Findable, usable, reusable: IBM’s enterprise content strategy for smart content, by Michael Priestley
Michael is an Enterprise Content Technology Strategist for IBM
He has so far learned:
- Content matters
- We all want the same thing
- We have to work together to get it
His team has dealt with a lot of scope creep.
- Began as just product docs
- Then moved into embedded assistance and help
- Then added strategy across support, training, etc
- Then added marketing
We say content matters. What we mean…
- IBM clients say it’s impactful
- Technical content improves sales and product satisfaction
- We can’t afford to ignore it
- We can view it as a strategic asset
- Multiple channels and sources
- Part of a complex ecosystem
- Using a complex ecosystem requires a map to understand the complexity across multiple user journeys and content types, sources, and channels
They’re not trying to force people to do content in any one way
- They’re driving agreement on strategies
- They invest to fill gaps and meet content needs
- They find that there are overlaps in the content requirements across many departments
- That doesn’t mean one size fits all
- It means a component may be valuable for more than one person
- They work with everyone from engineering to marketing to HR
- Even though many people need the same things, they all use different words
- Michael’s team helps them to understand one another
Content needs to be:
- Findable
- I search based on what I need, not where the content came from
- I want to find it without needing to search
- Usable
- Does it help me with my goals?
- Is unnecessary content cluttering my screen?
- Reusable
- I want to share easily with others
- I want to create my own views and collections based off this content
- In order to be all three, we need:
- Common standards
- Processes
- Tools
- When it’s reused (and I “make it mine”) is that new addition:
- Findable
- Usable
- Reusable
- (and the cycle continues)
Major challenges:
- Providing adaptive content delivery
- Ensuring reused content doesn’t confuse the finability of other content
- Get colleagues to reuse content rather than reinventing the wheel
- Findable: they need to find relevant content to what they’re trying to create
- Usable: they need to share assets (and terms) across disciplines
- Reusable: common standards and sharing ability
- Managing content lifecycle
- Changing requirements
How can we solve it?
- Build a bigger silo
- Make it permeable
- Make content a platform
- Make content a service
- Make content smart/free/chunks
If you love your content, set it free
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