Rhyne Armstrong

From Small to Enterprise: Growing Pains in the Content

World

From Small to Enterprise

Growing Pains in the Content World

@Ninety7

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Thank you

Rhyne Armstrong@ninety7Rhynearmstrong@gmail.comLinkedin.com/in/rhyneFacebook.com/rhyneInstagram - rhynearmstrong

@Ninety7

About me •24 years in TechComm

• 11 years in Content Strategy.

•All in small biz or start-ups.

•

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Introduction

I am going to talk about:

• What have I gotten myself into?

• My attempt at an illustration.

• Where are we now?

• Learning from my mistakes.

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Background Story

•Small business bought by Cisco.

•Small team with basic content strategy.

•Defined roles, but no shared content.

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Expectation

•Manage the documentation team.

• Improve the quality of content.

• Improve the distribution of content.

• Improve internal content.

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Problems

•Releases never stop.

•Decisions have to be made quickly.

•There isn’t a manual.

•Platforms may not be compatible.

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Realizations

•Some things are out of your hands.

•Your mindset may have to change.

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Realizations

•Some things are out of your hands.

•Your mindset may have to change.

•Your mindset will have to change.

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An Illustration

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Football

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Football

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Football

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Small Sided

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Small Sided

• Little to no leadership off the field.

• Agile by nature; lots of trial and error.

• Small adjustments make big improvements.

• Mistakes impact only your team.

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Players

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Players

• Individual effort is key. •Roles are defined, but don’t matter in the end.

•Players are fluid and play all roles.

• Field is small, so players can be everywhere on it.

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Players

•Likely have access to all levels of management.

•Small-sided is NOT easy (or even easier).

• It is just different.

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What happens?

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The Beautiful Game

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It’s HUGe!

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Proper Governance

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More Stakeholders

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Compliance

Telegraph.co.uk

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Multiple Processes

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Precise Roles

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Complex Strategy

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Multiple Languages

Mirror.co.uk

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Bigger Stakes

Arsenal.com

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The Arsenal Way

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The Arsenal Way

Arsenal Football Club exists to make our fans proud wherever they are in the world and however they choose to follow us. - http://www.arsenal.com/the-club/the-arsenal-way

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As a player…

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As a player…

•Know your role.

•Adapt as necessary.

•Pass the ball.

•Know when to lead and when to follow.

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Meanwhile, at Stealthwatch

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Manage Doc Team

•Hired for coverage, and to increase knowledge and talent.

• Improved doc team’s integration in the agile squads by having doc work tracked as a task in a user story.

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Improve Quality

•Convert everything to MadCap Flare so content can be single-sourced and localised.

•Put in place a new 2-stage review system.

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Improve Distribution

•Creating new HTML 5 help system that pulls in pre-tagged XML content from a new LMS and Content Distribution System.

•Moved internal content to the ISO prescribed content repository (since it is IP).

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Improve Distribution

•Prototyping a new dynamic “playbook” that matches content with security bulletins, troubleshooting, and security procedures.

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Improve Internal

Communication

•Working on a new intranet for knowledge management.

•Created cross-functional content team.

•Streamlining communication tools to help with the overload.

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Improve Internal

Communication

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And one more thing…

• Started common language initiative. For Stealthwatch and beyond.

• Common glossary. • List of terms.• Style and usage guide. • Wiki page for links and

discussion of usage.

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Things I learned

Find friends.

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Things I learned

Take your time.

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Things I learned

Learn.

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Things I learned

Be agile.

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Things I learned

Work together.

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Things I learned

Watch for toes.

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Things I learned

Content is (or can be) IP.

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Things I learned

Don’t follow blindly.

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Things I learned

Understand compliance rules.

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Things I learned

Share!

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Thank you!

Rhyne Armstrong@ninety7Rhynearmstrong@gmail.comLinkedin.com/in/rhyneFacebook.com/rhyneInstagram - rhynearmstrong