How to Sell Digital Projects to your Boss

www.juliestarr.co.nzVisualising the way we work@starrjulie

…and everyone else you work with

New Plymouth, New Zealand, February 2014

Got a parking ticket

A Reconstruction

Paying my parking ticket online

CLICK

I started with a search engine

I scrolled down the home page

CLICK

CLICK

I see ‘parking tickets’. That looks promising.

Huh?

It takes me a while to realise I’ve ‘landed’ on the same page

I notice a helpful looking image so I scroll for more

I see Parking Ticket. Yes!

CLICK

Really?

I have to promise not to break the system. Gosh.

Jump to the left

A new window opens.

Oh… Here!

Please use the ticket number….?

Maybe I’ll try…

Erm?

I typed it in wrong. Now what do I do?

What?No!!!

Can’t use back button because I’m in a new window again.

So I start at the beginning …

16Steps

! … before I get anywhere near entering my credit card details

Sigh

We want to make life better for users

But not everyone in our ‘legacy’ organisations understands what we’re trying to do

Do what we’ve always done, but put it online too

Online

=Some people think

Do what we’ve always done, but throw it in an app

Mobile

=Some people think

Those people are wrong

Process for Sharing Council Minutes (for a long time)

THE INTERNET HAPPENS

Put the PDF online

Process for Sharing Council Minutes (now)

PDF?Really

?

Does process give users what they want? No.

This is what a PDF looks like at readable size on a mobile phone. 22 pages of this?Accessible? NO!

“PDFs are where information goes to die”

free!Set the information

Responsive design won’t fix this problem. It’s a process problem.

We can’t do what we’ve always done and just ‘put it online’ at the end

It doesn’t work.

The Daily TelegraphLondon | 2006…

Print team

Web team

THE INTERNET TAKES OFF

We needed to publish way more on our website

But we couldn’t afford to hire another 100 people

We had to look at the way we did things

The Daily TelegraphLondon | 2007

Integrated Web-and-Print Newsroom

A few things I learnedabout ‘selling digital’

Get serious

If you want people to take Digital seriously, you have to elevate the status of Digital in the organisation

Put the Head of Digitalat the top of the org chart

Everyone should talk to Digital before they start any project anywhere

Intervene here

Don’t just take what you’re given

here & throw it online

Output XML

CloutYou need

Steal people who ‘get it’ and put them on the web team

Hire people who already knowwhat they’re doing.

Don’t drownBreak it down

You have a world of problems to solve

Start

Should we fix ALL the payment processes at the same time?Should we make one site for the whole country?Maybe we should wait until the new _______ arrives in _______?Etcetera etcetera etcetera

All The QuestionsTry not to get side-tracked by

Improve something today

+ keep working on the big fix

We can simplify this process without going near the transaction engine

1. Remove anchors, tighten text and let people scroll to those helpful images.

2. Link directly to parking ticket payment page.

3. Make ticket number entry box bigger and move up page.

4. If must have T&Cs put tick box here: ‘By using this service you agree to our T&Cs.’

Suggestion

Example of a simple but effective widget added to a page (not a big budget thing at all)

http://wellington.govt.nz/services/environment-and-waste/rubbish-and-recycling

Visualise itBuild, sketch, map

Seeing is believing

We’ve been using pictures to communicate for a long time. It works.http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/rockandcaves.html

“We show videos of struggling people to managers – way more effective in getting them to understand.”

– Ruth Brown, Head of User Experience, TradeMe, ALGIM 2014

ProblemNewspaper people didn’t see why the web should affect their daily routine

Really simplified overview of a day in the newsroom (for a long, long time)

THE INTERNET HAPPENS

Copy & paste/ import into website, autopublish at 5am

… what are people reading at 8am, 12pm, 5pm?

If stories are filed at 6pm…

Does process give readers what they want? No.

+ Earlier start

+ Earlier conference

+ Better planning

+ Stories filed during day

+ Talk to Digital FIRST not last

We started changing the way we did things. (Still a long way to go.)

Problem Skilled designers spent hours each day assembling the puzzles page

Draw it & boss immediately understands how convoluted the process is

ProblemWe got stuck on the differences between web and print publishing

Print Publishing Process (Top Level Snapshot)

So we drew the print publishing process…

Web Publishing Process (Top Level Snapshot)

… and the web publishing process…

Combined Web-and-Print Publishing Process (Top Level Snapshot)

…and put it all together. See it. Build on commonality. Eliminate nonsense.

Problem Newspaper people didn’t understand what website people were talking about

De-mystify. Have workshops. Make posters! Share what you know.

Put some numbers around itMake your case more convincing

Be Specific

“Everyone’s got smartphones so we should totally do something for mobile.”

“Over half of visits to TradeMe are on Mobile – and it’s still growing.”- Ruth Brown, Head of User Experience, TradeMe, ALGIM 2014

“68% of NZ internet users connected through their mobile phone in the past year – 48% through a tablet.”- World Internet Project NZ Report 2013

Write for your

AudienceRelevant Accessible Attention

How does this project benefit my boss?

…want this project

Boss is responsible for… CUSTOMERS

Boss’s Job TitleAnnual Plan

This project:1.Gives

customers what they asked for2.Helps with that thing my boss cares about3. Contributes to goals 1 & 2 of the Annual Plan

Those are your keywords right there

How can I help my boss sell this to their boss?

Use Plain EnglishAccessibility

We’re going to mumble scrape mumble

backend and parse mumble

mumble Hadoop mumble mumble

Heartbleed and ruby mumble

responsive mumble parallax and SVG mumble html5

Make it easy for customers to pay a bill on their mobile & computer

VisualsNumbersWordsGreat. Now your boss can explain it to their

boss

One more challenge

onepageAll the bosses are busy

Attention

Get Serious elevate status of DigitalDon’t drown break it downVisualise it build, sketch, mapPut some numbers around it be convincingWrite for your audience relevant, Plain EnglishOne page hold attention

Thanks!

www://juliestarr.co.nz@starrjulie

julie@juliestarr.co.nz