Breaking Down Silos — Improving the User Experience by Improving Communication in Your...

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Breaking Down SilosImproving the User Experience by Improving Communication in Your

Organization

Charles Cooper – VPThe Rockley Group

@Cooper_42 | #InfoDevWorld |

www.rockley.com

About The Rockley Group

• Work with companies in pharmaceutical, medical devices, high technology, and finance • These companies translate content in 4-70

languages• Deliver content on paper, traditional web and

various mobile devices• Create intelligent content strategies from

creation through translation and delivery• Optimizing localization plays a big part in this

process• Component content management plays a key

role in the solution

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Rockley Customers

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Charles Cooper

• 30+ years in the information business• 20+ years in the content

business• Forever working with people to

get them to work together• Fascinated by how we gather and

spread information• Have a large and growing

collection of e-toys to test different methods of e-publishing

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The Red Queen says…

Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!

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Silos

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Content Silos

• Information is created in different groups and not shared• It’s sometimes

jealously guarded

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Content Silos

• Information is created in different groups and not shared• It’s sometimes

jealously guarded

• It’s not just Content Silos

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Other silos• Business divisions• Departments• Tools

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Tool Silos

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Tool Silos

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Not all silos are bad

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We need to change

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What’s the typical response to change?• Push-back

• It’s hard• It’s going to take too long• Out of our comfort zone• We’d have to rewrite our SOPs• No-one does it like that• ….

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Magnus Lindkvist - LocWorld, Dublin 2014

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Full Team Strategy

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Douglas Adams

“To summarise the summary of the summary…

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Douglas Adams

“To summarise the summary of the summary…

People are a Problem

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King of the castle

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The ocean is a big place…

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Focus – understand before acting

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Need to build a Team

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Needs

With apologies to Abraham Maslow

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Getting a team together

• the business• the users • the creators• those answering customers’

questions (CSR or Help Desk)• those localising/translating• publishing • marketing , selling• and maintaining the content.

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Decisions, decisions…

Your first decision is “who fills these roles in my organisation?”

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Decisions, decisions…

• What do they want?

• How can this process fulfil that need, without compromising the needs of others?

• Are there natural allies in the organisation?

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Business

• Is it cross division?• Worldwide or

Local?• Does the project

leader focus on one division/region?• What do they

want?• How can this

project meet those needs?• Who are their

natural allies?

• Natural Allies:• Project Owner

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Users or Customers

• Who are your users?• Can you get

them on the team?• What do they

want?• How can this

project meet those needs?• Who are their

natural allies?

• Natural Allies: • Customer Service

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Content Creators

• Who creates the content?• Where are they

located?• What do they

want?• How can this

project meet those needs?• Who are their

natural allies?

• Natural Allies: • Customer Service• Subject Matter Experts• Localisation/

Translation• Marketing • Sales

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Translation and Localization

• Are they the same people?• Are they internal or

external?• Are they aware of

the overall strategy of the project?• What do they want?• How can this project

meet those needs?• Who are their

natural allies?

• Natural Allies:• Content Creators

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Publishing

• Is it an in-house or external service?• Do they publish in

different regions?• In different

countries?• Paper or electronic,

both?• What do they want?• How can this project

meet those needs?• Who are their natural

allies?

• Natural Allies:• Content Creators• Project Owner

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Marketing

• What’s their responsibility? • More than one

product?• What do they

want?• How can this

project meet those needs?• Who are their

natural allies?

• Natural Allies:• Content Creators• Sales• Project Owner

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Sales

• What’s their responsibility? • More than one

product?• What do they

want?• How can this

project meet those needs?• Who are their

natural allies?

• Natural Allies:• Marketing• Content Creators• Project Owner

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Maintenance

• Is this a different group than the content creators?• Are they remote? • What type of access

to the ‘system” will they need?• What do they want?• How can this project

meet those needs?• Who are their

natural allies?

• Natural Allies:• Project Owner• Customer Service

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Things to be aware of

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Tools

• It’s not (really) about the tools used

• Worst thing to hear…

• We have to use <totally inappropriate tool X>, and we need to publish on Monday

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Tools – you must determine

• Why is it required?

• What is the required workflow?• Who can use it (internally and/or

externally)?• What does it talk to?• Does it support the business needs?• Does it facilitate the business rules?

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Business rules – Business tools

• Business rules are the rules that your content follows to adapt to different devices and different customer requirements. • Business rules allow the system to automatically

pick and choose content and adjust the presentation of that content to meet specific requirements.• If ‘this’ then ‘that’ • If displaying on a mobile device break content into

‘pages’ at the intro, ingredients and instructions• If on paper, ‘pages’ are larger• Integral to a complete content strategy

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Don’t overcomplicate things

It’s worthwhile to spend extra time in the design and implementation phase.

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Don’t overcomplicate things

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Don’t overcomplicate things

This allows you to light a fire without matches which might get wet and not work in the rain.

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Don’t overcomplicate things

So does this.

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Don’t overcomplicate things

Think about what you want to achieve and design towards that

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Communicate constantly

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It’s never finished!

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Create Collaborative content

• No one (or group) can do this on their own• Must break down, or make the

organisational silos permeable• Different groups get input into

content much earlier in the cycle

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The Red Queen Says…

• Find out who your allies are• Find out what they want• Work to establish

common needs and goals• Open lines of

communication, and work to keep them open

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www.rockley.com

Questions?

moreinfo@rockley.com