Downsizing to Rightsizing - Customer-Centric Content Models: A Case Study

@Speaker #LavaCon

Downsizing to Rightsizing

Beth Thomerson

@InnovatiaInc #LavaCon

About the Speaker

• Documentation Manager & Senior Lead within Innovatia’s Technical Documentation line of business

• Over 20 years of experience in information design and development

• Agile training & Scrum master

Customer-Centric Content Models:A Case Study

Downsizing to Rightsizing

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The Business Problem

8,000 pages for single release

Changing requirements

Multiple tools equals increased content issues

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• Problem: dealing with legacy content

• Product documentation is important

• Product content updated each release

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Our Approach

Who is the audience?

Whatis the comfort level?

key tasks do theyperform?

Information are theylooking for?

Where is the audience?

When do they look upinformation?

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Our Approach

Who is the audience?

Whatis the comfort level?

key tasks do theyperform?

Information are theylooking for?

Where is the audience?

When do they look upinformation?

The Data Sources

Call data from customer support teams

Direct customer feedback from

partners

Social media platforms like blogs and user forums

Customer surveysby the marketing

teams

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What happens next?

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Our ApproachAnalyze competitor documents

Analyze defects

Web analytics

Content analysis

Task analysis

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Our Approach Why Content Models?Help maintain consistency in the structure or organization of content

Help define the structure of a document, its content types, and content topics

Reflect user requirements based on our personas

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Minimalist, Persona Based Content

Phased approach

Existing content mapped to content models

Content not required moved to Needs Further Analysis• Content analyzed for relevance and moved or removed

Content duplication identified and guidelines established

Existing content tested for accuracy and rewritten if necessary

Content rewritten using minimalist principles

Content too basic for a persona or not accessed removed

Content identified as produced by another product team reused

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Content reduced by half

Standard content models

Content created in DITA XML to allow reuse Content that’s easier to

access and understand.

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Standard content models

Content reduction

Content reuse

User-driven content

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Getting Buy-in: The Setup for Success

Identify what the customers and the business value

Address customer pain points

Identify and involve stakeholders and SMEs

Set expectations for team effort and SME involvement

Explain that it’s a dynamic process

Cultivate collaboration

Set up communication checkpoints

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Key Takeaways & Lessons Learned

Choose pilot projects:

• Small, less-complicated product and initial document

• Start easy and work up to hard

Ramp up/prepare writers

• Train on tools and processes

• Explain vision and objectives

• Coach on how they can support the effort

Expect and prepare for push-back

Explain and set expectations, adjusting as needed

Set up mechanism for feedback; follow up is critical

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Any Q’s?