Has a new project or role ever made you feel like you’ve been carried off by a twister? Are you searching for the Great and Powerful Content Strategy Oz to get you back to better content? These three intrepid travelers fought off witches and flying monkeys on their content strategy journeys. They brought back tools and techniques to help you get to Emerald City with a little less drama. Message architectures, customer journey maps, mental models, oh my! This presentation was given at Content Strategy Applied USA on November 17-18, 2014

1. The Shortcut to Oz
Lessons Learned on 3 Content Journeys

2. “If we don’t laugh,
Toto gets it?”

4. What will you get on the way to Oz?

5. “If we don’t laugh,
Toto gets it?” Let the journey begin.

6. The Brain

7. The Problem
We had a big findability problem and
wanted to do a redesign. But we didn’t
know what customers were looking to find.

9. “I could while away the hours,
conferrin’ with the flowers,
consultin’ with the rain,
And my head I’d be scratchin’,
while my thoughts were busy hatchin’,
if I only had a brain.”
Scarecrow
The Wizard of Oz, 1939

10. Mental Models by Indi Young
The Solution
Mental models. A way to
map your content to customer’s
needs and questions.

12. CONTENT
Our Mental Model
USER
NEEDS
Red = Gaps

13. Our Mental ModelSENIOR DESIGN
Why should I
use NI tools for
my senior
design project?
How can I use
NI tools for my
senior design
project?
Lab/VIEW Student
Community-Project
Library
(https://decibel.ni.com/co
ntent/groups/loop?view=
documents#/?tagSet=10
43)

14. Tasks came from:
• Employees
• Product Marketing
• Sales
• User Experience
• Customer Support
• User Research
• Usability
• Surveys
• Focus Groups
• Market Research
• Analytics, particularly search
Then define user tasks

15. Our Mental Model

16. What we learned
• We had gaps
• We de-prioritized key tasks in favor of
Marketing offers.
• We weren’t reusing content.
• We had some good content

17. 2Results are from a single product line. Contacts numbers are from web only.
70%Increase in contacts
51%Increase in online revenue
2
Results from first project

19. Before
• Time: 4 months
• Method: Analog
• Included: Everything
• Categories: Yes/No
• Summary: Whole
mental model
After
• Time: 2 weeks
• Method: Mural.ly
• Included: Research
• Categories: Colors,
Detail
• Summary: Bullet points
in a deck
Making Mental Models lean

20. “...Once I had brains, and a heart also;
so, having tried them both, I should much
rather have a heart.” -The Woodman
The Wizard of Oz,
Frank L Baum

21. The Heart

22. The Problem
Credit applications are a dime-a-dozen.
They’re robotic and full of legalese.
So how can we humanize them?

23. Customer-driven innovation
DEFINE
DESIGN
DELIVER
DISCOVER
Engage with customers
Focus & refine
problem area Be generative
in solution
concepts
Select,
prototype,
and test
with
customers
Iterative
refining
DIVERGENT CONVERGENT

24. CUSTOMER
Jim M.
Age: 33
IT professional
CUSTOMER
GOALS
CUSTOMER
PROBLEM
STATEMENT
HOW PAYPAL
CAN HELP
Jim knows he could
get a better credit deal,
but he is time-poor and
finds new applications
arduous… so he sticks
with what he’s got.
PAIN POINTS
• Existing PayPal
Customer
• Regular internet user
• Makes occasional
big-ticket purchases
NEEDS
• How does it work?
• Where can I use my
credit?
• What offers are
available?
• How quick is the
application?
PRIMARY
• Get the best credit
deal available
• Make his purchase
• Comprehension of
product
• Finds application
forms confusing
• Personal & financial
questions
• Understanding of
offers
• Application time
• Making that final
commitment to open
• Explanation of key
value props (Video
and microsite)
• Support on hand if
customer needs it
(FAQs, Help Center,
CS)
• Clean and simple
design of app flow
• Clear content and
supportive tone
• Next steps (offers
and places to buy)

25. Customer Journey

26. KPI
Reduce drop-offs in the
application process
Hypothesis
Address concerns at key points in the
user journey and we can mitigate
these potential drop-offs.

27. Connecting on an emotional level

28. What we learned
• The first rule of Content Strategy club
• Involve your partners at the earliest
possible stage
• Prove that you can deliver
• Build from the customer up, not the
business down

29. “Hearts will never be practical until they
can be made unbreakable….”
-The Wizard of Oz to the Tin Man

31. KANSASME

33. © 2014 PayPal Inc. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary.
Create (and help others create)
consistent, trustworthy content to
tell an engaging story everywhere
PayPal Credit goes.

34. © 2014 PayPal Inc. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary. 34

35. The Problem
End-to-end content for my product is
owned by many teams – we come from
different disciplines and different countries.
We all need to speak the same language.

36. Content Strategy at Work by Margot Bloomstein
The Solution
The message framework.
A way to start
the conversation and
find a common language

37. The Method
• Get the stakeholders in a room
• Give them 100 cards to sort
• Keep the conversation going
• Take copious notes (or record it)

40. PRODUCT
AREA
KEY
ATTRIBUTES
KEY
MESSAGE
REASONS TO
BELIEVE
ACQUISITION
ONBOARDING
SERVICING
• Easy to use
• Trusted and safe
• There when you
need us
• The application process is
simple –get an answer in seconds.
• PayPal = Secure financial information
• Available at most places PayPal is
accepted
With PayPal Credit, you
get a secure & flexible
line of credit that makes
it easier to buy the
things you love.
• We help you get started with educational
email & easy-to-use servicing experience.
• When you see PayPal Credit on a
merchant site, you know eligible BML
purchases are covered by PayPal
Purchase Protection & zero fraud liability.
• We give you lots of ways to pay –
online, by mail, one-time & repeat
payment options.
PayPal is there every
step of the way to help
you get the most out of
your PayPal Credit
account.
• Welcoming
• Trusted and safe
• Customer-oriented
• Welcoming
• Trusted and safe
• Customer-oriented
PayPal Credit is built into
your PayPal account so
you can track your
purchases & pay your bill
all in one place.
• The interface is clean and simple.
• We send you friendly reminders to help
you avoid fees or late charges.
• You can set up repeat payments so you
don’t have to worry about the bill at all.

41. “We’ve never had
anything like this
before.”

42. What we learned
• Never be afraid to say “hello”
• Circulate and share
• Just because you built a message
framework doesn’t mean you’re done

43. “Put ‘em up. Put ‘em up.”
-- The Cowardly Lion

44. So you made it to Oz.

45. Alex Hunter
@angryyoungalex
Lauren Moler
@merrymoler
Jessica Pease
@moregrist
Let’s keep in touch, shall we?

46. “Going so soon? I wouldn’t hear of it.
Why my little party’s just beginning.”
-The Wicked Witch of the West