5 top web management principles: achieve consensus within your organization

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 1

5 TOP WEB MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES: ACHIEVE CONSENSUS WITHIN YOUR ORGANIZATION

©ROBERT E. JOHNSON, PH.D. 2010

Bob Johnson, Ph.D.President, Bob Johnson ConsultingPartner, Customer Carewords, Ltd

J.Boye Web & Intranet ConferencePhiladelphia, PAMay 6-9, 2013

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AS WE START TODAY…

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Lisa Welchman

• “The good is that time has passed and there are clear norms being established for what an organizational digital presence is comprised of—even if new ideas are cropping up every day. 

• “The bad is that there’s a mess to clean up.”• From “Three Digital Governance

Challenges” at http://bit.ly/Y2238M

On the current state of digital affairs since 1995…

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Chaos to control and change… The original is at http://xkcd.com/773/

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Jonathan Kahn

•Advocacy •Facilitation •Diplomacy •Pragmatism •Patience

• From “Web Governance: Becoming an Agent of Change” at http://bit.ly/17VdIrY

Critical skills for a web professional today…

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THE SURVEY…• October 30 to December 6, 2012• 1,009 responses• Promoted by Carewords partners to clients, news

subscribers, and forums

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THE QUESTION…“What do you think are the top 5 principles for successfully managing an organization's online presence?”

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THE QUEST…Identify areas of consensus among people who share responsibilities for creating an effective online presence.

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THE GOAL…• Get the right people working together on

a web management team• Will broad membership work best?

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THE RESPONSE…Content creators, editors…………….. 287 (29%) IT, Developers…………………………. 75 (8%)Management… ……………..………… 200 (20%)Marketing, Sales, Communications…. 136 (14%)User Experience, Design……………...146 (15%)

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THE EXERCISE…Let’s take the survey…And compare our answers

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BACKGROUND INFO…

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What do you do?

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Where do you work?

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How many people in your organization?

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What do you mostly work on?

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Where do you live?(22 countries overall)

• United States…………….. 367• United Kingdom………….. 132• Norway……………………. 114• Canada……………………. 70• Australia…………………… 67• Belgium……………………. 42• Netherlands……………….. 32• Denmark…………………… 28

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RESULTS…

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5 principles get 25% of the votes…

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#1 FOR EVERYONE…“Ensure customers can quickly and easily complete their top tasks.”

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1st rank for each group…

Content

IT, Developers

Management

Marketing

UX, Design

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Everyone is 7+%...

#1… “Ensure customers can quickly and easily complete their top tasks.”

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LEAST AGREEMENT…“Act on customer feedback and behavior – don’t simply observe and collect it.”

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Need to explore…

Marketing

Management

Content

IT, Developer

UX, Design

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

#5… “Act on customer feedback and behavior – don’t simply observe and collect it.”

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EXERCISE: 3-STEP WEB GOVERNANCE HEALTH CHECK…• Establish the scale of your website• Audit Governance activities• Audit Governance resources

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1st: Define the scale of your site…http://www.diffily.com/articles/healthcheck.htm

• Size• Activity• Complexity

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Scale influences governance…http://www.diffily.com/articles/healthcheck.htm

• Large-Scale• Activity… 2M unique visitors or 8M page impressions per month• Complexity… transactions, log-ins, video, audio, flash etc. • Size… People (15) hours for design, production, maintenance etc.

• Mid-Scale• Activity… 500K unique visitors or 1M page impressions per month• Complexity… similar to large-scale but less of it; no transactions• Size… 8 people to produce content, design, and code

• Small-Scale• Static site w/ no transactions; simple navigation; 1 to 2 people can

do everything needed; relatively low use.

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2nd: Audit governance activities

• 22 activities…• 4 Leadership• 8 Development• 6 Maintenance• 4 Technical

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Rate each activity, 1 to 10 (best)…Name the person responsible…

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Rate each activity, 1 to 10 (best)…Name the person responsible…

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Reporting the results… activities• What was the total score for 22 activities?• What were the scores for individual activities?• Create three activity rating lists

• Governance activities w/ 8 to 10 points• Governance activities w/ 5 to 7 points• Governance activities w/ 1 to 4 points

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Reporting the results… responsibility• Create two “responsible person” lists

• Governance activities where you know the person responsible• Governance activities where you don’t know who is responsible

• The end result…• You have a base line to evaluate whether or not you have a

functioning “web governance” system• Compare & discuss differences among members of the team.

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3rd: Audit resources• People

• Numbers, skills, responsibilities, time available, evaluation

• Tools• Do people have the tools to do their jobs?

• Processes• Are procedures/standards documented? Is there an

update plan?• Budget

• Does it cover people & tools? Does it reflect future plans?

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STRENGTHENING A WEB GOVERNANCE TEAM…

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Create a functional model…Robert Jacoby at http://bit.ly/Zv0Iph

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FIRST IN THE FUNCTIONAL MODEL…“The right people in the right places.”

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AGREE ON WORKING PRINCIPLES…• Visitor experience comes first• Less is best… less code, less features• Design first, develop second• Constant improvement, innovation• http://www.landmarkgroup.com/blog/2011/07/thoughts-on-buil

ding-a-web-team.html

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CREATE A ROADMAP…• Look ahead 12 to 14 months…• Prioritize what’s most important …• Outline projects w/ start and finish dates• http://blog.xcentium.com/2012/11/web-governance-co

ntrol-the-web/

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COMMUNICATE OFTEN…• Weekly team meetings.• Quarterly info sessions for anyone interested

enough to come.• Annual victory report for friends and

stakeholders.

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RESOURCES…

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A genuine thought leader…http://welchmanpierpoint.com/our-team/lisa-welchman

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6 concepts for the future…http://bit.ly/Zv0Iph

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Years of team building reviewed…http://bit.ly/115IXLH

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11 control points… Strategy to UX/designhttp://blog.xcentium.com/2012/11/web-governance-control-the-web/

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Web people as change agents…http://alistapart.com/article/web-governance-becoming-an-agent-of-change

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WRAPPING UP…

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A web team that survives & thrives…• Agree on management principles.• Agree that resources might not permit immediate attention to every principle.

• Audit governance activities and prioritize areas for attention related to the online strategy.

• Audit resources available to improve governance activities.

• Communicate: within the team and with the rest of the organization.

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Chaos to control and change… The original is at http://xkcd.com/773/

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THANKS FOR BEING HERE IN PHILADELPHIA!Bob Johnson, Ph.D.bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.comwww.bobjohnsonconsulting.com@highedmarketing

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ADDENDUMMore details on survey results…

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Top 5 management principles overall…

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5 principles get 25% of the votes…

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1st rank for each group…

Content

IT, Developers

Management

Marketing

UX, Design

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Everyone is 7+%...

#1… “Ensure customers can quickly and easily complete their top tasks.”

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2nd rank for Content, IT#2… “Make decisions based on evidence and facts, not opinions.” UX, Design

Management

Marketing

IT, Development

Content

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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2nd rank for Content, Marketing

Management

UX, Design

IT, Developers

Marketing

Content

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

#3… “Identify your customers top tasks based on what they do, not what they say they do.”

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1st for Content people only

Content

UX, Design

Marketing

IT, Developer

Management

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

#4…“Keep content as concise and simple as possible.”

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Need to explore w/ UX folk

Marketing

Management

Content

IT, Developer

UX, Design

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

#5… “Act on customer feedback and behavior – don’t simply observe and collect it.”

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Most & least important principles…

Votes cast for top 11… Votes cast for the last 10…