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:

• 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

And I was very much looking forward to the hands-on part.

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

Like an iceberg: The appearance part is visible, but it's all important.

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.