20-year evolution with a 5-year strategic plan

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20-Year Evolution with a 5-Year Strategic Plan

Megan Gilhooly

©2013 INVIDI Technologies Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Proprietary @MeganGilhooly @LavaCon

A little about me

Megan Gilhooly, Manager Technical Communication
INVIDI Technologies
• 80 employees and contractors
• Software for cable and satellite operators
• 4 direct reports
• Training and documentation

MS Strategic Management
MS Broadcast Journalism
mgilhooly@invidi.com @megangilhooly


Summary

Strategic plan

Vision

Steps we took
(What worked, what didn’t)


October 2010

Strategic Plan


Megan Gilhooly

What is a strategic plan?
•
•
•
•

Formal consideration of future course
Long term (3-5 years)
Consider current factors
End with goals, not tactics

Why do one?
•
•
•
•
•

Provide a base for measuring progress
Clarify goals & objectives
Communicate goals & objectives
Increase awareness of risks and opportunities
Encourage participation


Create Strategic Plan

• Current State of the Department
• The team (skillsets, personalities, opportunities)
• The deliverables (the good and the bad)

• SWOT
• Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
• Analysis

• What Customers Want
• Customer surveys one month prior
• Organized quotes into 4 themes

• Getting There
• Objective
• Tools, processes, and people required


External
Internal
Environment Environment

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Weaknesses

 Highly Skilled Staff
 Strong Leadership
 Functional Process

 Dysfunctional Process
 Lacking Specific Skill
 Not Using Latest
Technology

Threats

Opportunities
 New Technology
 Alternative Resources
 Expansion

 Legislation
 Lack of Support
 Negative Publicity
From www.businessballs.com

7


Where we started

Tools
Using MS Word, Framemaker 8, SVN repository
Problems:
• Losing support of Adobe for Framemaker 8
• Couldn’t collaborate with new writers on Framemaker 9
• Framemaker template had been “borrowed”, so no one knew
how to fix the degradations
• SVN wasn’t working as a company-wide CMS
• No training tools


Where we started

Tools
Needs:
• No more Framemaker
• Company-wide CMS mandate
• DITA XML authoring tool
• DITA CCMS
• Language standardization software
• Learning management tool


Where we started

Processes
Problems:
• No recorded processes for documentation or training
• No recorded processes in entire company
• Delivering documentation 6 weeks after release
• Every SME has a unique perspective on what is the
“accurate” answer
• No sense of corporate strategy to align with
• No corporate standards for style or terminology

Where we started

Processes
Needs:
• Adopt a style guide
• Record the current process and refine for
the short term
• Move to DITA XML authoring and rewrite
processes
• Encourage others to look at companywide processes
• Increase visibility of training processes

Where we started

People
Four employees: 1 manager, 2 technical writers,
1 trainer who could write
Problems:
• Team had been mismanaged, so team
members were angry
• Other teams had no respect for Tech Comm
• Customers had no faith in the documentation
• One writer per customer model was not
scalable


Where we started

People
Needs:
• More technical depth
• Re-engagement
• DITA skills and knowledge
• Editorial skills


What we needed

Tools, Processes, and People
• Content Management
System
• DITA Content Management
System
• Learning Management
System
• Knowledge Base
• Styleguide


•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Drastically cut word count
Standardize terminology
Implement DITA
Processes
More technical depth
Re-engagement
DITA skills and knowledge
Editorial skills

Where we started

Budget

$0

Vision
Develop strategic information management
that will drastically increase customer
satisfaction by providing the right information
to the right people, when and where they
need it.


7 Steps


What we did

Step 1
Fix what we could
What worked

What didn’t work

• Hired a contract writer by writing a
compelling business case
• Caught up on schedule (deliver
docs with release)
• “Stole” a support guy who could
write to improve the depth of
product knowledge

• Only brought us in line with
expectations in 1995…we still had
a long way to go!


What we did

Step 2
Build relationships
What worked

What didn’t work

• People started to appreciate Tech
Comm
• My employees were able to work
with other teams more effectively
• We were able to get a lot of
information from other teams

• Relationships overshadowed
what’s best for the customer
• The information didn’t jive because
while I was building relationships,
our SMEs were not


What we did

Step 3
Find a CCMS that would also work as a company-wide CMS
What worked

What didn’t work

• We found one the board would
approve (great deal!)
• We did numerous trainings
• We predicted the push back and
were ready for it
• Created a cross-functional team
• We succeeded in full adoption in
1.5 years

• We got the value we paid for
• No DITA expert on our team made
it tougher to negotiate with vendor
• We were using the tool outside of
its intended scope


What we did

Step 4
Transition to DITA
What worked

What didn’t work

• I learned from the mistakes of the
previous manager
• I recognized our deficiencies
• We planned for DITA when
choosing our tools
• Backfilled training position with a
DITA expert

• Started too early, wasted effort


What we did

Step 5
Taxonomy, Personas, Scenarios
What worked

What didn’t work

• When dealing with VPs, we did all
• People didn’t understand the need
the work and just had them provide
for a taxonomy, so it took a lot of
their opinion
convincing that it wasn’t a waste of
• Got buy-in of Support team so they
time
would help with personas/scenarios • It took a long time to get buy-in
from the VP who “owns the
customer relationship”


What we did

Step 6
Create Learning Management System
What worked

What didn’t work

•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•

Hired e-learning experts
Chose LMS carefully
Effective business case
Reviewed storyboards with entire
company before prototype
development


Overambitious schedule
Impact of time off
Turnover within consultant org
Time differences are tough
No dedicated resources

What we did

Step 7
Build Knowledge Base
What worked

What didn’t work

• Got budget approved

• As of two weeks ago, approved
budget items were frozen until next
year


20-year evolution with a 5-year strategic plan

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