Live from Congility: Workflow that Works under Pressure

Workflow that Works under Pressure, by Jeff Eaton

Content is everything for some organizations

• Content as the product – organizations produce content
• Lots of it, consistently
• It’s dynamic
• It’s often time-sensitive
• Jeff has a lot of feelings about this.

We adapt to the tools we’re giving

• Jeff had a friend with a “potato” button on the microwave
• When the microwave got old, only the “potato” button worked
• They adapted to cook other things in increments of “potato”
• Our clients do this with our CMSs when they don’t have the tools they need

Everyone says their CMS is the simplest/most intuitive design ever

• The creators and consumers are seen as different
  • Creators are editors, writers, authors
  • Consumers are visitors, customers, end users, readers
  • In reality creators and consumers are a giant muddle of content roles
• Workflow is rarely one-size-fits-all
  • Specific CMS almost never fits the customization the user needs
  • One size does not fit all
  • So many organizations start from scratch

When creating a CMS for a company, keep these things in mind:

• Workflows are often overwhelming
  • Inexperienced users need clear paths
  • Experienced users need shortcuts
  • Both need consistency
  • Use their vocabulary to label things, so that they recognize them
• Tasks should be made simple
  • Don’t try to map each content type to a form; look for places that tasks should be connected to one another and show them together, contextually
  • Understand the goals as well as the processes that currently match those goals
  • Automate the repetitive tasks to save time
  • Take into account offline tasks that should be connected by the CMS
• Workflow should WORK
  • 12-step approval systems never work
  • Model the states that the content will be in (draft, proposal, deleted, archived, published)
  • Model the responsibilities/roles (who is in charge of it in each state, and who can assign what)
  • Model the process based off that
  • Restrict access to risky actions, if they are actually risky (this solves for the “we need 1800 approvals”)
• Divorce the design
  • Focus on the priority, emphasis, and grouping rather than the design (“We need this in a prominent spot” as opposed to “we need this in the upper left corner”)
  • Slim down the actual market
  • Treat curation as content – for example, homepage, so handle this as content rather than as rules (i.e. let it be edited and viewed, rather than simply setting up “pull in first 3 headlines” as a rule)

Success stories

• MSNBC
• WWE
• The NYTimes
• Why are they successful?
  • Tons of metadata
  • Rather than making tasks “faster” the CMS has screens based around tasks for pages
  • Customized view options or bulk or automated options based on their tasks/processes
• How can you be successful?
  • Map the content to business goals, to find that elusive budget
  • Remember to iterate – everything will evolve