rahel anne bailie: pushing syrup through a straw: more content than capacity
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Pushing Syrup through a StrawWhen content exceeds capacity
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Photo credit for all photos: Rahel Anne Bailie
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RAHEL ANNE BAILIEChief Knowledge Officer
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Capacity problems
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Product changes
A more complex product
• Added features take more time to document
More products in a line
• Similar products, more variants to manage
More products or product lines
• Dissimilar products take more time to document
Expansion into new markets
• Additional languages to manage
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Resource changes
Decrease in staff
• Team size shrinks as product matures
Same number of staff, more content
• Increase in the number of products or channels
New staff
• Less experience means less output during learning curve
Different deliverables
• New types of content that add time and complexity
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Five possible solutions
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Increase capacity1
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Increase capacity
Increase number of resources
• Hire more staff
• Outsource
• Offload some tasks to adjacent roles (such as project
management)
Automate
• Automate rote tasks
• Adopt systems that help with automation
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Decrease output2
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Decrease content output
Go minimalist
• Document less features
• Document more features but with less depth
• Document for fewer user groups (such as admin panels)
Change practices
• Automate content re-use
• Adopt systems that help with automation
• Try some of the emerging trends in documentation
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Change the conversation3
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Change the conversation
Decrease the need for content
• Fix the product itself
• Re-use content from other products
• Improve content through the user community
Look around for help
• Get a benefits piece written – by someone else
• Look closely at the user experience
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Adjust the supply chain4
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Adjust the supply chain
Change delivery demand
• Stay in step with the agile team
• Work closer with the user experience group (if present)
• Get a head start on content from elsewhere
• Translate as you go
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Work smarter4
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Work smarter
Instead of working harder, work smarter
• Undertake constant content curation
• Use translation management tools
• Apply principles of intelligent content
• Adapt from DocOps trends
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Content Curation
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Constant content curation
Do a rolling ROT (Redundant, Outdated, Trivial) analysis
Less to maintain in source language
Less to maintain in multiple variants and other languages
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Translation Management
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Use translation management tools
Use machine translation with post-editing
Leverage your glossaries and translation memory
Automate with a translation management system
http://www.gala-global.org/
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Intelligent Content
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Use intelligent content principles
Make the content structurally rich (schema)
Provide rich semantics (meaningful attributes through tags)
Provide semantic categorisation
Map your content configuration
Use a tool that helps leverage the power of content
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DocOps
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Adopt DocOps techniques
Work collaboratively with other content stakeholders (such as
customer support and training)
Develop content in an agile method
Fix as you go
Use analytics to guide your focus
Crowdsource (carefully)
http://idratherbewriting.com/2014/10/21/docops-interview-with-jim-turcotte/
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Questions?
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