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A presentation delivered as part of an action-packed session convened and sponsored by Adobe at Lavacon 2013.
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Copyright © Joe Gollner 2013
The Technical
Communicator within
the Integrated
Product Lifecycle
Joe Gollner
Gnostyx Research Inc.
jag@gnostyx.com
www.gollner.ca
@joegollner
A Global Economy calls for
Continuous
process improvement
Maximized automation
Dynamically tailored products
Localized delivery & support
Reconfigurable supply chains
This Demands
Standardized parts
Flexible & dynamic assembly
for products, services & content
The Facts of Business Life
The Practice of Management
(1954)
Peter F. Drucker
XML Behind the Scenes
Extensible Markup Language
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation
A simplification of ISO8879 Standard Generalized
Markup Language (SGML) to enable portable web data
Massively influential on
• Technology interoperability
• Electronic data interchange
• Supply chain automation
• Internet commerce
• Social media integration
• eBook publishing
• Responsive web design…
Absolutely Central to the way business is conducted
Thomas L. Friedman
in his book
The World is Flat specifically focused on the
levelling effects of XML
XML
Enabled
supply chain automation
The drove the ability to
massively distribute
manufacturing & distribution
This is not a Secret
(2005)
What does this mean for Products?
ProductStrategy
Acquisition Delivery
Governance Operation
No Trade- offs Allowed
Specialization is
the order of the day
Not a bad thing
Not something that
can be reversed
What does this mean for Knowledge Workers?
(1993)
But
It does
pose us
challenges
in how we
communicate
There is a new
and more challenging
communication problem
to be solved
Not only do we need to make
technology understandable
to users….
We need to make technology
understandable in the first place
And what does this mean for Communicators?
(1932)
A Bigger Step than it may appear…
The Problem of Silos
Sound Familiar?
Course Materials
Documentation
Specifications
Whitepapers
Requirements
Un
coo
rdin
ated
C
on
ten
t Si
los
Un
coo
rdin
ated
C
ust
om
er E
xper
ien
ce
Knowledge Base
Sales Collateral
Training
TechComm
Engineering
Marketing
Product Mgt
Support
Sales
Case Study: Massively Integrated Systems
Market-Leading
Software Company
Embraced
Agile Methods
Embarked on
aggressive innovation
Ran straight into
the complexity of
their own product
& of their customers’
environments
Agile success led to
general failure
Agile meets Lean
Specialist departments, teams, individuals find it
harder and harder to communicate to each other
Don’t understand
each others’
Language
Goals
Constraints
Approaches
It shows
Specialization undermines itself
Some Questions Arise
The Roots of Lean
Training Within Industry (TWI)
World War II initiative
to mobilize US industry
Old School Engineering
All about communication
Cold War engineering was
powered by these practices
Example: Avro Arrow CF105
Dissipated in the 1980s….
Current Practices are not Sustainable
Content is
placed in the
center
of the
Integrated
Product
Lifecycle
Content
Lifecycle used
to connect all parts
of the product lifecycle
The Answer
Remind me: What is Content Again?
CONTENT
INFORMATION Content is
potential information
It is what we create
in order to produce
• Effective information
• Effective processes
• Effective products
It is a multitude of pieces
that come together including
automation components This is important
Inukshuk-shaped
communicators
Two horizontal areas
of specialization
• Writing, Illustrating,…
• Usability, Analysis,…
Two technical fields
of specialization
• Product discipline
• Publishing technology…
Why is this Important?
“I tell my people to be well-versed in two technological fields and in two
functional areas, like design and marketing. Even in an engineering-oriented
company like ours, you can't get ahead without the ability to foresee
developments in the market.” Epson executive quoted by Nonaka & Takeuchi
Information Analyst
Business Analyst
Taxonomist
UX Designer
Usability Specialist
Content Engineer
Cybrarian / Metador
Social Media Facilitator
Analytics Researcher
Content Strategist,…
Ascendant Specializations to Choose From
Product Certification becoming more
and more common as an expectation
No – Not Really
Competitive pressures make re-integrating the
product lifecycle mandatory
Technical
communicators
will make
themselves
a visible part
of the solution
or…
Is Adaptation an Option?
Making Connections
Joe Gollner
Gnostyx Research Inc.
www.gnostyx.com
jag@gnostyx.com
Twitter: @joegollner
Blog: The Content Philosopher
www.gollner.ca
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