content strategy for technical communication
TRANSCRIPT
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background imageflickr: thelastminute
Content strategy in technical communication
Sarah OKeefe, Scriptorium PublishingTwitter: @sarahokeefe
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
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Housekeeping notes
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The presentation is being recorded; attendees do not appear in the recording
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
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What is content strategy?
Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.
Content strategy is a plan to get you from where you are now with your current content (assets, operations, distribution, maintenance, and so on), to where you want to be.
- Kristina Halvorson
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Tech comm needs more than web content strategy. Localization
Print
Embedded help
Context-sensitive help
Code comments
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Complicated requirements
Multiple outputs
Regulated content
Coordination with product development
Versioning/conditionality
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Content strategy in tech comm
A plan for
your information
Developing
Delivering
Deploying
Destroying
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Yet another buzzword?
Theres definitely hype
Content strategy is different from technical communication (or technical writing)
flickr: anitakhart
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Content strategy
Tech comm LocalizationCommunity Training
Technical writingUI stringsVideos
ForumsWikis
ScopeProcess
Coursewaree-learning
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Our content strategy methodology Analyze an established content
workflow
Identify business problem(s)
Identify new requirements
Develop solutions to address requirements
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Analyzing an established workflow
flickr: st3f4n
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Broken workflows
PDF deliverables not meeting user needs
Current workflow cannot scale to address localization and/or new products
Need a strategy to foster and manage community participation in technical content
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Audience: What problems do you see? Describe your content problems in the
Questions tab
We will display your contributions to all attendees
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More problems
Developing content in Agile
Workflow is inefficient and expensive
Current deliverables are of low quality
Need to align content development better with product development
Complex conditions not supported by current toolset
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Identify business problem
flickr:state-records-nsw
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PDF deliverables not meeting user needs Users are unhappy (quality)
They call tech support, which is expensive for us (money)
We spend a lot of time formatting for print (time), but users still hate it (quality)
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Audience: Describe your business problem Describe your problem in business
terms (time, money, quality) in the Questions tab
We will display your contributions to all attendees
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Workflow cannot scale for localization and/or new products
Customers interpret English-only docs as a sign that we are not serious about selling to them (quality)
We have a six-month delay between English and localized products (time)
We are losing revenue in non-English markets (money)
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Need a strategy for community participation Our complex product needs
participation from community experts (quality)
Building a robust community is less expensive than hiring additional people to create content internally (money)
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Identify new requirements
flickr: Francisco Diez
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Requirement examples
Community participation
Accelerated deployment
Simultaneous shipment in multiple languages
New output formats
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Develop solutionsflickr: Svadilfari
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and other requirements
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Developing
Who is the audience?
Common characteristics
How does your audience want to get information?
What information do they need?
Use cases
Personas
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What is the best way to deliver each type of information?
flickr: clearlyambiguous
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The wrong approach
Current knowledge of tools and technologies
Readily available software
Personal preference
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Some delivery options
Traditional paper manual
Web-based configuration tool
Help and embedded help
Web pages
Forums, wikis, and other collaborative content
Live video, screencasts, animation, podcasts
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Break out of the book
flickr: kellymccarthy
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Community strategy
Participation
Moderation
Feedback loop
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Regulated environmentsflickr: jmrosenfeld
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Delivering
What is the best format for our audience?
How do we create this format?
Content management issues
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Deploying
How do we get our output to our audience?
How do we make sure that the audience has access to the information?
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Content destruction
What happens when information becomes obsolete?
How do we handle archiving and retention?
What about versioning? How many versions should be available?
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Change management
Consider incremental improvements
Look for flexible solutions that can grow and evolve
Componentize?
Review every 25 years, depending on your organizations velocity
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Poll: Content strategy
Fab!
Fad
Meh. Whatever.
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Resources
knol.google.com/k/content-strategy#
Bibliography of Wikipedia entry on content strategy for book references
www.scriptorium.com/2010/10/content-strategy-for-technical-communication/
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Final notes
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Tuesday, November 9, 2010