image: http://www.meschinohealth.com/
#mpd3 @bozamozam

Hi.

Tim Senft
Web Content Strategist
ILR School
tls245@cornell.edu
@bozamozam

Working for an academic institution.
Migrating a website.

image: http://nyuniversity.tumblr.com/

image: http://nyuniversity.tumblr.com/
• Speech Writer
• Government Relations
• PR and Marketing
• Web Communications
• Migrate NYU.edu from a static site to CMS (Adobe
CQ)
• Bringing groups and sites from outside into a single
system

+1 +1x +1n

ILR not IRL
(but IRL)
https://cornell.widencollective.com

The New York State
School of Industrial and
Labor Relations
http://kheelcenter.tumblr.com/

I Love Reading?
• Branding problem
• Long history in Labor
• Active HR Alumni
• Strong faculty
• Conflicting views on what the school is
“selling” and offering

SILOS!

Labor
HR UG
GRAD
Professional
SILOS!
Faculty

CommonSpot
Drupal
image: Rube Goldberg
image: David Scott Smith - http://www.spacebase8.com/

Agile Shop.
image: http://smokejumperstrategy.com/

(not agile)
Hard Deadline
January 15, 2015
Agile Shop.
image: http://smokejumperstrategy.com/

image: http://upstate.apaleagues.com/

Most Valuable Player≠
image: http://upstate.apaleagues.com/

Most Valuable Player≠
Minimum Viable Product=
image: http://upstate.apaleagues.com/

MVP Content Strategy
• Thorough content inventory
• finished but after launch
• Work as much with clients/stakeholders as possible
given the timeframe
• Rethink / Rewrite / Reorg, Move As Is
• Migrate content
(Strategery?)

Pro
• Identify content that doesn’t need to be
migrated
• Improve the contributor experience
• Improve site reliability
• Everyone has to go along with it
• Must finish the task
• No matter what, produce something new
http://www.higheredgeek.com/

Con
• Not flexible if things change
• It really is a minimum product
• No time for content assessment
• No time for content rewrites
• No time for content collection
http://www.albany.asn.au/

A Bare Bones Strategy(not the company that makes BBEdit)

The Website
• Limited content types. Got specific.
• Built in tagging system to help meet use cases
• Created categories to increase functionality
• Used publishing options (featured, sticky) to create
additional use cases
• Mobile first
• Limited theming
• Basic Cornell University branding
• Limited navigation
• Kept side navigation operation same in mobile as desktop

User Roles
• First piece of culture change
• Limited number of user roles (admin, contributor)
• A few specialty user roles for specific functionality
• Contributors have the ability to edit the whole site
• Everyone on their best behavior
• Encouraging content exchange across the site
• Encouraging familiar user experience

Migrate, Migrate, Migrate
image: http://www.maxisciences.com/

The Good
• Site launched “on time”
• Essential content was in
• Site is on Acquia and has had no downtime
• Spawned conversations with stakeholders
(not all positive)
• Identified key projects moving forward
• Set priorities
• Identified areas where we need to improve
as a team
• Implemented change

The Bad
• Broken things (are now fixed)
• Not good client interaction
• Loss of trust (all the trust)
• Content STILL needs a rewrite
• Things were moved, but not
necessarily in the best places

The Ugly
● Angry people were angry
● Mean people were mean
● Two stakeholders moved
properties elsewhere
● Some groups
wouldn’t/couldn’t speak to
us
● Town halls to listen to
complaints
● Had to focus on HiPPO
needs, eroding trust in
other groups
● Build some functionality
that’s no longer used
(attrition)
● 3-6 Months cleaning up
the mess

Student Feedback• 3 months after launch
• 38 Undergraduate and 3 Graduate students interviewed
• 25 of those polled had used the new website since January 15
• 17 had not. Roughly 40%.
• Of that 25:
• 18 liked the new website
• 2 strongly did not
• 5 were ambivalent toward it
• Of that 25:
• 17 found what they were looking for
• 8 did not and had to go through some other means to get it, i.e call or visit
associated office

Culture Change
https://www.aliexpress.com

Hyper-engaged Stakeholders
http://aboutislam.net

More Purposeful Meetings
• Weekly project meetings with major
stakeholders
• Groups with identifiable goals/outcomes
• Representatives from individual silos
• Acknowledge school-wide needs, not just silo
https://www.usability.gov

Group Hug
• Involve everyone in the process
• Micro-managing (hopefully) turns to trust
https://reachingforsoul.wordpress.com

Build Trust
• You are starting at zero
• Incremental growth gives an opportunity to
prove yourselves again and again
http://rhapsodystrategies.com/

Change the Process
• Broke work down into smaller stories
• Created an order to our work that is shared
with all stakeholders (REQ, U/X, ENG, ART)
• Created in-team quality control/review
https://http://www.discoverwildlife.com

Inform Stakeholders
http://www.shutterstock.com/

Include Stakeholders
https://www.sivers.org

Avoid the Pitfall of Saying “No”
• We know what it takes to do this and some things
sound crazy.
• Identify the real need.

Testing and Data
• Stakeholders acknowledge data is
important
• Want to use it to identify
strengths/weaknesses
• Want more
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Data

Student Testing

Student Testing
• 17 students / 20 minute test time
• Look is ok
• Search is how they find things
• Google and site search
• Don’t see our left hand navigation
• Don’t need to use the site
• Other resources available to them to do specific tasks
(Handshake, Cornell Courses, etc)
• They want student stories ALWAYS
• Admissions primary driver (UG, Grad, Professional)

+1 +1x +1n

Thank you!

Tim Senft
Web Content Strategist
ILR School
tls245@cornell.edu
@bozamozam