14. You know you’re in trouble when:
There is not executive or upper-level management support for
governance
No one person is dedicated to being in charge
Politics take precedence over expertise
You have no documentation around governance
You have no training programs around governance
People are not held accountable for governance issues
14
16. A good governance plan:
Has executive buy-in and support
Identifies who is responsible for making decisions in various
scenarios
Has documentation and training based on expertise, not
guesswork
Minimizes politics
Makes governance a part of people’s annual review process
16
19. Content strategy takes the
guesswork out of execution so
creativity around content will
flourish.
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20. Workflow vs. Governance
Workflow
What processes, tools and
human resources are required
for content initiatives to
launch successfully and
maintain ongoing quality?
20
Governance
How are key decisions about
content and content strategy
made? How are changes
initiated and communicated?
21. Exercise #1:
1. Gather in groups of 2 or 3 people (or
don’t—we respect all introverts and styles)
2. Discuss or ponder two governance
problems that you may have under each
category of people, process and
tools/technology
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22. Our job is to provide complex
experiences.
How do we wrangle not only our
people, but our technology to make
these experiences awesome?
22
24. To-do list: Process
Map current workflow to understand weaknesses
Design workflow based on roles and responsibilities, not
people
Clarify roles and responsibilities, each and every time
Document workflow clearly
Choose technology that will support your process
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25. Types of Content Teams
1. Siloed
2. Distributed
3. Centralized
4. Rogue
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26. Types of Content Teams
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Type of content team Pros Cons
Siloed A lot of content gets created because there is no over-arching
process to go through
Departments do not communicate with each other
The audience is confused
The Departments are confused
Distributed Can be useful in situations where you don’t have enough
manpower on your central content team to keep all of your
content fresh
For multi-national organizations, can deal effectively with
language, culture, and other differences
Difficult to govern
Difficult to achieve consistency
Need careful, thorough training
Centralized Have complete control over content Not enough resources or staff
Massive backlogs of content
Confusion over priority
Lack of clarity about ownership
Lack of subject matter experts
Rogue Are extremely motivated to converse with their target audiences
Understand the value of web content
Unhampered by political concerns
Almost impossible to govern
No interest in adhering to workflow
No stake in overall quality or consistency
27. Siloed
Pros
• A lot of content gets created by different teams because there is no over-
arching process to go through
Cons
• Departments do not communicate with each other
• The audience is confused
• The departments are confused
• Executives have no idea what’s happening on the ground
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28. Distributed
Pros
• Can be useful in situations where you don’t have enough manpower on your central
content team to keep all of your content fresh
• For multi-national organizations, can deal effectively with language, culture, and other
differences
Cons
• Difficult to govern
• Difficult to achieve consistency
• Need careful, thorough training
• Accountability?
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29. Centralized
Pros
• Have complete control over content
• Not enough resources or staff
Cons
• Massive backlogs of content
• Confusion over priority
• Lack of clarity about ownership
• Lack of subject matter experts
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30. Rogue
Pros
• Are extremely motivated to converse with their target audiences
• Understand the value of web content
• Unhampered by political concerns
Cons
• Almost impossible to govern
• No interest in adhering to workflow
• No stake in overall quality or consistency
30
32. Why workflow?
• Break down the content process into manageable tasks
• Identify each piece of content’s stage of development
• Identify each step for the content to receive approval
• Know who is responsible for each step and when
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33. Why is workflow so hard?
• Information flow
• Misplaced talent
• Lack of guidance and clear models
• Lack of training
@ahavaL #confab19 33
36. Workflow Mapping: Phase I
Identify:
• Why create the content (the business objective)?
• Who is involved (the roles)?
• What each role does (the tasks)?
• When the tasks get done (the flow)?
• How you will assess (the result)?
@ahavaL #confab19 36
37. What are the steps?
How is content:
• Requested
• Sourced
• Created
• Reviewed
• Approved
• Published
• Analyzed
37
40. Questions to ask while mapping
1. Who currently inhabits the above roles?
2. What is the current process in place for that role?
3. What happens when that person is unavailable?
4. Who gets to make decisions about change in process?
5. How does information flow from one role to the next?
6. How does information get shared? (Files, shared drives,
project management software)
@ahavaL #confab19 40
41. @ahavaL #confab19 41
Roles Definitions
Requesters Creates Assignments
Providers Sources Content
Creators Writing & Sourcing
Reviewers Editors
Approvers Final Approval
Publishers Prepare content for distribution
Distributors Distribute content
Analysts Analyze content performance and
behavior
42. Workflow Post-It Legend
42
Major workflow milestone
Moment
of truth
Sub-steps
within each
milestone
Pain points,
potential issues
or known issues
Documentation
tools or meeting
43. Roles: Phase II
1. Understand current workflow
2. Write up or use current job descriptions
3. Rearrange workflow to be appropriate for the end content
product
4. Rewrite job descriptions
5. Examine who is in those roles
@ahavaL #confab19 43
44. @ahavaL #confab19 44
Roles Tasks Who?
Requesters Requests content
Providers Sources Content—could be multiple
subject matter experts
Creators Writing & Sourcing
Video editing (if necessary)
Photographic editing (if necessary)
Reviewers Edits
Legally approves
Approves for messaging and branding
Approvers Final copy editing
Publishers Prepare content for distribution
Distributors Distributes through different digital
channels
Analysts Analyzes the content over time to see if
it is performing well
46. FOCUS ON THE ROLES.
NOT THE PEOPLE.
NOT THE TALENT.
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47. Put the Right People in the Right Roles
• Evaluate talent fairly
• Structure for experience and personality (where possible)
• Don’t be afraid to experiment
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48. May Need…
• More guidance
• More training
• Different job
• More documentation
• Rewards
@ahavaL #confab19 48
55. Examples: Define roles and responsibilities
• Project Manager: What is your job? Explain it to the content people.
• Content Strategist: EXACTLY what are you in charge of doing?
• Writers/Content Creators: Who is responsible for each of the steps?
• Technical Leads: Do they call the shots? Are they involved in major
decision making for content as well as tech?
• Developers: When do they come into the process?
• Editors: When do they come into the process?
• CMS Authors: Who goes through the copy with them to ensure it gets
published properly? Do they own templates?
• Quality Assurance: Who performs and to whom do they give that
information?
@ahavaL #confab19 55
56. Who is a part of each process?
• Project managers
• Content strategists
• Writers
• Graphic designers
• Subject-matter experts
• Marketing managers
• Business owners
• Reviewers (legal, HR, department heads, etc.)
• Developers
56
57. Roles & Responsibilities Overview
Role Responsibility
Stakeholder Typically the one who initiates a project. Also has a high interest in the outcome or creation of content.
Project Manager
Acts as traffic control. Keeps tabs on Workfront usage/implementation, assigns leads and tracks team utilization and the
volume of work coming in and out of the workflow.
Project Lead Sets overarching strategy, plus manages their own project progress, including, deadlines and asset management.
Researcher
Provides audience insights, search engine optimization data, patient data, and stakeholder interview results. Is also
responsible for finding stories that support the content strategy with data collected.
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) Advises on topic relevance and reviews copy for accuracy only.
Content Creator Writer or producer. Executes on content ideas, using the content strategy as a guide.
Publisher Uploads or launches approved content.
Channel Manager Oversees the strategy and tactics on a specific channel.
Editor Copy edits and reviews content to ensure it meets best practices and aligns with overarching strategy and goals.
Community Anyone outside of the org , including news outlets and patients.
Governor Conducts post-launch analysis to form a post-publish plan. Archives content when necessary.
Reporter Analyzes content performance and reviews metrics. Communicates successes and opportunities to improve.
58. Channel Manager/Publisher Role Details
Channel managers/publishers are responsible for the strategy and success of specific MHS channels. They
are responsible for communicating channel needs at the start of a project, publishing content after it is
approved, and making sure that the final product will succeed post-publication.
In addition, channel managers/publishers also:
• Push content to their specific channel
• Gain final roadmap signoff
• Identify content types/formats that will work best on their channel
• Review content before publication
• Respond to any issues post-publication
• Analyze content performance
• Confirm approvals before publishing
• Find stories
59. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) Role Details
SMEs are responsible for providing factual information about their area(s) of expertise and illustrating
points with facts, studies and/or accolades. They should also provide insight into research and patient
populations, and serve as a spokesperson, as needed. They are expected to review information within the
set deadline/publishing schedule timeframe, in order to help keep a project on track and on time.
SMEs do not:
• Set voice and tone or messaging
• Add additional details that push scope (when it’s not appropriate or necessary)
• Set marketing strategy or design or produce collateral
• Dictate timelines or kill projects
• Make edits that are not tracked or edit in ways that impact SEO
• Design or produce collateral or information architecture
62. About the RACI Matrix
• RACI is an acronym for:
• Responsible: The person who does the activity or work
• Accountable: The person who is accountable and has yes/no power
• Consulted: Person that needs to provide information, contribution or
feedback
• Informed: Person that needs to know of the decision or action
• A RACI matrix will help identify who comes in at what part of our
new workflow, and in what capacity.
62
63. RACI Matrix Preview
63
Content
Strategist
Editor Project Manager
Physician
Stakeholder
Content request I I A, C R
Project creation I I R, A I
Project
assignment
I I R, A I
Content creation R C I I
77. Where can we automate this?
• Understand what your CMS can do
• Create authoring tools that provide guidance
• Create content models that only allow certain inputs
• Show the ROI on tagging and proper authoring
• Select tech tools to evaluate that might help you
• Use technology to remind you to archive
77
95. Taxonomies
• Identifies content
• Defines metadata
• Manages the relationships between those pieces of content
and metadata
• Manages the organization of information so that people can
find the information they need
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105. Get your lawyers or compliance
involved from the beginning
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106. Archiving Standards
• Use your CMS
• Use your content models
• Have people be in charge quarterly
• Create digital handshakes and handoffs
• Create ifthen scenarios: If this happens…that happens
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108. Reporting
• Non compliant pages
• Spelling errors
• Dead links
• References to out of date info
• Improper keywords
• Wrong categorization
• Bad metadata
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110. LINKS add depth to your site. Here’s how to use them:
Use action words
Match links to the page title (H1 tag) as much as possible
Link 3-7 words only
Label links if they don’t jump to a web page (example: [PDF])
Ensure active and visited links use consistent colors (i.e., blue and purple,
respectively)
NEVER: use “click here”, put links in places where you’ll lose the reader in the
conversation, or make headlines links
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117. To-do list
People
Gain executive buy-in by emphasizing business goals
Create multidisciplinary governance bodies
Assign decision makers
Train people how to use governance documentation and who to contact
when there are questions
Make governance a part of people’s annual review process
Measure how you are doing; not just in reporting metrics but in
organizational commitment
11
7
130. Why multidisciplinary teams?
• Adapt to changing technologies
• Break down silos
• Better ideas
• Look at things from different perspectives
• See problems and solutions in a variety of ways
• Have different kinds of political connections
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131. Who to look for?
• Executive sponsor
• Product management
• Business intelligence
• Creative/editorial
• Information technology
• UI/UX
• Legal
• Training
13
1
• Marketing
• Taxonomy manager
• Content creators/editors
• Content managers
• Regional representatives
• Search specialists
• Business line owners
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132. Option #1: Create two teams
1. Strategic authority: bird’s-eye-view decisions like site
objectives, resources and budgeting, audience definition and
annual planning.
2. Implementation authority: decisions related to day-to-day
operations (requests for the home page, new content,
content maintenance, editorial oversight.
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2
133. Option #2: Create three teams
1. Steering Committees: they make business decisions about
priorities and allocation of resources (they get the final say
when politics or conflicts amongst different groups arises)
2. Work teams and working groups: Day-to-day implementation
authority; report to the steering committee on a regular basis
3. Task forces: Groups that focus a unique project for a limited
duration
13
3
136. Somebody has to be the final
say on each and every content
project.
13
6
137. Train people how to use
governance documentation and
who to contact when there are
questions
13
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138. Training
1. Model good governance (show people what it really means;
either with mistakes or best practices examples)
2. Invite to training meetings (serve food)
3. Send our reminder emails
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8
140. 2. Invite to training meetings
• Writing workshops
• CMS workshops
• Updates to governance standards
• Archiving schedules
SHOW THEM WHY THEY CARE
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141. 3. Send out reminder emails
@ahavaL #confab19 141
146. Measure how you are doing;
not just in reporting metrics but
in organizational commitment
14
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147. Measurement
1. Look at reviews
2. Create personal case studies
3. Use software to show decreases in mistakes
4. Track workflow to find ways you’ve shortened time to
publication
5. Show how often tools are being updated or used
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7
152. In reality, these activities are
part of a continuous life cycle
that repeats and repeats and
repeats.
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153. Remember!!!!
• The law of tiny changes
• If you can affect 10% of change in behavior in a year, you’re
doing great!
@ahavaL #confab19 153
154. Content guides the interactions between
customer and vendor. And it’s [our] job to
orchestrate these content assets—these
touchpoints across the entire customer life
cycle—to deliver a winning, high-growth
customer experience.
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