Yahoo Help Content StrategyChris Todd

Information Development World 2014

How do you make a case

study of a strategy?

…the story of how we got here and what we’re doing now.

Tell you how it was executed,

of course!

Yahoo

Mail

Fantasy Sports

Answers

Flickr

Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) - NASDAQ

Founded January 1994 by two Stanford grad students

Jerry Yang and David Filoincorporated March 1, 1995

Yahoo CEO and President

Marissa Mayerappointed on July 16, 2012

Flickr

Tumblr

Aviate

Search

Financeand many more…

My Yahoo organization

writes customer

Assists over 11M unique Help visitors every month

writes customer

help content for allYahoo products

…everywhere

20 years | Xerox ◆ Mentor Graphics ◆ Oracle ◆ YahooMarketing | Customer Support | Training

Moda CenterHome of the Trailblazers

Mt St Helens

Willamette River

Me

Portland, ORPortland, OR

USABILITY.GOV

WHAT IS CONTENT STRATEGY? KRISTINA HALVORSON

“…plans for the creation, publication and governance of useful, usable content.”http://alistapart.com/article/thedisciplineofcontentstrategy

Your content strategy is everything you do

and don’t do related to“…focuses on the planning, creation, delivery, and governance of content. Content not only includes the words on the page but also the images and multimedia that are used.”http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/content-strategy.html

JEFFREY MACINTYRE

“…addresses the specific purpose, form, and development of the content assets that we have at hand, or those that circumstances (and our analysis) require us to produce. The analysis of content and assessment of its value lies at the core of our labors.”http://alistapart.com/article/contenttiousstrategy

and don’t do related toyour content.

Remember, no strategy is a strategy too.

Investment

Platform

Translations

What might be in your strategy?

Writing style and voice

Process and governance

What you share publicly

Hiring practices

++11Write once for 99

Apply 9content principles

My Strategy

++Write once for

everywhere 99

Every user

▪ Customer

▪ Support agent

▪ Partner

Every device

▪ Mobile

▪ Tablet

▪ Desktop/laptop

▪ In-product

▪ Every language

▪ Every locale(language + country)

Everywhere?Everywhere!

Content PrinciplesKnow your audience

Must be able to follow the scent

Easy to scan titles

Easy to scan articles

Support SEO in every way

Use brand voice

Use translation best practices

Make strategic use of videos and images

Write for multiple UIs(user interfaces)

JAKOB NIELSEN

“How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages”Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, September 12, 2011http://www.useit.com/articles/how-long-do-users-stay-on-web-pages/

“If your grandmother and

Personas“ Users often leave Web pagesin 10-20 seconds, but pageswith a clear value proposition

can hold people's attention for much longer…”

Know your audience

“If your grandmother and your 10 year old niece

can read and understand your content, you’re

doing it right!”

While customers will search onour site; most searching occurs before

they reach us.

“Informavores will keep clicking as long as they sense (to mix metaphors)

that they’re “getting warmer” -- the scent must keep getting stronger and

stronger, or people give up.”

Must be able to follow the scent

JAKOB NIELSEN

“Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster”Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, June 30, 2003http://www.useit.com/articles/information-scent/

Easy toscan titles

…that promise what …that promise what will be in the article

Easy toscan

articles

Title <H1>

Caution

Heading <H2>

stepsarticles

Heading <H2>

Numbered steps

Title <H1>

Heading <H2>

Support in SEO in

every way

Heading <H2>

Locale SEO URL

en_US https://help.yahoo.com/kb/aviate/missing-apps-aviate-sln24249.html

en_AU https://au.help.yahoo.com/kb/aviate/missing-apps-aviate-sln24249.html

de_DE https://de.hilfe.yahoo.com/kb/aviate/Fehlende-Apps-in-Aviate-sln24249.html

vn_VI https://vn.trogiup.yahoo.com/kb/aviate/Thiếu-ứng-dụng-trong-Aviate-sln24249.html

every way

“Brand voice is the purposeful, consistent expression of

a brand through words and prose styles that engage and

motivate...

Brand voiceWhat’s yourbrand voice?

LARSEN “Creating the right brand voice”larsen.com/insights/creating-the-right-brand-voice

motivate...

The personality of your brand is determined, in large measure, by

the words you use and the sentences you write.”

Use translation best practices

One idea per sentence

Simplicity over creativity Seafood brought in by

LADIESReuse and consistency

Spend the time and get it right the first time

Own your translation memory

SOURCES

just-one-liners.com http://www.just-one-liners.com/category/translations

SignsFail https://www.etsy.com/shop/SignFail

brought in by customers will not be

entertained.

LADIES

ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN

THE BAR

Make strategic

use of use of videos and

images

Writing for multiple UIs

Plain vanilla HTML

CSS classes supported by each UIsupported by each UI

Variables for local values

Our Story

Content Principles

Challenges2009

Global products

Distributed platformand contributors

Multiple repositoriesMultiple repositories

$$$ TranslationsLabor

Writing skills

UI inconsistencies

Emergence of mobile

Stop the bleeding ($$$)2010

Did we need content everywhere?

How many

A new platform was needed• 1 Global repository for self-serve and agents• Use 14 languages (1 dialect or form per language)

• Reduce from 70+ down to 38 locales(language + country, en_US)

This forced a new authoring strategy

How many independent repositories are needed?

A new language and translation strategy

Easy!Go to where the customers are

Getting to fewer locales and languages

en_US

es_ES fr_FR

en_CA es_MX fr_BE

MASTER (1)

PARENTS (14)

CHILDREN (24)

Replicate from Parent to Child

Translate from Master

to Parent

en_US

14 languages in 38 locales

en_GB es_CO

: :

en_AU es_US * Use variables for local values

fr_CA

Centralized oversight

Systems used to their fullest

Fewer experts necessary:systems and content

Buying software once

Content consistencyacross the world

Benefits realized, so far

across the world

Same reporting platform

Prod Groups work withone team

Easy as flowers growing after a

volcanic eruption

The move to one system

volcanic eruption

Come see me afterward tolearn more

Support the language and translation

2010

2012-

Who writes it? Original VisionUnforeseen issues

When do they write it?

Who maintains it?

Content authoring strategy

KCS (Knowledge Centered Support)

• Anyone can add or modify content• When errors are discovered, fix them• Through coaching, grow skills• The most skilled publish content

Coaching program challenges

Content updates were frequent;hence more costly than planned

Sponsorship change– labor investment reduced

✱ System is complex even for full-time users; * too much for part-time users to be successful

✱ No DAM (digital asset mgmt) –more manual management

✱ Writing wasn’t a core competency of the agents

✱ More coming:

✱ Multi-lingual

✱ Our voice / style

✱ SEO

✱ More coming:

Failed authoring strategy!Was it the strategy or the execution?

The strategy didn’t support the realities

of the environment

✱ More coming:

✱ 3 more UIs (5 total)

+ Partner portals

New content authoring strategy

2012

Hub and Spoke

Writer

Product launch timelines

Product Mgr

ProdSuppMgrs

Rich Media

Legal and

PrivacyMarketing

and PR

Agents WriterWriter

The content Writer is the hub

Prod Engineer

Translate / Localize

Help Site Admin

Search Manager

Super Writer!

Writer

Skills

Project Manager

Communicator

Information Designer

SEO Specialist

Data Analyst

Applying the Content Principles – in detail

Writing standards and processes

2012

2013-

Principles – in detail

When to translate

Engaging Legal and Privacy departments

Utilizing the rich media experts

Dealing with local content

Advantage of customer support agents

2012

2013-

Recommend or DraftRecommend or Draft

Emerging Issues

Urgent translations

Linguistic feedback

Using data forcontent improvement

2013

Top used articlesTop used articles

Least used articles

Articles not updated

Search tuning data

On-boarding

Improving our content and growing team skills

2014

On-boarding

Writer workshops

Peer-to-peer reviews

Hiring the right people2014

Marketing, PR, and/or Communication background

Must have existing Must have existing writing skills

Ability to manage multiple projects/activities

Ability to deal with ambiguity

Passion for helping people

HTML / technology skills are a bonus

A community for each Yahoo

product

WriterWriter

Communication model2014

Translation costs decreased

Greater collaboration with Marketing and others

Same message from self-service and assisted support

“New” bugs are getting self-

More benefits realized

“New” bugs are getting self-service content, fast

Full visibility on all content expenses

Challenges we still faceSite design

vs. content design

Content discoverabilitydiscoverability

Goal conflict between writing for self-support and agent support

Better customer success data

How are you measuring content

success?success?

THANK YOU!

http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisdottodd/

@CHRISdotTODD

https://help.yahoo.com

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