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STUCK IN REVERSE? How Illumina Put their Content Quality Program
in Drive, and Accelerated Success!
Your PresentersKathleen Pierce Director, Content OperationsAlmost twenty years building business functions and improving processes for high tech, telecom, and life sciences companies.
Elizabeth McCroskey Senior Instructional Designer Fifteen years designing and developing e-learning for software, biotech, and the military.
Cinnamon TillotsonStaff Technical Writer With over 20 years of experience in technical communication, Cinnamon understands the value of quality and consistent standards in documentation.
After the Conference
Don’t Go With Your First Impulse
No relation to corporate goals
Featuring Acrolinx shows bias
Doesn’t show capex, opex, or ROI
If you talk like a tech writer, you will not get corporate funding.
Think Like an Executive
• Help enter regulated markets • Save money on localization• Accelerate time to market• Protect brand equity• Improve success of M&As
Increase Revenue
Cut Costs
Make your move when Acrolinx promotes corporate goals.
Who Pays? Get their
commitment
Line Up Your Sponsors and Stakeholders• Can’t Say Yes but
Can Say No• Quality/Regulatory• Brand• Finance• IT
Evaluators
• —• Tech Writers• Trainers• Mktg Writers• Mfg Writers• Emp Comm
Users
• Yes/No• VP Marketing• VP Cust. Support• VP Regulatory
Sponsor
• Veto Power• Cross-Functional
Governance Committee
Approvers
Who Benefits? Get their backing and enthusiasm
Who has Influence?
Get their support
Who Decides? Get their approval
Use the Process
Concept Feasibility Plan Implement Sustain
Ask IT for guidance and templates
Interview a good R&D project manager
Ask Finance for advice
Using the formal process gives you access to resources.
Concept Feasibility Plan Implement Sustain
Nail the Concept Stage
• Demonstrate business need• Compare alternative solutions• Show that you have reached
out to stakeholders • Provide initial vendor
evaluation and cost estimates
Goal: Get funding from your sponsor
Key action: Present business case to cross-functional committee for approval
Your initial business case should be broad but not deep.
Prepare a Master Slide Deck
• Vision• Gaps• Option Matrix• Vendor comparison
Inspirational
• TCO• Capex• Opex• ROI• Time to break-even
Quantitative
Graphical, persuasive, big picture
At-a-glance comprehension
One slide comparing all options
Customize your presentation to your audience.
Revised PitchAll financial numbers are fictitious
Focus on what matters to your sponsors.
Show Capex and OpexAll financial numbers are fictitious
Monthly SW Cost = $50K ($1,800K/36)
Monthly Maintenance = $18K ($220K/12)
Money is the language of business. Speak it.
Show Return on InvestmentAll financial numbers are fictitious
Show how quickly the software pays for itself.
Set Up the Team for Success
Empower a strong, cross-functional team.
Use Your “A” Players
Set Clear, Measurable Goals
Plan WBS and Resource Estimates
Pitching Acrolinx - Review• To successfully pitch enterprise software like Acrolinx:
• Think like an executive• Line up your sponsors and stakeholders• Take advantage of project-planning infrastructure and support
functions• Speak the language of business• Give ownership and responsibility to a strong cross-functional team
Good luck!
Assembling the Team• Linguistic Team
• Experience and knowledge of company style and audience • Cross-functional experience with different types of documents• Responsibilities of Linguistics Team
• Determine rules and rule sets• Establish terminology• Establish reuse components
• IT Team Support• Setting up user accounts• Coordinating software builds with internal testing
Our Philosophy
Our Decisions
Our Brand
Our Style
Group
Group
Group
Help Us, Content Rules!• Issue awareness
• Advice on potential issues helped us bypass issues
• Term harvesting• 5000 line spreadsheet• We provided 1 GB+ of content for analysis
• Rule sets• Appropriate rule sets• Feasibility/suggestions for custom rules
• End-user training and troubleshooting
Testing 1, 2, 3• Used Acrolinx during testing phase to check our work in
progress• 18 testers at beginning, 27 at end of testing phase
• Common spreadsheets for testing feedback and project documentation• Terminology requests• Other issues• Used Box.com for collaboration
• Linguistic team reviewed issues and escalated issues to Acrolinx/Content Rules
• Collect metrics• Ran the same set of representative documents at each phase of
development
Great Results• Up and running in a little over 3 months
• Currently have 48 active users
• Metrics• Example: MiSeq User Guide reduction in words 384 words were
cut.• Average of 30% increase in Acrolinx scores, as high as 48%
improvement for some types of documents• Increased consistency in styles and ways terms are written
• Rollout success• Preparation by Linguistic Team in establishing Acrolinx components• Cross-functional collaboration promoted user acceptance
Helping Our Users
LMS Training Module
User Guide
SharePoint Page
Spreading the Word About Acrolinx
Promotional Video
Lunch and Learn
If We Could Do It Again…• Make user resources page available earlier in the process• Smaller, dedicated group for early testing stages
• Hard to monitor testing activities• Difficult to get same level of dedication from each of our users
• Enter our product names in Terminology before rollout
What Illumina Did Right• Before they purchased Acrolinx, they determined:
• People• When• How much time• Requirements• Preparation needed
• Validated terms• Solicited the help of a service partner
Questions?
Contact Us
Illumina:
• Kathleen Pierce• [email protected]
• Elizabeth McCroskey• [email protected]
• Cinnamon Tillotson• [email protected]
Content Rules and Acrolinx:
• Val Swisher• [email protected]
• @valswisher
• Robin Emiliani• [email protected] • @RobinEmiliani
Thank you!
