+

Rachel SienkoInformation Development Manager, BigPanda

STC – San Diego ChapterMay, 2017

Wiki - Style

+About me

n InfoDev Manager at BigPanda

n Silicon Valley startup; software for IT Operations event correlation & management

n Live in San Diego, CA

n Confluence for public Docs & KB

n Sony (PlayStation Network)

n Confluence for internal KB; Flare & others for various projects

n ServiceNow

n MediaWiki for public Docs

n CRW Systems

n RoboHelp for customer Docs

+What is Wiki-Style?

A website that allows collaborative editing of its content and structure by its users.

n Create, edit, and share content with any browser

n Dynamic, evolving, quick

n Hyperlinks and crosslinks

n Collaborative and open

n Open-source (MediaWiki) or proprietary (Confluence)

+Why Confluence at BigPanda?

n Familiar… already using it for internal knowledge capture

n Extensible… able to customize to meet many different needs

n Scalable… used by many popular, high-traffic sites

+Is it right for me?

n Who will contribute content?

n Who will consume content?

n How is information managed?

n How is the infrastructure maintained?

n How can you track whether the information is effective?

Favors:

n Collaboration & ease of use over structure & automation

n Platform over stacked/best of breed

Considerations Wiki-Style vs. Traditional

Content Strategy

Infrastructure & Operations

AuthoringContent

ManagementPublishing Measurement

Authoringn Articles vs. topics or documents

n Reuse: inclusion & excerpts

n Unstructured vs. structured: templates & forms

n Collaboration

n Review and preview

Pillar 1

+Demo: Reuse

+Demo: Templates & Comments

Content Management

n Access controls

n Revision control

n Version management

n Draft vs. published

n Workflow management

Pillar 2

+

Internal

BigPanda Docs

BigPanda FAQs

Draft Docs

Draft FAQs

External

Space architecture

Versioning, Workflow & AutomationConfluence with Scroll Versions Add-On

Draft Docs

Master

InProgress

Retired

Copy of published or ready to publish version

Draft version for edits and new content

Deprecated articles

Version architecture

+Demo: Docs vs. FAQs

+Demo: Draft article

Publishingn Automation, multi-channel, single-sourcing

n Custom URL

n Search

n Styling for custom look & feel

n Navigation

n Responsive design/mobile

Pillar 3

+Demo: Search results

Measurementn Feedback

n Community contributions, ratings, & engagement

n Usage metrics

n SEO

n Content analysis & aging

Pillar 4

+Is the info effective?

Situation

n Competitive POC

n Prospect headquartered in UK

Benefits

n Competitive differentiator: Easy to use and way better than other vendors; comprehensive documentation lead to success

n Helped address prospect’s concerns about remote support

Result

n Sales team closed the deal!

Metrics – First year growth Customer feedback – Case study

n Integration across the tool stack (and with other tools)

n Hosting w/ high availability, backups, disaster recovery

n Performance and scalability

n Patching, upgrades, operational security

Infrastructure & Operations

Foundation

+In Summary

n Wikis can support customer-facing product documentationn At scalen With customer engagementn Even with automationn …if you have the right team culture & you’re willing to do some

customization

n Weigh the strengths of collaboration & ease of use versus the weaknesses in structure & automation

n Consider the implications of an all-in-one platform

+

Questions?

+Further reading

n LinkedIn conversation (join Documentation & Technical Writing Management)n https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2632674/2632674-6185773816568958977?trk=hp-feed-group-

discussion

n Blogs about content reuse in Confluencen http://idratherbewriting.com/2014/06/24/strategies-for-content-re-use-in-confluence/n https://www.k15t.com/blog/2014/02/how-to-reuse-content-in-atlassian-confluence-with-scroll-

versionsn https://ffeathers.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/content-reuse-on-a-wiki-a-case-study/

n Atlassian (Confluence)n https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/confluence-server-documentation-135922.htmln https://marketplace.atlassian.com/

n BigPanda Docsn https://www.bigpanda.io/docs