if she knew what she wants...
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Have you ever delivered exactly what your client asked for … only to hear, “No, this isn’t what I wanted at all”? Have you developed content that fulfilled every requirement you were given, only to have it soundly rejected or overlooked? Librarians know that people don’t always ask for what they really need, and they’ve developed reference interview techniques to solve this problem. In this talk, Anne will draw on over a decade of reference experience to help you discover new strategies for wowing clients, colleagues, and users by giving them what they didn’t even know they needed.
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- 41. Photo by Ellenvd - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/41904174@N06 Created with Haiku Deck Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Tolstoy is the Tolstoy of the Zulus”
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- 43. Photo by Ellenvd - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/41904174@N06 Created with Haiku Deck If she knew what she wants (He'd be giving it to her) If she knew what she needs (He could give her that too) If she knew what she wants (But he can't see through her) If she knew what she wants He’d be giving it to her, Giving it to her… [Jules Shear]
Editor's Notes
- Introduce yo’self! Hi! Do we have any rogue librarians in the house? MLS-holders who’ve strayed into content strategy? Wannabe librarians? People who just want to play with date due stamps and card catalog drawers?
- Librarians aren’t really mind readers. We just know how to figure people out. See, the question people ask at first is almost never what they ultimately want to know. They may ask for what they think they can get, even if it’s not what they need. They may be worried that you’ll think they are stupid if they ask their real question. They may want to look smart by leading with the solution, but it might not be the right solution. They may not know the words for what they’re looking for, or they may not have enough background information to really define it. We’ll look at some of these scenarios in more detail. I think stakeholders in a CS context are often in a very similar boat.
- Patron asks for the book “Oranges and Peaches.” He’s distraught when the librarian can’t find it because he KNOWS that’s what he wants, his prof told him to go find it. “How can you not have this book????” “I’m sorry, you’ll have to go back to your instructor and get the author’s name.” “What kind of library is this? My prof said you’d have hundreds of copies! This book is supposed to be legendary! My prof called it the Bible of evolution!” [Enunciate!] Origin of Species. Charles Darwin. [CITATION: Dewdney & Michell, Oranges & Peaches] AND, sometimes they do ask for what they want, but we’re not listening clearly.
- Although the patron has the initial question, the librarian is the one who ends up asking most of the questions, thus “interview.” At its best, it’s a collaborative effort. We listen, and we ask questions or make statements that help elicit useful responses from our patron (stakeholder, client, user, etc.). Asking the right questions is a HUGE part of content strategy too, especially early in a project when we conduct stakeholder interviews (but also throughout). One thing I’ve learned at the couple Confabs I’ve been to is that content strategists DEPEND on highly advanced communication skills.
- We know how valuable structured content is. (Team Chunk!) Structured communication is equally valuable & that’s what the reference interview works towards. Structure helps us to define roles & expectations throughout the process. Librarians can’t require patrons to read up on how to be a good patron first, right? Worst customer experience ever! Structure helps us navigate & lead our patrons/stakeholders through the process.
- Robert S. Taylor, Question-Negotiation & Information Seeking in Libraries, 1968. Explains how reference work is NOT just “looking stuff up for people & answering their dumb questions.” You’re not usually coming to this @ beginning of process. Patron’s info need may have emerged LONG before she approached you. Or 30 seconds before. You need to understand what’s been going on before you got there. Taylor identified 4, roughly chronological, levels of information need. (NOTE I’ll be sharing a URL at the end for citations for all the readings)
- “the actual, but unexpressed need for information (the VISCERAL need)” – “First of all, there is the conscious or even unconscious need for information not existing in the remembered experience of the inquirer. It may be only a vague sort of dissatisfaction. It is probably inexpressible in linguistic terms.”
- “the conscious, within-brain description of the need (the CONSCIOUS need)” - “… a conscious mental description of an ill defined area of indecision. It will probably be an ambiguous and rambling statement.” Parallel: Well, I imagine many of you are picturing a particular client right about now.
- “the formal statement of the need (the FORMALIZED need)” “At this level an inquirer can form a qualified and rational statement of his question. Here he is describing his area of doubt in concrete terms and he may or may not be thinking within the context or constraints of the system from which he wants information.” Parallel: “We need a content strategy. Somebody find us a person who can make us a content strategy.” Or maybe just “We need better site organization.”
- The question as presented to the information system (the COMPROMISED need) “At the fourth level the question is recast in anticipation of what the files can deliver. The searcher must think in terms of the organization of particular files and of the discrete packages available…” At this point, the need is expressed in ACTIONABLE (or so the patron/stakeholder believes) terms.
- Conscious need = “our customers don’t understand us” compromised need = “we need a new glossary”
- Books are the library’s brand, which sets expectations. An example of the compromised need – patron asks for something that fits their expectations of what the system can deliver. This is generally the point where you come into the picture.
- Our job is to work backwards with them to get at the real needs. What is the real problem they are trying to solve?
- Thus, we can help them find answers they didn’t know they could get. Can’t tell you how many students have asked for “a book” but as it turns out, they are better served by finding journal articles, online encyclopedia entries, etc, etc… often they don’t even have the terminology to ask for these things, or know what resources are available. For example we have “Opposing Viewpoints” which often blows undergrads’ minds.
- The concept of this being a negotiation was eye-opening to me. It’s iterative, collaborative. It’s not adversarial – don’t be judgy. “Dyngus doesn’t know it’s CHECK OUT a book, not RENT a book…” NO. They aren’t a dyngus just because they don’t know your job! ..SO. There are 3 things according to Dervin/Dewdney that we need to understand about the patron in order to grasp where they’re coming from. First…
- First: The Situation. No, not the dude from the Jersey Shore (yes that’s him). The situation the person is in – the context of the question
- The gaps in their understanding – what is it they don’t know, and need to? We’re asking them to describe what they don’t know! This is so tricky!
- The uses – what the person would like to do as a result of bridging the information gap. This is really a task-based process.
- Again, our friend Robert S. Taylor. This is kind of the crux of the thing. We’re not asking why why why just to be annoying two year olds. Sometimes we do need to explain why asking those questions helps us helps them.
- Generally involve a judgment of what is relevant to the user. But sometimes they are useful. “Do you need this today?” “Is there a specific edition you need?”
- Example of a closed question. If we only use closed questions, we turn it into a guessing game. They’re useful for short answers, when you need to focus the conversation, to clarify that you understand what’s needed, to establish basic facts, etc.
- Open questions empower the stakeholder and create opportunities for understanding context. They don’t make assumptions about the stakeholder’s context, unlike closed questions which present a finite set of options defined by the interviewer.
- You ex-journalists will recognize these! Open questions do make you (the interviewer) give up some control. THIS IS GOOD FOR YOU ;) And, they get your person talking – that’s also a good thing.
- Pioneered by Brenda Dervin & Patricia Dewdney in the mid-80s. These are especially useful early in the interview as you’re trying to establish context. They are a subset of open questions. I’ve found them to be ESSENTIAL.
- The answers to these (and similar) questions will tell you a lot about the context of the inquiry. They let you into the user’s process. They also help the inquirer think more deeply into their question.
- A less judgy alt for “where have you looked” … “Have you had a chance to get started yet?” In a CS context, may include such as: who’s your audience? How did your previous redesign go? What do your analytics look like? What content do you already have (inventory)? Yes, I think a content inventory is a sense-making question of sorts.
- You could do a whole session on active listening techniques. Here are some highlights. The most important thing is to be really present, not to hear part of what they say and then go into your own mind looking for the answers already. You’re not to the answer part yet. Just listen and be as present with the stakeholder as possible.
- Not this kind of encourager “Tell me more…” “Can you give me some more detail about…” “Can you explain your thinking about…” Encourages them to keep talking! Also, “looping back” – “Earlier, you mentioned…” Reinforces that you are listening.
- Try to resist suggesting solutions before you have all the info. This patron’s question might NOT be the same as the last one’s, even though it starts out that way… If you’re already planning your possible solutions, you will only be able to hear the rest of what your person says in the context of those solutions.
- We don’t always know what’s important to our patrons/stakeholders, or why. [Touching story about old man and photo he wanted scanned and saved.] Moral of the story: empathy
- Sometimes you have a choice about how to communicate with people. Email? Chat? Phone? Endless meetings? Some channels provide helpful structure. Using JIRA or other project management tools can be super helpful, but they don’t do all the work for you. And you may need to modify tactics to fit the channel that works best for your situation.
- You have to choose the right channel. Sometimes meetings aren’t the best way to proceed! (Although, sometimes they are.) Tools like JIRA are great for ongoing communication. Interview strategies can be adapted to suit your channel of choice. (Yes, I have that actual ribbon hanging in my cube, thanks to my dept head!)
- Our “Ask a Librarian” page offers options. But we sometimes have to switch channels for people. Some things are too complicated for chat. Extensive ref interviews are hard to do via email; we sometimes have to just make assumptions when we’d ask sense-making questions in person. Retired faculty member who surprised me by being thrilled about chat: he had trouble hearing on the phone.
- 1. Never hurts to ask for clarification, or repeat things back, even if you think you got it right. [Sloths/Slavs example] 2. “Do you need something else?” (instead of anything) – per Ross/Nilsen/Radford. 3. “How can I help?” instead of “can I help you?” (Open question!) Assumption that it’s OK to ask for help & even assume I *can* help – I just need to know HOW. Like microcopy on a website, being mindful about these small things can make a big difference.
- These principles apply really well to tech support, and if you’ve ever done tech support, think about applying tricks you’ve learned there to your content strategy work. (This question actually came in to a library reference desk.)
- Scrum is a very different tool, BUT its whole point is to structure communication, clarify roles, and induce iteration – in many ways the goals are very similar. Other similar contexts & processes include medical diagnosis, and therapy. (Both librarians & content strategists sometimes feel like they’re serving as therapists, right? BECAUSE FEELINGS. And empathy.)
- Georgy Cohen, “Content Strategy as Problem Solving,” Meet Content blog, December 17, 2013. Important: When stakeholders come in leading w/the solution, it’s not about us saying that’s the wrong solution, it’s about acknowledging the common ground & then articulating the problem so that we can get to work solving it. What we’ve done here is outline some tactics for doing that.
- We can’t solve problems until we understand their context – which is really the patron’s, user’s, stakeholder’s context. Problems don’t exist in a vacuum. Neither do solutions. Everyone has a story, and the better we understand that story, the better able we are to help them find appropriate solutions to their problems.
- In the end, this. Patrons, stakeholders, customers, YOU – all people, who have stories to tell and who can listen to each other’s stories and be PRESENT with one another in order to help articulate and ultimately solve problems.
- http://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2013/08/tolstoy-is-the-tolstoy-of-the-Zulus/278789/ Showing interest, listening, and learning from our stakeholders makes those relationships ever so much easier all around. It’s all about communication & relationships. They feel listened to, and we get to learn stuff. WIN! Our jobs are awesome.
- Don’t forget to go to the next slide with enough time to let them get the URL for the blog post!
- Say thank you!