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Author: Sarah O'Keefe

Podcasts

The personalization paradox (podcast)

In episode 84 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe talks with Val Swisher of Content Rules about why companies fail and how to succeed at delivering personalized experiences at scale.

“It all has to be completely standardized in order to be successful. There have to be small, individual, standardized chunks of content that are devoid of format that can be mixed and matched. Then the output can be personalized to the person who asked for it and sent to them at that moment in time.”

—Val Swisher

Sarah O'Keefe
November 16, 2020
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Brand credibility Structured content

Enterprise content strategy maturity model

“Whether you like it or not, your prospects already use technical content.” 

In the paper age, it cost money to distribute information. That gave big organizations some control over information flow. A prospect interested in purchasing a product would get “pre-sales” information–marketing materials, sales pitches, and perhaps a data sheet. Only after buying the product could the prospect access “post-sales” information, such as technical content. (Buyers could and did request technical information from their sales representative, but the decision whether or not to provide the information rested with the organization.)

But in the digital age, information distribution is free, and that makes it difficult or impossible to control what information people receive. As a result, the distinction between pre-sales and post-sales content is blurring. If you are in the market for a new desk, and you’re considering “some assembly required” options, you might take a look at the assembly guide. If the build process looks daunting, a not-so-handy person may look elsewhere. If you’re considering a piece of software, you might glance at the user documentation to see whether tasks are explained clearly at a level that makes sense to you. 

Sarah O'Keefe
July 27, 2020
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DITA

Improving DITA workflow

An organization’s first foray in DITA and structured content is most often driven by one of the following:

  • Merger or acquisition: After a merger, the organization needs to refactor content workflows and so they decide to move into structured content and DITA.
  • Localization: The organization is growing and needs to ramp up content production in many languages.
  • Smart content: The organization recognizes content as a key business asset and wants to wring maximum value out of the content lifecycle.

Sarah O'Keefe
June 8, 2020
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Structured content

The challenge of digital transformation

Digital transformation touches on every aspect of business operations. At Scriptorium, our focus is on high-value content, so our definition of digital transformation is also content-centric:

“Digital transformation is the use of technology to enrich information delivery.”

“Enriched” information is usually divided into two major categories:

  • Content delivery
  • Context

Sarah O'Keefe
April 27, 2020
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White papers

Content accounting: Calculating value of content in the enterprise

The challenge of content value

Content value is a hot topic in marketing and technical communication. In the publishing industry, the connection between content and value is clear. A publisher sells a book (or film or other piece of content) and gets book sales, ticket revenue, or streaming subscriptions in return. But what if your content is a part of the product (like user documentation) or used to sell the product (like a marketing white paper)? In these cases, measuring content value is much more challenging.

It is tempting to fall back on measuring cost instead of value. The cost of content development can be a trap, though. Eliminating wasted effort and optimizing content workflows is sensible, but too much focus on cost leads us toward content as a commodity.

Sarah O'Keefe
November 11, 2019
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Podcasts

Subject matter experts as authors and reviewers (podcast)

In episode 63 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and Chip Gettinger of SDL chat about subject matter experts and their role as authors and as reviewers of content.

“One of the most important things about working with SMEs is to meet them where they are. It’s important to understand where they’re coming from and their perspective. Understand what issues matter to them.”

—Chip Gettinger

Sarah O'Keefe
November 4, 2019
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White papers

The Scriptorium approach to content strategy

Executive summary

The Scriptorium approach to content strategy is based on management consulting principles. First, we identify business goals that are connected to content problems. We then do a needs analysis and gap analysis, and develop requirements. That work provides the foundation for a recommendation. From that recommendation, we build out the solution.

The key to success is the balance between content and strategy. It’s easy to reduce the cost of the content lifecycle if you don’t care about the quality of the content. If you focus only on the quality of the end result and not on the content creation process, you can end up with beautifully crafted content that’s only usable in a single format, that’s impossible to translate, or that takes entirely too long to create.

When you invest in content strategy, you are committing to a major digital transformation effort. The challenges are significant, but so is the opportunity.

Sarah O'Keefe
July 8, 2019
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White papers

Understanding content strategy as a specialized form of management consulting

First published in Technical Communication Volume 66, Number 2 (May 2019) by the Society for Technical Communication.
Coauthored by Sarah O’Keefe, Alan Pringle, and Bill Swallow.

Abstract

Purpose: The goal of this article is to position content strategy as a specialized subdiscipline of management consulting. Standard management consulting practices, such as gap analysis and needs analysis, are the foundation of content strategy practices.

Method: This article draws from the theory on management consulting and shows how management consulting principles work in the context of content strategy projects.

Results: Practitioners in the burgeoning field of content strategy will develop a better sense of how their work aligns with overall management consulting practices.

Conclusion: Management consulting already has best practices and methodologies. Content strategy builds upon that foundation to establish a professional discipline.

Sarah O'Keefe
May 13, 2019
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