slinger, who writes content and just throws it out into the world. Was asked to do this one thing and I did it. No idea if it fits into the company voice.
Hero with the biggest challenge is the Agent of C.H.A.N.G.E. Change is hard. Technology is easy, but if you don't think about people first, how the technology will affect people, then the change will fail.
Nemesis is Corporate Inertia. Feet firmly planted, "we've always done it this way." The hardest thing to move.
Even though we know what needs to get done, often we're at a standoff because of our nemeses. We'd like to get to everyone working together. How to do this in practice?
New operating model for content: content services organization. Global org that understands content as a corporate asset. A central group that orchestrates content practices across the org.
Three disciplines on this team: content strategy, content engineering, content operations. Collaborate with info architecture, data science, and more.
Building a Unified Content Strategy
Quentin Dietrich is a UX Writer at Workiva. Spends time contemplating and creating content for customers a Workiva.
Content is a crucial part of your product.
Is our world like HGTV, where there's an entertaining before and after with someone else doing all the work? Or is it like YouTube, with small budgets focused on process and outcome with you doing all the work?
It's really just a before and then a series of next, next, next.... Just an iterative process of finding the next thing and growing.
Did 4 things:
Good ideas don't know what discipline they come from.
Often, content comes at the end of the development process. Find ways to get involved in the beginning. Always content that can be worked on. Consider words early and often. Designers speak in terms of fidelity. Can apply low, medium, and high fidelity to writing. Have conversations, then write. Focus on verbs and nouns. Create prototypes and test. "Write bad so you can write good." Make words earn their place, and throw away bad work. Can even prototype and test words.
Opposite of finding and knowing people, now go back and tell them about your work and your challenges. Ask for help from them. Value in getting new eyes on your work.
After all that, still current challenges. The team is the same size, more content to manage, need to empower and educate others, and the struggle is real. Sometimes just have to let content go to production. That said, it may be there only briefly, especially in "agile," before you can get it fixed.
Content is a crucial part of your product.
Is our world like HGTV, where there's an entertaining before and after with someone else doing all the work? Or is it like YouTube, with small budgets focused on process and outcome with you doing all the work?
It's really just a before and then a series of next, next, next.... Just an iterative process of finding the next thing and growing.
Did 4 things:
- Find and join people
- Start small, and don't stop
- Show, do, tell
- Create frameworks as you go
Find and join people
Be both smart and pleasant. Become friends with designers, product managers, developers. Understand their pain and challenges. Learn about what they are trying to solve (first, you'll have plenty of time to solve your own problems). Ask how to help.Good ideas don't know what discipline they come from.
Start small, then don't stop
Just begin. Pick one problem to solve, then solve the next, and keep going. Like change just one thing on our help website, such as change the font for headings to make them scannable. Break big things into small things with small plans. Look at what is desirable, usable, feasible, and how to get the intersection of all three. The hard one can be a feasible one. Use the skills you have to solve a small problem to build skills for tomorrow to solve the next problem. Then, keep going.Show, do, tell
Content equals design. As Jared Spool says, "Design is the rendering of intent." Could substitute "Content' for "Design." Rendering is the visual, intent is the verbal, can't have design without intent/verbal. "For products made of words and pixels, words are at least 50%." Where are words? Everywhere! Tooltips, confirmation messages, error messages, labels, buttons, empty states, feature names, confirmation screens, transnational emails, and more. Take a look at a screen in your product, eliminate all the words, and then see what you can do. Of course, words without design is just as unusable. Really need both visual and verbal for great product experiences.Often, content comes at the end of the development process. Find ways to get involved in the beginning. Always content that can be worked on. Consider words early and often. Designers speak in terms of fidelity. Can apply low, medium, and high fidelity to writing. Have conversations, then write. Focus on verbs and nouns. Create prototypes and test. "Write bad so you can write good." Make words earn their place, and throw away bad work. Can even prototype and test words.
Opposite of finding and knowing people, now go back and tell them about your work and your challenges. Ask for help from them. Value in getting new eyes on your work.
Create frameworks as you go
Start with a basic foundation. Creating a style guide can put a strain on the ability to move fast. Only create the styles you need. As issues come up, add to the guide. Get feedback as you go. Create spaces to move things forward, such as time on your calendar and channels on Slack.After all that, still current challenges. The team is the same size, more content to manage, need to empower and educate others, and the struggle is real. Sometimes just have to let content go to production. That said, it may be there only briefly, especially in "agile," before you can get it fixed.
Herding Cats: The Benefit of Unifying Content for Customers
Getting people to work together is like herding cats. There are different departments (with different personalities, budgets, and priorities). Can be disagreements across departments, and changes can also cause issues.
Sometimes different departments are working on the exact same thing and not know it. Departments working toward the same goals in different ways and not communicating. Important to bridge those silos. If not, perceived just as someone who works on your own team on your own agenda. Worse, a reputation of impeding other organizations.
And then there are customers wondering just how many companies they are working with. From an outside perspective, you can see that the teams at Apple are all working with each other.
"It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." Harry Truman
Create a unified goal. Listen to other departments. Establish common goals across departments. The goals should include aligning message and content.
Build a content partnership to align information across departments.
We have the mindset that we are the first users. We go through our product certification and understand the user journey.
Videos created within your company can help you develop your own content. Videos are often made by SMEs. You can use your tools to improve the videos. Marketing departments love video. If you synchronize with marketing, you can get videos that illustrate concepts in your documentation.
Listen very carefully to what support has to say and use that to polish and fine-tune your content. KB-to-doc initiative, analyze KB (knowledge base) information and see what should be in the docs. (This is exactly what I'm doing at my company.)
Go where your cats are. Go to anything that sales or your customers put together. It's another source of information.
Sometimes different departments are working on the exact same thing and not know it. Departments working toward the same goals in different ways and not communicating. Important to bridge those silos. If not, perceived just as someone who works on your own team on your own agenda. Worse, a reputation of impeding other organizations.
And then there are customers wondering just how many companies they are working with. From an outside perspective, you can see that the teams at Apple are all working with each other.
Cat Herding 101
"It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." Harry Truman
Create a unified goal. Listen to other departments. Establish common goals across departments. The goals should include aligning message and content.
Build a content partnership to align information across departments.
We have the mindset that we are the first users. We go through our product certification and understand the user journey.
Videos created within your company can help you develop your own content. Videos are often made by SMEs. You can use your tools to improve the videos. Marketing departments love video. If you synchronize with marketing, you can get videos that illustrate concepts in your documentation.
Listen very carefully to what support has to say and use that to polish and fine-tune your content. KB-to-doc initiative, analyze KB (knowledge base) information and see what should be in the docs. (This is exactly what I'm doing at my company.)
Go where your cats are. Go to anything that sales or your customers put together. It's another source of information.
Jump Into the Unknown: Storytelling for Emerging Tech
This second keynote is by Andrew Zeller and Nadine Anglin, Content Strategists at Facebook. The emerging tech they are talking about is virtual reality (VR).
Still in the early days of VR. How do you approach it from a storytelling perspective?
Why care about VR? It's not science fiction. It's quickly becoming here-and-now. Used in entertainment and industry.
As content strategists, we make Facebook more human. We're often asked to "just provide the copy." But there is more than that. Lots of questions we ask to do the job.
What does this have to do with VR? Everything. No matter what the platform, we're always trying to make it simple, straightforward, and human. Immersive technologies are moving people from viewer to participant.
Still in the early days of VR. How do you approach it from a storytelling perspective?
Why care about VR? It's not science fiction. It's quickly becoming here-and-now. Used in entertainment and industry.
As content strategists, we make Facebook more human. We're often asked to "just provide the copy." But there is more than that. Lots of questions we ask to do the job.
What does this have to do with VR? Everything. No matter what the platform, we're always trying to make it simple, straightforward, and human. Immersive technologies are moving people from viewer to participant.
Be the Hero In Your Story
This opening keynote for LavaCon 2019 was by Jen Schaefer, Head of Content Design at Netflix. First became a customer early on, they joined them to work there. Relatively new team, before, no content designers, we partner with UX to create experiences.
Do lots of A/B testing of content, Important to be strategic in testing. By having a hypothesis about everything we test, it allows us to have guidelines for content.
We define the Netflix brand voice as being human and conversational.
The things in a style guide help drive trust in a product.
The content design is embedded deeply into all of our verticals. The content design team covers the end-to-end experience.
Shared challenges, because we're lone representatives on the various teams. The 4 biggest strategies to work through these:
"Nobody ever understands what I do." Lean into your unique superpower. Our superpower is content strategy. Embrace being a pioneer. Educate others, which is a huge part of the job. Share at every opportunity. Customize the message. Capture the successes. Take before & after screenshots. Save success stories in one place.
"I'll never get it all done. There are 7 of them and 1 of me." Almost always outnumbered, and can feel overwhelmed. Make tough choices. Accept that you can't do it all. Much better to do fewer things well than to do all things half-heartedly. Align priorities. Respectfully say no. Teach others to fish. If you have a style guide and other resources, they can get their own copy closer to the mark. Keep track of what you can't support.
"I didn't get invited to the meeting---probably on purpose." Be courageous and vulnerable. Start from a place of empathy. Assume good intentions unless proven otherwise. Consider your rationale. Are you really needed? Can you review the notes and protect your time? Have an honest discussion. Remind them that you're a core partner. Be present. Be involved. Will make you memorable for the next meeting.
"My co-workers don't speak the same 'language' as me." Find your friends. Build a content collective. Even if you're the only content strategist, there are people in other groups who understand the power of words. Join an online community. Helps keep your skills sharp and abreast of things going on in the industry. Attend local meetups. Keep going to conferences and events such as this.
By viewing yourself as a content strategy hero, you're better able to advocate for the real heroes: users.
Do lots of A/B testing of content, Important to be strategic in testing. By having a hypothesis about everything we test, it allows us to have guidelines for content.
We define the Netflix brand voice as being human and conversational.
The things in a style guide help drive trust in a product.
The content design is embedded deeply into all of our verticals. The content design team covers the end-to-end experience.
Shared challenges, because we're lone representatives on the various teams. The 4 biggest strategies to work through these:
"Nobody ever understands what I do." Lean into your unique superpower. Our superpower is content strategy. Embrace being a pioneer. Educate others, which is a huge part of the job. Share at every opportunity. Customize the message. Capture the successes. Take before & after screenshots. Save success stories in one place.
"I'll never get it all done. There are 7 of them and 1 of me." Almost always outnumbered, and can feel overwhelmed. Make tough choices. Accept that you can't do it all. Much better to do fewer things well than to do all things half-heartedly. Align priorities. Respectfully say no. Teach others to fish. If you have a style guide and other resources, they can get their own copy closer to the mark. Keep track of what you can't support.
"I didn't get invited to the meeting---probably on purpose." Be courageous and vulnerable. Start from a place of empathy. Assume good intentions unless proven otherwise. Consider your rationale. Are you really needed? Can you review the notes and protect your time? Have an honest discussion. Remind them that you're a core partner. Be present. Be involved. Will make you memorable for the next meeting.
"My co-workers don't speak the same 'language' as me." Find your friends. Build a content collective. Even if you're the only content strategist, there are people in other groups who understand the power of words. Join an online community. Helps keep your skills sharp and abreast of things going on in the industry. Attend local meetups. Keep going to conferences and events such as this.
By viewing yourself as a content strategy hero, you're better able to advocate for the real heroes: users.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Adobe Certification Workshop
Although my company (Agari) does not use Adobe products for its documentation development, I ended up selecting this one over the 2 others that I had considered because looking through the details of what was planned, the many content strategy points appealed to me the most. This afternoon workshop session is slated to cover:
Well, that was fun. Although I have an understanding of DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture), and although I have reviewed DITA files and maps, this was the first time I've ever created a DITA topic. And I did it in FrameMaker.
Content strategy is about getting the right content to the right place in the right format to the right people so they can make the right decisions.
Content should be an area that makes revenue, not someplace that can be cut. Documentation should be an investment.
A goals framework is a key content strategy piece. Should have short-term and long-term measurable goals. Could be a basis for determining ROI--which is not always $$$.
Has anyone asked what your documentation does to enable you to be successful? If you don't have goals, you're in a ready, fire, aim environment.
For content analysis, we want a content profile. What is well-written and well-styled? What determines quality? How do you decide if it is good?
Publishing converts content for publishing and tracking. Tracking? Look at the top 10 and bottom 10. Spending the same $$$ to publish. Why keep publishing content that no one is using? Deprecated information doesn't need to exist anywhere, not managed, not published, maybe archived.
Content strategy includes convergence. Reusable components improve content creation. One source goes into many places. Comes from one managed and controlled source of information. One source means that publication can occur faster, as soon as content in the CMS is approved.
The core idea of DITA is topic types, including core types of task, concept, and reference. Subject matter experts often do not supply content that fits these frameworks. How much easier would our job be if SMEs would just take the one little step of categorizing the content they create in these 3 topics types.
And now I'm creating a topic in Adobe Experience Manager. AEM seems like a pretty good way for people around the org to contribute content. That it's DITA should constrain the ability to simply free-form content creation.
The assumption is that topic-oriented documentation with DITA is well-organized. Reality is that there are often linguistic issues.
Consistency, coherence.
Consistency is a challenge for one person, but the challenge just increases with many people.
Reuse in DITA is its central tenet. But DITA reuse is topic reuse. Sentence reuse is a good level too. Reuse at a sentence level can increase efficiency and the size of the content set. The clean up and normalization includes terminology, spaces, punctuation, and errors. An examination of a content set can find sentence-level content that finds the same things said in different ways. By increasing consistency at this level, it can not only increase audience comprehension, it can reduce costs for items such as translation.
Coherence is the glue between sentences. Unnecessary or wrong use of cohesion undermines the purpose of topics.
It's code upon which they base their content source files they call "XML-based HTML5." This is because the HTML5 specification allows some flexibility, like the original HTML was designed to, and is not rigid, like the discarded and oft-disdained XHTML, but Adobe wanted RoboHelp to be able to interoperate with XML-based content systems.
However, this session has become nothing more than a long recitation of RH features, merely the first bullet of the session description items:
- Implementing a winning content strategy
- Creating DITA content in FrameMaker
- The all-new RoboHelp
Generate revenue by implementing a winning content strategy
Is content a business asset? Yes, it is a core business asset. Content is the core business asset. Without content, a company cannot work. And it cannot be recreated if it is lost.Well, that was fun. Although I have an understanding of DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture), and although I have reviewed DITA files and maps, this was the first time I've ever created a DITA topic. And I did it in FrameMaker.
Content strategy is about getting the right content to the right place in the right format to the right people so they can make the right decisions.
Content should be an area that makes revenue, not someplace that can be cut. Documentation should be an investment.
A goals framework is a key content strategy piece. Should have short-term and long-term measurable goals. Could be a basis for determining ROI--which is not always $$$.
Has anyone asked what your documentation does to enable you to be successful? If you don't have goals, you're in a ready, fire, aim environment.
For content analysis, we want a content profile. What is well-written and well-styled? What determines quality? How do you decide if it is good?
Publishing converts content for publishing and tracking. Tracking? Look at the top 10 and bottom 10. Spending the same $$$ to publish. Why keep publishing content that no one is using? Deprecated information doesn't need to exist anywhere, not managed, not published, maybe archived.
Content strategy includes convergence. Reusable components improve content creation. One source goes into many places. Comes from one managed and controlled source of information. One source means that publication can occur faster, as soon as content in the CMS is approved.
The core idea of DITA is topic types, including core types of task, concept, and reference. Subject matter experts often do not supply content that fits these frameworks. How much easier would our job be if SMEs would just take the one little step of categorizing the content they create in these 3 topics types.
And now I'm creating a topic in Adobe Experience Manager. AEM seems like a pretty good way for people around the org to contribute content. That it's DITA should constrain the ability to simply free-form content creation.
Creating DITA Content Quality in FrameMaker
Presented by Congee, a German consulting company to help companies create better content via their platform for content optimization.The assumption is that topic-oriented documentation with DITA is well-organized. Reality is that there are often linguistic issues.
Consistency, coherence.
Consistency is a challenge for one person, but the challenge just increases with many people.
Reuse in DITA is its central tenet. But DITA reuse is topic reuse. Sentence reuse is a good level too. Reuse at a sentence level can increase efficiency and the size of the content set. The clean up and normalization includes terminology, spaces, punctuation, and errors. An examination of a content set can find sentence-level content that finds the same things said in different ways. By increasing consistency at this level, it can not only increase audience comprehension, it can reduce costs for items such as translation.
Coherence is the glue between sentences. Unnecessary or wrong use of cohesion undermines the purpose of topics.
RoboHelp 2019
Adobe is calling the 2019 version of RoboHelp, the software I've been using off and on for literally 30 years, "all new" because they decided to rewrite it from scratch. They are calling it a new "platform," 64-bit, "modern" technology, and more.It's code upon which they base their content source files they call "XML-based HTML5." This is because the HTML5 specification allows some flexibility, like the original HTML was designed to, and is not rigid, like the discarded and oft-disdained XHTML, but Adobe wanted RoboHelp to be able to interoperate with XML-based content systems.
However, this session has become nothing more than a long recitation of RH features, merely the first bullet of the session description items:
- Get an introduction to the all-new user interface
- Learn how to configure RoboHelp 2019 for your needs
- Create a new project from scratch
- Create your first help topic with a proper structure
- Modify the default CSS3 stylesheet to your needs with the new visual CSS designer
- Edit the XML-based HTML5 in the all-new source code editor
- Learn how to work with snippets, variables, and conditional text
- And finally, publish your project to Responsive HTML5 and PDF
Creating Unified Content Experiences
This Sunday all-morning pre-conference workshop is subtitled "Building Cross-Functional Unified Content Experiences and was presented by Toni Mantych, Senior Director of Product Content at ServiceNow, and Kim Viano, a Content Strategist at ServiceNow.
The workshop will touch on why a unified content experience, common challenges, and more.
What is content experience? Something we design & deliver or something a user perceives & feels? It's both, and we have to think about both. It's not just about doing the work, but about research to see how the work is received.
Components of content experience include:
- Appearance
- Interaction
- Capabilities
- Value
What is unified content experience? What are we unifying? Unified doesn't mean uniform. Good experiences are the ones where people have the right expectations. "A meaningful system of content offerings that provides value to customers throughout their customer journey in a consistent (but not necessarily uniform) way."
"A whole that is greater than the sum of its parts." It's an ecosystem.
A unified content experience does not (necessarily) mean a single interface or pathway, abandoning distinct content types of channels, or a single set of tools or publishing systems. But it does mean having a strategy.
Unified content experiences come in all sizes, including teams, departments, multiple departments, and enterprises. Sometimes it's good to start at a smaller scale. Larger scale usually requires working cross-functionally across content and other groups.
When you have to deal with people in other functions, understand what moves them. And it helps to prep for these discussions or presentations.
Obstacles & Challenges
- Lack of a common goal
- Lack of ownership
- Competing priorities
- No research & data
- Missing core competencies
- Overwhelming scope
- Stakeholders & partners not prepared, incentivized, or willing
- Organizational bias
A lot of companies have research about customers, but not customers using content. We don't teach people and incentivize people to collaborate. Collaboration is hard. Especially hard for content people. Content is a personal thing.
When you get into a system of content reuse, you have to learn to let go of your content.
Start with a focus on the customer, then align with corporate strategy, then validate assumptions with research and data.
Increase cross-functional integration through communication, coordination, and collaboration.
Guiding Principles
- Content is a valuable asset & should be treated as such
- All content is n service of the customer
- Collaboration should be a form of strategic diversity
- A good content experience varies by audience and context
- Unified content experience does not mean uniform content experience
- Seek common ground, but understand where difference in meaningful
- Respect expertise of all content leaders (and everyone)
Tactical Ideas
How does your company think about content? What would it mean to think about content as a product? Product, design, and content all have people in common.A product mindset helps discover the necessary roles for content development.
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