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Better workflows, stronger governance
Ahava LeibtagPresident
Aha Media Group
September 21 2016
Today’s Schedule1. Time travel2. Exercise #13. Break around 10:30ish4. Exercise #25. Exercise #3
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Why do people just groan when they talk about content
governance?
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Exercise:1. Gather in groups of 2 or 3 people
2. Discuss two governance problems that you may have under each category of people, process and tools/technology
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You know you’re in trouble when: There is not executive or upper-level management support for
governance No one person is dedicated to being in charge Politics take precedence over expertise You have no documentation around governance You have no training programs around governance People are not held accountable for governance issues
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After today…(hopefully)
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A good governance plan: Has executive buy-in and support Identifies who is responsible for making decisions in various
scenarios Has documentation and training based on expertise, not
guesswork Minimizes politics Makes governance a part of people’s annual review process
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Content strategy takes the guesswork out of execution so creativity around content will
flourish.
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Workflow vs. Governance
WorkflowWhat processes, tools and human resources are required for content initiatives to launch successfully and maintain ongoing quality?
GovernanceHow are key decisions about content and content strategy made? How are changes initiated and communicated?
Content Governance• Content level (writing)• Structural level (models)• Reuse level
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Process
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To-do list: Process Map current workflow to understand weaknesses Design workflow based on roles and responsibilities, not
people Clarify roles and responsibilities, each and every time Choose technology that will support your process
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Types of Content Teams1. Siloed2. Distributed3. Centralized4. Rogue
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Types of Content Teams
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Type of content team Pros Cons
Siloed A lot of content gets created because there is no over-arching
process to go through
Departments do not communicate with each other
The audience is confused
The Departments are confused
Distributed Can be useful in situations where you don’t have enough
manpower on your central content team to keep all of your
content fresh
For multi-national organizations, can deal effectively with
language, culture, and other differences
Difficult to govern
Difficult to achieve consistency
Need careful, thorough training
Centralized Have complete control over content Not enough resources or staff
Massive backlogs of content
Confusion over priority
Lack of clarity about ownership
Lack of subject matter experts
Rogue Are extremely motivated to converse with their target audiences
Understand the value of web content
Unhampered by political concerns
Almost impossible to govern
No interest in adhering to workflow
No stake in overall quality or consistency
SiloedPros• A lot of content gets created by different teams because there is no over-arching
process to go through
Cons• Departments do not communicate with each other• The audience is confused• The departments are confused• Executives have no idea what’s happening on the ground
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DistributedPros• Can be useful in situations where you don’t have enough manpower on your central content team
to keep all of your content fresh• For multi-national organizations, can deal effectively with language, culture, and other differences
Cons• Difficult to govern• Difficult to achieve consistency• Need careful, thorough training • Accountability?
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CentralizedPros• Have complete control over content• Not enough resources or staff
Cons• Massive backlogs of content • Confusion over priority • Lack of clarity about ownership• Lack of subject matter experts
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RoguePros• Are extremely motivated to converse with their target audiences• Understand the value of web content• Unhampered by political concerns
Cons• Almost impossible to govern• No interest in adhering to workflow• No stake in overall quality or consistency
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Map current workflow to understand weaknesses
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Why workflow?• Break down the content process into manageable tasks• Identify each piece of content’s stage of development• Identify each step for the content to receive approval• Know who is responsible for each step and when
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Why is workflow so hard?• Information flow• Misplaced talent• Lack of guidance and clear models• Lack of training
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Work the problem.
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Workflow Mapping: Phase IIdentify:• Why create the content (the business objective)?• Who is involved (the roles)?• What each role does (the tasks)?• When the tasks get done (the flow)?• How you will assess (the result)?
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What are the steps?How is content:• Requested• Sourced• Created• Reviewed• Approved• Published• Analyzed
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Requesters
Providers
Creators
Reviewers
Approvers
Publishers
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Roles Definitions
Requesters
Providers
Creators
Reviewers
Approvers
Publishers
Distributors
Analysts
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Questions to ask while mapping1. Who currently inhabits the above roles?2. What is the current process in place for that role?3. What happens when that person is unavailable?4. Who gets to make decisions about change in process?5. How does information flow from one role to the next?6. How does information get shared? (Files, shared drives,
project management software)
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Roles Definitions
Requesters Creates Assignments
Providers Sources Content
Creators Writing & Sourcing
Reviewers Editors
Approvers Final Approval
Publishers Prepare content for distribution
Distributors Distribute content
Analysts Analyze content performance and behavior
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Roles: Phase II1. Understand current workflow2. Write up or use current job descriptions3. Rearrange workflow to be appropriate for the end content
product4. Rewrite job descriptions5. Examine who is in those roles
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Roles Tasks Who?
Requesters Requests content
Providers Sources Content—could be multiple subject matter experts
Creators Writing & Sourcing Video editing (if necessary) Photographic editing (if necessary)
Reviewers Edits Legally approves Approves for messaging and branding
Approvers Final copy editing
Publishers Prepare content for distribution
Distributors Distributes through different digital channels
Analysts Analyzes the content over time to see if it is performing well
Design workflow based on roles and responsibilities, not people
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FOCUS ON THE ROLES.NOT THE PEOPLE.NOT THE TALENT.
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Put the Right People in the Right Roles• Evaluate talent fairly• Structure for experience and personality (where possible)• Don’t be afraid to experiment
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May Need…• More guidance• More training• Different job• More documentation• Rewards
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Clarify roles & responsibilities
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Who is in charge?
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Examples: Define roles and responsibilities• Project Manager: What is your job? Explain it to the content
people.• Content Strategist: EXACTLY what are you in charge of doing?• Writers/Content Creators: Who is responsible for each of the
steps?• Quality Assurance: Who performs and to whom do they give
that information?
Who is a part of each process?• Project managers• Content strategists• Writers• Graphic designers• Subject-matter experts• Marketing managers • Business owners• Reviewers (legal, HR, department heads, etc.)• Developers
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Showing Workflow1. Spreadsheets or editorial calendars2. Content flows3. Swimlanes4. CMS
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Identify potential bottlenecksNOW.
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Document workflow clearly
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• PLAN• CREATE• REVIEW• APPROVE• PUBLISH• MAINTAIN
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PlanCreateReview/ApproveAssemblePublish/Distribute
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Establish Content
Governance
Content Analysis
Content Creation
Establishing workflows
Content Planning
• Persona Development• Messaging Architecture• Identity Pillar
Identification
Build OR clarify the business
case
Content AuditingDiscovery
YOU ARE HERE
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Writer
Email web producer (builds it and puts in alt
tags)
Writer (looks at it in staging for QA)
Publisher
Writer/Project Manager
Program Director and Interviewees (for comments)
Project Manager (collates comments)
Publisher
Extensive changes
Go back?
Non-extensive changes
Push to go live
Announce to reviewing staff
Chooses photos
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Reporting Structures
Content Rep
Sales
Marketing
Internal Comm
PR Content Rep
Product Engineering
Service Engineering
Customer Support
Content Rep
Finance
Accounting
HR
Logistics
Content Team
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That’s how content strategy scales; it’s owned by everyone.
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Exercise:Sketch your current workflow; just
the highlights—not the detailsNotice the bottlenecks.
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Choose technology that will support your process
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Discover where breaks in governance can be automated
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Where can we automate this?• Understand what your CMS can do• Create authoring tools that provide guidance• Create content models that only allow certain inputs• Show the ROI on tagging and proper authoring• Select tech tools to evaluate that might help you• Use technology to remind you to archive
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Don’t be fooled. Technology is not governance.
It’s a part of your toolbox.
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Tools
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To-do List: Tools Create or modify style guides, playbooks & templates
Content workflows Editorial guidelines Style guides Business rules Page tables Taxonomies Playbooks and checklists Archiving standards Reporting
Create cheat sheets for meta data and some basic style issues
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The right tools for your organization are rooted in your
culture and attitude.
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Create or Modify Style Guides, Playbooks & Templates
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Common governance tools1. Content workflows2. Editorial guidelines3. Style guides4. Business rules5. Page tables6. Taxonomies7. Playbooks and checklists8. Archiving standards9. Reporting
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Workflows
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Style Guide
Business Rules
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What happens when: Decision
A source component is changed by someone other than the owner?
The changed component becomes a derivative.
A source component that has been identically reused changes?
Authors who reused the component are notified of the change to determine if they want to make change to their usage of the component.If they choose not to use the changed component their version of the component becomes a derivative.
New content is created? It is not part of the source until approved.Authors can resume unapproved content which is in progress, but their information product cannot be published until all components are approved.
From: Managing Enterprise Content, Ann Rockley and Charles Cooper, pg. 242
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Business Rules• Govern your reuse• Implemented in your CMS• Controlled by CMS or by staff (manually)• Develop the business rules before they are implemented• Once you know what they are you can implement them
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Page Tables
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Page Tables: 2
Page Tables: 3
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Word with Character Limits
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Excel with Character Limits
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Taxonomies• Identifies content• Defines metadata• Manages the relationships between those pieces of content
and metadata• Manages the organization of information so that people can
find the information they need
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Your goal is to have a shared and controlled vocabulary.
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Playbook and checklists
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Archiving Standards• Use your CMS• Use your content models• Have people be in charge quarterly• Create digital handshakes and handoffs—If this happens…that
happens
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Reporting• Non compliant pages• Spelling errors• Dead links• References to out of date info• Improper keywords• Bad metadata
Create cheat sheets for meta data and some basic style issues
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LINKS add depth to your site. Here’s how to use them:
Use action words Match links to the page title (H1 tag) as much as possible Link 3-7 words only Label links if they don’t jump to a web page (example: [PDF]) Ensure active and visited links use consistent colors (i.e., blue and purple, respectively) NEVER: use “click here”, put links in places where you’ll lose the reader in the
conversation, or make headlines links
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People
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To-do listPeople Gain executive buy-in by emphasizing business goals Create multidisciplinary governance bodies Assign decision makers Train people how to use governance documentation and who to contact when
there are questions Make governance a part of people’s annual review process Measure how you are doing; not just in reporting metrics but in organizational
commitment
Gain executive buy-in by emphasizing business goals
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Convince them1. Sell it to them2. Show the mistakes3. Find a head cheerleader4. Advise that it’s a process; not an overnight change
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Create multidisciplinary governance bodies
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PRITUX
Executive LeadershipMarketing
Customer RelationsVisual
Design
Sales
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Content Councils
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Why multidisciplinary teams?• Adapt to changing technologies• Break down silos• Better ideas• Look at things from different perspectives• See problems and solutions in a variety of ways• Have different kinds of political connections
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Who to look for?• Executive sponsor• Product management• Business intelligence• Creative/editorial• Information technology• UI/UX• Legal• Training
• Marketing• Taxonomy manager• Content creators/editors• Content managers• Regional representatives• Search specialists• Business line owners
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Option #1: Create two teams1. Strategic authority: bird’s-eye-view decisions like site
objectives, resources and budgeting, audience definition and annual planning.
2. Implementation authority: decisions related to day-to-day operations (requests for the home page, new content, content maintenance, editorial oversight.
Option #2: Create three teams1. Steering Committees: they make business decisions about
priorities and allocation of resources (they get the final say when politics or conflicts amongst different groups arises)
2. Work teams and working groups: Day-to-day implementation authority; report to the steering committee on a regular basis
3. Task forces: Groups that focus a unique project for a limited duration
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Assign decision makers
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Pick a Captain Content (or a few of them)
Somebody has to be the final say on each and every content
project.
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Train people how to use governance documentation and who to contact when there are
questions
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Training1. Model good governance (show people what it really means;
either with mistakes or best practices examples)2. Invite to training meetings (serve food)3. Send our reminder emails
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1. Model Good Governance
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2. Invite to training meetings• Writing workshops• CMS workshops• Updates to governance standards
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3. Send out reminder emails
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If you have a distributed content team, you should hold 4
trainings a year and make at least 2 mandatory.
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Make governance a part of people’s annual review process
(seriously)
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Measure how you are doing; not just in reporting metrics but in organizational commitment
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Measurement1. Look at reviews2. Create personal case studies3. Use software to show decreases in mistakes4. Track workflow to find ways you’ve shortened time to
publication5. Show how often tools are being updated or used
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Exercise: What’s three ways you could
measure how you’re doing with governance?
In reality, these activities are part of a continuous life cycle that repeats and repeats and
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Remember!!!!• The law of tiny changes• If you can affect 10% of change in behavior in a year, you’re
doing great!
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Content guides the interactions between customer and vendor. And it’s [our] job to orchestrate these content assets—these
touchpoints across the entire customer life cycle—to deliver a winning, high-growth customer
experience.
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Questions?
Ahava LeibtagAha Media Group, [email protected]
@ahavaL @ ahavaleibtag
THANK YOU!