building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

36
IBM Total Information Experience Building effective information architecture (IA) teams in resource-challenged times Alyson Riley Senior Content Strategist IBM Total Information Experience Office of the IBM CIO (and my boss is in the audience) @ak_riley linkedin.com/in/alysonriley 6 May 2013 STC Summit 2013—Happy 60 th birthday, STC! © IBM Corporation 2013. All Rights Reserved

Upload: alyson-riley

Post on 20-Aug-2015

598 views

Category:

Design


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

IBM Total Information Experience

Building effective information architecture (IA) teamsin resource-challenged times

Alyson RileySenior Content StrategistIBM Total Information ExperienceOffice of the IBM CIO(and my boss is in the audience)

@ak_rileylinkedin.com/in/alysonriley

6 May 2013STC Summit 2013—Happy 60th birthday, STC!

© IBM Corporation 2013. All Rights Reserved

Page 2: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

2

IBM Total Information Experience

2

About Alyson

Technical communicator since 1995

Areas of expertise

Content strategy

Content metrics—the business value of content

Strategic information architecture (I organize my closets for fun)

Interaction design for content delivery vehicles, and interactive content

Information and product usability, from analysis through validation

User-centered processes for content strategy and scenario-driven information architecture

Senior Content Strategist on IBM’s corporate Total Information Experience team (in the IBM CIO organization)

Intercom columnist (with Andrea Ames) of The Strategic IA

@ak_rileylinkedin.com/in/alysonriley

Page 3: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

3

IBM Total Information Experience

Just so you can’t say I didn’t warn you

Most of this presentation is going to be about:1. Metrics

2. Stakeholder management

Try not to be disappointed, OK?

Page 4: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

4

IBM Total Information Experience

A little context-setting…Where do you live in this picture?

Page 5: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

5

IBM Total Information Experience

Identify problems & opportunities(who cares?)

Page 6: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

6

IBM Total Information Experience

You can stop listening after this chart, if you want.

“Nice to have” is dead.

If it's not business-critical, no one will care.

If you want to build a high-functioning IA team, you have to:

Prove the work is business-critical

Prove the business value of content

Page 7: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

7

IBM Total Information Experience

WHY?

Look for the “Why?” behind the strategy

Change, challenge, or opportunity in the marketplace?

Innovation in the IT landscape?

Trend or sea-change in financial realities or global dynamics?

Why what matters

Strategic priorities vs. point-in-time tactics

Investment vs. legacy

Revenue generation vs. cost center

Use systems thinking to find opportunities to add value

Contribute to market plays, innovation, or customer requirements

Contribute to the priorities of the enterprise, business unit, or product

Prove that your results are something that customers want

Prove that your strategy supports business strategy

Toward business-critical

Page 8: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

8

IBM Total Information Experience

Take a system-level look at the problem space

A generalized view of IBM’s product lifecycle

content

Page 9: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

9

IBM Total Information Experience

Take a system-level look at your “users”

A layered view of “the client”

Are you thinking aboutyour clients and their needs

holistically?

Page 10: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

10

IBM Total Information Experience

Take a system-level look at product performance

Ask SupportWhat are clients calling about? What’s the worst problem to fix? What trends do you see?

Ask SalesWhat does the product look like in real client environments? What’s the hardest part of your job? What do clients like least? How do we measure up against competition?

Ask Product managementWhat customer issues are you tracking? What’s happening in the market? What keeps you up at night?

Ask MarketingAre messages performing as expected in the marketplace? What are people saying? What are conversion rates like?your product

Ask UI designHow well do current offerings map to client requirements?

Page 11: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

11

IBM Total Information Experience

Take a system-level look at content performance

Page 12: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

12

IBM Total Information Experience

(another way of saying what the previous chart said)

See all this?Yeah, content makes this happen. How effective is your content?

Graphic lifted from Aiden Creative Digital Marketing Agency

Page 13: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

13

IBM Total Information Experience

Content drives stuff that the business cares about.

Analyze the system to find business problems and business opportunities.

Make your case for what you want to accomplish.

And get ready to prove it.

Page 14: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

14

IBM Total Information Experience

Proving it (tell the right story)

Page 15: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

15

IBM Total Information Experience

First: Who?

Business peopleThis group funds us. We need them.We must stop trying to educate them and start speaking their language.We speak their language by proving value using business metrics that matter in the marketplace. Unless you can make a direct connection between your metrics and the metrics that drive business, you will fail.

Content peopleThis group influences our success.

We need them.

Many kinds of content people will help implement an information architecture.

Content people tend to reflect the values of where they live. Even “kindred spirits” can have widely different goals and metrics.

Identify common ground by speaking to what matters most to these people, too.

Page 16: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

16

IBM Total Information Experience

A testWho are we speaking to when we talk about things like

this?

Site visitors

Page hits

Visitor location

Most popular pages

Least popular pages

Bounce rate

Time spent on page

Referrers

Search terms

Etc.

Page 17: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

17

IBM Total Information Experience

Technical communicators need to tell a better story

Become a story-tellerDefine the right vision

Tell a compelling story that inspires people to buy into your vision.

Evolve from good stories to best storiesWhat makes a story true? Facts—things you can prove.

What makes a story compelling? It speaks to what matters most.

What matters most? Depends on your audience. Duh, right?

Prove value with metricsValue is in the eye of the beholder.

Know your beholders.

Use metrics that target actual decision-makers.

Figure out what your actual decision-makers value—their metrics for success.

Cold hard truth: Your actual decision-makers are probably business people—executives and others who hold the purse-strings.

Page 18: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

18

IBM Total Information Experience

Sell your story to a business audience

The metrics we use to create good IA do not resonate with most outside our discipline:

Page hits resonate with us.

Sales leads resonate with business.

You need an IA’s intuition to know how content supports business metrics. Most business people don’t have that intuition.

Examplebusiness metrics:

Revenue streams

Sales leads

Cost per lead

Customer satisfaction

Customer loyalty

Return on investment (ROI)

Time to value

Market share

Mindshare

Examplecontent metrics:

Site visitors

Page hits

Visitor location

Most popular pages

Least popular pages

Bounce rate

Time spent on page

Referrers

Search terms

Page 19: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

19

IBM Total Information Experience

But don’t neglect that content audience

Where do their goals align with yours? build bridges!

Where do their goals conflict with yours? build business cases!

Use metrics to craft a true story that:

Shows problems and opportunities that the content team cares about

Maps in high-priority ways to their goals for content

Diverges from their current goals in ways that would increase their value to sponsors and stakeholders

Page 20: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

20

IBM Total Information Experience

Bridge the business world and the content world

Tie IA metrics to the metrics that make a difference in the market

Do the hard work: Research how content influences the metrics that are most important to the specific people you need for success.

Start your research with these hints:How does content speed user success and time-to-value?

direct link to customer value

How does content drive purchase decisions?

direct link to the revenue stream

How does content impact product quality?

direct link to customer loyalty

How does content influence customer satisfaction?

direct link to ROI

How does content shape clients’ perceptions of your company?

direct link to mindshare

Page 21: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

21

IBM Total Information Experience

Metrics mapping: A simple example

Stakeholder

Business metrics

Content teams Content metrics

Marketing Executive

ROI Cost per lead Campaign

performance Conversion

metrics

Web team Social team Event team

Web traffic Click-throughs Likes and shares Conversions Collateral distributed Cost per unit produced

SalesExecutive

Viable leads Sales growth Product

performance

Sales enablement Education &

training Beta programs

Proofs of Concept (PoCs) to sale

Number of classes Beta program participants Cost per unit produced

SupportExecutive

Call volume Call length Customer sat. Ticket deflection

Web support team Call center team

Amount of web information produced

Volume of calls reduced Time-to-resolution reduced Cost per unit produced

DevelopmentExecutive

Dev cost Market share Lines of code Compliance Quality and test

Technical documentation team

Developers who publish whitepapers and case studies

Product community forum team

Lines of text, number of pages, etc.

Cost per unit produced Web traffic Number of forum participants Sentiment analysis

Page 22: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

22

IBM Total Information Experience

Set business-savvy, metrics-based IA goals

Business metrics Sample IA metrics Sample IA goals

Purchase decisions

(revenue)

Reach—visits, etc. Engagement—

referrals, etc.

Contribute to revenue stream through referrals from technical content that become sales leads.

Product quality

(customer loyalty)

Reach—visits, etc. Engagement—

referrals, etc.

Contribute to product quality through by simplifying the amount of content in the user experience.

Customer satisfaction

(ROI)

Web traffic Direct feedback Ratings Shares (social)

Create high value content that speeds customer time to success.

Perceptions of company (mindshare)

Sentiment—nature of social dialogue, etc.

Direct feedback

Create high quality, highly usable content delivered in an elegant information experience.

Page 23: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

23

IBM Total Information Experience

Telling a better story: An IBM example

Shameless ad:Watch for the May

issue of STC’s Intercom for my new article on

proving the business value of

content (co-authored with

Andrea Ames & Eileen Jones)

We’re learning to tell a better story for a business audience

We conducted a survey from with clients and prospective clients—here’s the hot-off-the-press data:

Page 24: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

24

IBM Total Information Experience

Metrics—the most effective weapon in your arsenal

Problem: Metrics have gotten a bad rap

Numbers can be hard for word people

The right numbers are hard for everyone

Getting metrics to work for you requires a significant shift in thinking

Solution: Rethink metrics

Metrics are another form of audience analysis (who cares about what?)

Metrics are another form of usability testing (what works for whom?)

Motivation for change: Metrics are a powerful tool for getting what you want (and making sure you want the right things)

Metrics transform opinion into fact

Metrics remove emotion from analysis

Strategize with metrics: Use metrics at every phase

Beginning: identify opportunity, prove the strategy is right

Middle: show incremental progress, course-correct

End: prove value and earn investment for the future

Page 25: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

25

IBM Total Information Experience

EthosYour authority, credibility, professionalism, and authenticity

PathosEmotional appeal, vivid imagery, creative envisioning, imagining

LogosLogic, data, clarity, evidence—either inductive (bottom-up) or deductive (top-down) reasoning

Sell: Tell a compelling story for each audience

Use metrics to: Speak to the analytical mind Tell the “black and white” part

of your strategy Articulate facts that prove that

your strategy is a good one

Use vision to: Speak to the heart Inspire people to believe Craft a narrative that

resonates and lingers long after you’ve left the room

Use expert communication to: Prove that you own the space Provide powerful evidence that

you are worthy of trust and investment

Build a network of influencers

Page 26: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

26

IBM Total Information Experience

Organize for success(read: it takes a village)

Page 27: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

27

IBM Total Information Experience

Manage your best political asset: Stakeholders

Whose agendas do you need to understand to be successful?

Which influencers can help you? What are their agendas?

Which influencers could block you? What are their agendas?

How can you help your influencers be successful?

How can you map your success to business priorities and metrics?

Manage your stakeholders intentionally:Their top concerns

Their metrics

The level of support you desire from them

What role they play (or you’d like them to play) in your work

The actions that you want them to take (and their priority)

The messages that you need to craft for them to enable the outcome you want

—Rachel ThompsonStakeholder Management:

Planning Stakeholder Communication. MindTools.

Web. 12 April 2013.

Free stakeholder management worksheet here: http://bit.ly/8UnUdj

“Stakeholder management is critical to the success of every

project in every organization … By engaging the right

people in the right way in your project, you can make a big difference to

its success...and to your career.”

Page 28: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

28

IBM Total Information Experience

Maneuvering people is not necessarily evil

To make IA happen, you have to master politics

Think of it as a game—moving pieces on a board

You can’t touch the pieces directly to move them where you want them

You have to inspire them to move

You inspire them by figuring out what they care about and helping them succeed

It doesn’t have to be an evil game

Look for win-win alliances and opportunities

Discover and play to people’s strengths

Enjoy finding kindred spirits in the game—don’t get bogged down by pieces on the board that refuse to move

Enjoy the wins—be sure to share the rewards

Learn from the losses—keep your eye on the end game on not on emotional setbacks

Make smart compromises for the greater good—but remember who you are

Page 29: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

29

IBM Total Information Experience

Build a community-based model for IA initiatives

Executive sponsor

Business unit sponsors

IA thought leaders from each domain or department

IA teams from each domain

or department

infrastructure gurus

graphic design

content marketing

product management

Network of supportive friends

interaction design

engineering

writers

editors

Page 30: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

30

IBM Total Information Experience

Community-based model for IA teams

Define priorities

Which common metrics can we unite around?

Which metrics will we be measured against?

Which common metrics tell our story best?

Take first steps toward impact

What mission unites us?

What small, measurable projects could we do together to build relationships and demonstrate incremental progress?

How can we crawl—walk—run toward value?

Communicate constantly—up, down, across

Take interim measurements

Maintain sponsor interest

Course-correct as needed

Page 31: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

31

IBM Total Information Experience

Don’t do it like this(embarrassing stories from the trenches)

Page 32: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

32

IBM Total Information Experience

Story 1: In which I fail to use metrics intelligently

What I did

What I should have done

What I saw

What I should have seen

A content producer working on a certain type of content is troublesome:

Doesn’t get the big picture

Doesn’t understand IA

Is belligerent

Is territorial and siloed

Argued!

About content quality—redundancy, inconsistency

About an elegant user experience

Her success is measured differently than my success!

Her success metrics: increase volume of content; promote strong brand identity for her team

My success metrics: simplify the information experience; deliver a “one IBM” information experience

What’s behind her metrics? Find a way to map my metrics to hers and evolve her vision:

Increase volume of content Increase impact of content (reuse internally; visibility externally)

Promote strong brand identity for her team Prove team value

Page 33: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

33

IBM Total Information Experience

Story 2: In which I fail to manage a problem personality

What I did

What I should have done

What I saw

What I should have seen

A writer on a “legacy” product wanted to keep writing books forever:

Doesn’t understand value of modular content

Doesn’t value reuse

Doesn’t get DITA

Got frustrated—argued, yet again!

Internal efficiency metrics

External experience metrics

Industry trends

She’s afraid!

Of failure with the new technology

Of losing her eminence and position as subject matter expert within her organization

Of losing her job

Give her a path to future security that resonates with her values:

We have these problems—current approaches don’t solve them!

We need a solution or we all fail I need your help You’re a thought leader We can’t do this without you

Start together on a small project to demonstrate value and earn trust.

Page 34: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

34

IBM Total Information Experience

Story 3: In which I think “of course we should do this”

What I did

What I should have done

What I saw

What I should have seen

This is an obvious solution to an obvious problem. We must do this. And we are a happy family:

Same company

Same vision

Same goals

Ran meetings.

Kept agendas and minutes.

Wondered why I was the one doing all the work.

Got frustrated.

The problem wasn’t obvious.

The solution wasn’t obvious.

The team was giving me lip service.

The team wasn’t a team.

The sponsors weren’t engaged.

Socialize and test the shared-ness of the vision: Collaborate on a plan and

formalize buy-in (will you put your money where your mouth is?)

Disseminate responsibility (will you stand up and own this?)

Communicate progress & impact

Page 35: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

35

IBM Total Information Experience

Story 4: In which I am too abstract

What I did

What I should have done

What I saw

What I should have seen

A team of strategic information architects from different business units within IBM who each:

See big picture

Think abstractly

Use models

Kept trying to explain (read: forged ahead blindly, not realizing that anything was wrong). But…

Noted lack of progress

Watched participation plummet

Felt awkward

Meeting conversations were weird:

I spent too much time explaining

The IAs discussed our purpose and work in ways that didn’t make sense.

Sponsors didn’t see the work:

The IAs aren’t socializing it

Realize that few people can start at the abstract level.

Find a small, measurable, concrete project to work on. Work together = learn together.

Generate team results—then work together to abstract out the key findings.

Page 36: Building information architecture teams in resource-challenged times

36

IBM Total Information Experience

And that’s all she wrote. Any questions?

thank you