Does your content team curse their tools and that CMS you spent oodles of money on? This presentation may just have the answers to your problem… Over the last decade we’ve gotten pretty good at building web properties that are highly optimized for our site visitors. We focus on the visitor from the very beginning and advocate for them through the entire development process. Unfortunately, there’s a user group out there that often gets ignored – the internal content team. They can be anyone from a journalist in a high paced newsroom to a roving blogger, but the tools they use and their ability to get content onto the web easily and efficiently can be a major challenge. More often than not, they get overlooked in the development process and end up fighting with tools that make their lives miserable. Fear not, with a few easy tips and tricks we can turn things around. This presentation will shed light on the current crop of CMS problems that make it unnecessarily hard for content teams to get their jobs done, as well as go over a number of tactics and activities that fix this problem. With a little bit of advanced planning and foresight, it’s more than possible to roll out a CMS based site and toolset that is efficient to use and loved by its users.

1. Don’t Forget The Content Team
Content Management Doesn’t Need to be Painful

2. Hi There... I’m Andre
• Andre Gaulin
• Director, Agility Solutions - Agility CMS
• http://agilitycms.com
• andre@agilitycms.com
• @fuzzz on twitter

3. A Story to Start

4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/chesh2000/3323779287/

5. Common Challenges
• CMS’s need to be flexible - too flexible.
• Need to focus on the end user experience.
• Many clients are new to the CMS Platform.
• Tight timelines and limited budgets.
• Content team busy doing their day jobs.
• Corners cut during “homework time”.

6. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lara604/2369412952/

7. (Content) User Experience
• If the content team can’t do their job, the end user
doesn’t matter.
• A good CMS is tailored to the team.
• CMS’s were invented to help productivity not hinder it.
• The more complex the site, the more important it is
for the content team to be able to manage the
content.

8. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kk/3905174634/

9. Content Personas
• Know your content team inside and out.
• Understand how they work and think.
• How savvy are they?
• Who are the power users in the group?
• Build a few personas and validate against them often.

10. 10

11. Embrace the Use Case
• Describe how to accomplish tasks.
• Help developers understand how the team wants to work.
• Flag areas of complexity early.
• Focus on key tasks - 80/20 rule.
• Keep it simple with point form steps.

12. Design Documentation
• Break the site into modules & describe in detail.
• Consistent reusable patterns are key.
• Think about details like sorting, ordering, scheduling,
automation, defaults, manual overrides.
• Ask LOTS of questions!
• Developers should be able to turn this level of document
into a scalable architecture.

13. 13

14. Test Your Reality
• Always create realistic test content.
• Jamming in gibberish doesn’t do you justice.
• Go beyond the perfection of mockups.
• Channel persona’s to really break stuff.
• Embrace power users early and often.

15. Train for Success
• Don’t hand over the keys without training.
• Spend time creating a proper manual.
• Keep the manual simple, point form, logically organized,
and up to date.
• Never underestimate face to face training.
• Designate a friendly face for questions/help.

16. =)
Any Comments or Questions?
http://www.agilitycms.com/
@agilitycms on Twitter