content wrangling: applying content strategy & information architecture

Content Wrangling:Applying Content Strategy

& Information Architecture Aaron E. Silvers & Megan Bowe,

MakingBetter - Chicago | Philadelphia

DevLearn 2014 Las Vegas, NV

Thursday, October 30, 2014

USE THE TWITTERS!!!!!

@aaronesilvers @meganbowe

#devlearn

“ - The Hunt for Red October

“What's his plan?”

“His plan?”

“Russians don't take a dump, son, without

a plan.”One does not simply

walk into Content

Strategy…

Content WranglingCase Studies

When the pain of not having a content strategy is greater than the pain of putting one it together — organizations embrace it. It’s a sign of maturity.

Startup for Teacher Education

NGO for Relief Services

NGO for Public Health

NGO forPublic Health

The conversation started with… “We need to update our Blended Learning offering — and the curriculum behind it.”

Digging in required…

• Inventorying the existing content

• Identifying stakeholders for the content to be managed

• Defining use cases for how the content would be used in the new system

• Performing a content audit.Photo by kohane - http://flic.kr/p/cDcWxE

NGO forRelief Services

The conversation started with… “We need a strategy for people around the world to use our content to develop each other.”

Digging in required…

• Performing a content audit

• Researching the tagging, or taxonomy, used by the audiences

• Architecting how different groups accessed information

• Breaking down large content items into smaller, more digestible pieces.

Photo by Official U.S. Air Force - http://flic.kr/p/hDWU94

Startup for Teacher Education

The conversation started with… “We need to move all our content out of our LMS and into a CMS.”

Digging in required…

• Performing a content audit

• Defining the tagging, or taxonomy, used by the audience

• Reimagining how different stakeholders with different needs navigated the content.

Photo by hans s - http://flic.kr/p/TuwUY

Content Wrangling

Management loves them

some “strategy.” How

applicable are the strategies

in your organization to your

“work?”

Approach

Where does your strategy take you?

Strategy is designed to

achieve to achieve

something. It provides a

point on the horizon and an

idea about how to get there.

Who Does What?Improve Content to be More

Useful & Usable

Improve the Performance of Employees

Demonstrate the Value Contributed to the

Organization

Strengthen/Accelerate the Organization’s

Capacity

Instructional

Designers

Learning & Development Leaders

Vendors

It’s not always this. @mkngbttr, we tend to work on goals like these.

…and How?

Define Engagements That Matter & Interactions to

Gauge Them.

Inform the Organization with the Insights

Needed.

Help the Organization Do This Better, Faster,

Cheaper.

Instructional

Designers

Learning & Development Leaders

Vendors

Again, not always how even the previous goals get accomplished. @mkngbttr, working with xAPI, we tend to deliver on these value propositions.

Content Wrangling

Workflows are actionable, flexible and contextual. Everything a learning organization does has workflows — INCLUDING CONTENT STRATEGY.

Workflow

A B C D

A B C D

1 2 C D

Processes repeat the same steps to

achieve a consistent result, which

is fine for producing cars. Making

BETTER organizations and

humans requires something…

else.

Adapted from http://kubie.co/writing-toolbox/

A

C

D

B

A simple workflow might be applying a process, like “offer this eLearning course the LMS.”

G

E

A

C

D

H

F B J I

Intense workflows might involve various stakeholders, multiple processes and different tools.

R&A Au T Re IA LLIf you really want to achieve those strategic goals, WRANGLING CONTENT requires workflows to

(a) establish a baseline on what content you have, and (b) how to improve its use to humans.

R&A Au T Re

Inv

Sta

IA LL

Use

Research & Analysis

Inventory Content

Identify Stakeholders

Define Use Cases

R&A Au T Re

Inv Feed

Sta Weed

IA LL

Use Need

Content Audit

What do we feed?

What should we weed?

What will we need?

R&A Au T Re

Inv Feed Look

Sta Weed Find

IA LL

Use Need

Tagging (Taxonomy)

What do ppl look for?

What do ppl find?

R&A Au T Re

Inv Feed Look G

Sta Weed Find M

IA LL

Use Need D

Refactoring

Granularity

Modularity

Discreteness

R&A Au T Re

Inv Feed Look G

Sta Weed Find M

IA

Nav

LL

Use Need D

Information

Architecture

Navigation

R&A Au T Re

Inv Feed Look G

Sta Weed Find M

IA

Nav

LL

Use Need D

LEAN Learning:

Learn-Design-Measure Loops

R&A Au T Re

Inv Feed Look G

Sta Weed Find M

IA

Nav

LL

Use Need DContent Wrangling @mkngbttr

LEAN LearningApplies tools and workflow to

continuously improve content and

content systems by constantly

validating what we learn about how

people use both.

Learn

Design

Measure An

alyz

e Ideas

Build LEAN Learning

@mkngbttr

LEAN Learning focuses on creating capacity to meet the learning needs of individuals and the business needs of the organization.

Adapted from Eric Reis’ “The LEAN Startup”

Frame Persona Effect Intent

“An Ebola

outbreak.”

“Hotline operators”

“Reduce the

clicks to navigate

to the appropriate

job aids.”

“We want to

provide faster

access to

disaster relief

procedures.”

Frame Persona Effect Intent

What’s the

activity?

Who’s the

audience?

How do evaluate success?

What’s the

business goal/outcome to be achieved?

Design Modeling

0

25

50

75

100

April May June July

Learn as much as you can about what hurts. Addressing juicy challenges adds value back into the organization — TAKE THE PAIN AWAY.

InsightsMany ways to get insights. @mkngbttr uses xAPI as well as other data sources, analyzed with different models and/or tools for different needs.

Aaron E. Silvers @aaronesilvers

aaron@makingbetter.us http://makingbetter.us/

Thank You!Megan Bowe

@meganbowe

megan@makingbetter.us

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