How do you manage new content requests?
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Alex Sparasci
Feb 17, 2012, 5:07:07 AM2/17/12
to Content Strategy Europe
I am interested to know the processes and tools that different
organisations use to manage requests for new content. I am currently
facing a system best described as anarchical and want things to become
more process driven. I am considering making people fill in a short
form detailing: why the content is needed, how it would be structured,
where it would sit and who would manage the content - do people think
this is a good idea?
organisations use to manage requests for new content. I am currently
facing a system best described as anarchical and want things to become
more process driven. I am considering making people fill in a short
form detailing: why the content is needed, how it would be structured,
where it would sit and who would manage the content - do people think
this is a good idea?
Lisa Moore
Feb 19, 2012, 5:09:06 PM2/19/12
to Content Strategy Europe
Hi Alex:
Good to see you at the group meeting last week!
So, anarchy sounds fun... OK, maybe not :) I've worked with a few
clients in similar situations. In one instance, they did not have a
CMS in place and handled content requests and updates via a rather
convoluted email chain.
Your question suggests there may not be a CMS in place? Or, if there
is, there may be no defined workflows set up to guide users when
interacting with it.
I think your survey idea is a good one (and who doesn't love a little
Zoomerang or SurveyMonkey break during the workday!?). However, unless
you already understand the bigger picture for your content, I'd take
the opportunity to gain some insight into your content lifecycle as a
whole, not just limit it to new content (since, as we know, new
content doesn't stay that way very long and content in general doesn't
live in a vacuum).
If you want to take the more holistic route, I'd suggest quality over
quantity: Identify key content stakeholders and interview them or send
them a detailed list of questions that cover all phases of the
editorial workflow and content lifecycle. Richard Sheffield's book has
a good starter for 10 list in the appendix.
However, if your goal is to focus on just new content and get feedback
from all the people who would be involved in requesting it, then a
short survey along the lines you've mentioned would certainly be a
good option.
Anyone else have other suggestions?
Regards, Lisa
On Feb 17, 10:07 am, Alex Sparasci <alexander.spara...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Good to see you at the group meeting last week!
So, anarchy sounds fun... OK, maybe not :) I've worked with a few
clients in similar situations. In one instance, they did not have a
CMS in place and handled content requests and updates via a rather
convoluted email chain.
Your question suggests there may not be a CMS in place? Or, if there
is, there may be no defined workflows set up to guide users when
interacting with it.
I think your survey idea is a good one (and who doesn't love a little
Zoomerang or SurveyMonkey break during the workday!?). However, unless
you already understand the bigger picture for your content, I'd take
the opportunity to gain some insight into your content lifecycle as a
whole, not just limit it to new content (since, as we know, new
content doesn't stay that way very long and content in general doesn't
live in a vacuum).
If you want to take the more holistic route, I'd suggest quality over
quantity: Identify key content stakeholders and interview them or send
them a detailed list of questions that cover all phases of the
editorial workflow and content lifecycle. Richard Sheffield's book has
a good starter for 10 list in the appendix.
However, if your goal is to focus on just new content and get feedback
from all the people who would be involved in requesting it, then a
short survey along the lines you've mentioned would certainly be a
good option.
Anyone else have other suggestions?
Regards, Lisa
On Feb 17, 10:07 am, Alex Sparasci <alexander.spara...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Alex Sparasci
Feb 20, 2012, 11:49:39 AM2/20/12
to content-str...@googlegroups.com
Hi Lisa,
I enjoyed meeting you all and watching the debate; it is exciting to know that there is a friendly community of people all interested in content strategy.
We do have a CMS, it is not particularly modern or flexible but does a job for the time being. The main issues concern workflow and governance between different parts of the business. I am currently building up a picture of the life cycle of our content by meeting with all of the stakeholders in different departments. Thank you for the suggestion of Richard Sheffield's book, I will track it down and have a read.
Hopefully by understanding the chaos it will be easier to create order in the long term!
You mentioned a group in Brighton - who is the best person to ask for more information?
Kind regards,
Alex
mdeodriscoll
Feb 29, 2012, 3:46:19 AM2/29/12
to Content Strategy Europe
Morning Alex
This sounds like a governance issue, so perhaps checking out some of
the work that Lisa Welchman has done (she spoke at last year's Content
Strategy Forum - http://welchmanpierpoint.com/) at a strategic level
could help.
The question, though, then becomes how much process and structure do
you want / is your organization prepared to tolerate? The lighter
touch you go, the less opportunities you have to push back as
standards, policies, etc. won't necessarily be defined, go the other
way, and the process becomes so onerous that it becomes a chore to get
even small changes made.
I've worked in a couple of places which have tried to split out small
requests from big requests with an appropriate fast track process
depending on minor changes. However, without unambiguous definitions
of small, it becomes difficult to determine how best to determine
whether something is or is not small.
Not terribly helpful I know - but before you start thinking about
setting up a governance structure and processes, I'd suggest that you
need to answer these questions:
1. What problems are you trying to solve by adopting a more
structured / formal approach to content requests?
2. How do you measure whether changes work - if not, why not?
3. Do you know what your audiences expect / want of the content you
are responsible for? Both in terms of quality (informational and
presentational) and format (text, multimedia, etc.).
4. Do you have a set of policies / standards that can be referred to
as part of your decision making process?
5. Who undertakes the work? E.g. do requests result in you doing the
work or are you the gatekeeper?
6. If a request is rejected, is there a defined escalation path?
7. Who provides the authority to the decision making body? Is it you?
are you sufficiently senior in the organization?
8. Is there a clearly documented content lifecycle? What decisions are
made as part of that lifecycle? Who should be making those decisions
(for example subject matter experts)?
9. How will you educate your users about any new process / governance
structure? And how will you roll the process / structure out?
10. Could people work around the process / governance structure? Is
they could, what can you do to prevent people going "off piste"?
As you can see, a lot of it depends on the nature of your organization
and its appetite for process - for example what works in a government
department won't necessarily work in a start-up and vice versa. So I'd
suggest before you go ahead with a governance product, research your
users, identify what blockers there are to a more formal way to deal
with content and define a plan for resolving those blockers.
Designing the governance structure and process should be the easy bit
- implementing it and getting it to work well will be much harder.
Hope that helps.
regards
Daniel
On Feb 20, 4:49 pm, Alex Sparasci <alexander.spara...@gmail.com>
wrote:
This sounds like a governance issue, so perhaps checking out some of
the work that Lisa Welchman has done (she spoke at last year's Content
Strategy Forum - http://welchmanpierpoint.com/) at a strategic level
could help.
The question, though, then becomes how much process and structure do
you want / is your organization prepared to tolerate? The lighter
touch you go, the less opportunities you have to push back as
standards, policies, etc. won't necessarily be defined, go the other
way, and the process becomes so onerous that it becomes a chore to get
even small changes made.
I've worked in a couple of places which have tried to split out small
requests from big requests with an appropriate fast track process
depending on minor changes. However, without unambiguous definitions
of small, it becomes difficult to determine how best to determine
whether something is or is not small.
Not terribly helpful I know - but before you start thinking about
setting up a governance structure and processes, I'd suggest that you
need to answer these questions:
1. What problems are you trying to solve by adopting a more
structured / formal approach to content requests?
2. How do you measure whether changes work - if not, why not?
3. Do you know what your audiences expect / want of the content you
are responsible for? Both in terms of quality (informational and
presentational) and format (text, multimedia, etc.).
4. Do you have a set of policies / standards that can be referred to
as part of your decision making process?
5. Who undertakes the work? E.g. do requests result in you doing the
work or are you the gatekeeper?
6. If a request is rejected, is there a defined escalation path?
7. Who provides the authority to the decision making body? Is it you?
are you sufficiently senior in the organization?
8. Is there a clearly documented content lifecycle? What decisions are
made as part of that lifecycle? Who should be making those decisions
(for example subject matter experts)?
9. How will you educate your users about any new process / governance
structure? And how will you roll the process / structure out?
10. Could people work around the process / governance structure? Is
they could, what can you do to prevent people going "off piste"?
As you can see, a lot of it depends on the nature of your organization
and its appetite for process - for example what works in a government
department won't necessarily work in a start-up and vice versa. So I'd
suggest before you go ahead with a governance product, research your
users, identify what blockers there are to a more formal way to deal
with content and define a plan for resolving those blockers.
Designing the governance structure and process should be the easy bit
- implementing it and getting it to work well will be much harder.
Hope that helps.
regards
Daniel
On Feb 20, 4:49 pm, Alex Sparasci <alexander.spara...@gmail.com>
wrote:
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