LavaCon Las Vegas 2016 Presentation

1. Creating a Community of Support to
Leverage Great Content
Credit: Doc Searls, https://www.?lickr.com/photos/docsearls/5500714140/
Janell Sims
Harvard Law School
@janellsims

2. Harvard Law School

5. Silos = Departments

7. Communica<on Is Crucial to a Strong
Content Strategy

8. Ini<al Challenges
CMS Pains

9. Ini<al Challenges
CMS Pains Dysfunctional
Structure

10. Ini<al Challenges
CMS Pains Dysfunctional
Structure
No Centralized
Web Team

11. Siloed Content Produc<on
¤ “In most situations, the decentralized
publishing model has been disastrous. The
people trained tended to be relatively junior
staff, for whom publishing to the website was
just one more responsibility. The result was
lots and lots of poor quality content that
was never updated or reviewed.”
− Gerry McGovern, New Thinking

12. Ini<al Challenges
CMS Pains Dysfunctional
Structure
No Centralized
Web Team

13. Best of Both Worlds
¤ “A mix of the central and decentralized is often
optimal. The central team has core expertise
in web writing, navigation, search, while the
decentralized team contains the subject
matter experts...it is essential that they are
highly collaborative.”
− Gerry McGovern, New Thinking

14. From a Siloed CMS…

15. …To a Sharable PlaIorm

21. Targe<ng Key Content Developers and
Invi<ng Them to Collaborate

22. Invita<on to Collaborate
¤ Inclusive Process
¤ Transparency
¤ Targeting Admins, not Big-Wigs

24. Building a Community of Support
Among Content Developers Across
Departments and Disciplines

25. A Community of Support
¤ Community Grows
¤ Enthusiasm increased after migration project ended
¤ Eagerness to learn web skills

26. A Community of Support
¤ Community Grows
¤ Enthusiasm increased after migration project ended
¤ Eagerness to learn web skills
¤ Meeting Structure and Topics
¤ Best practices, tech skills
¤ Guest speakers
¤ Parties!

27. A Community of Support
¤ Community Grows
¤ Enthusiasm increased after migration project ended
¤ Eagerness to learn web skills
¤ Meeting Structure and Topics
¤ Best practices, tech skills
¤ Guest speakers
¤ Parties!
¤ WP Workshops

28. A Community of Support
¤ Community Grows
¤ Enthusiasm increased after migration project ended
¤ Eagerness to learn web skills
¤ Meeting Structure and Topics
¤ Best practices, tech skills
¤ Guest speakers
¤ Parties!
¤ WP Workshops
¤ Roundtable updates

29. What the Group Is Saying
¤ “When different of?ices know each other’s big
deadlines and basic ways of operating, every
one of us can far more effectively guide students
through the many steps they need to take to
succeed here. Particularly in Student Financial
Services, which strives to make a lot of complex
policies and information clear to others, we can
always use honest feedback and creative
ideas in seeking to improve.”

30. A Community of Support
¤ Community Grows
¤ Enthusiasm increased after migration project ended
¤ Eagerness to learn web skills
¤ Meeting Structure and Topics
¤ Best practices, tech skills
¤ Guest speakers
¤ Parties!
¤ WP Workshops
¤ Roundtable updates

31. A Community of Support
¤ Community Grows
¤ Enthusiasm increased after migration project ended
¤ Eagerness to learn web skills
¤ Meeting Structure and Topics
¤ Best practices, tech skills
¤ Guest speakers
¤ Parties!
¤ WP Workshops
¤ Roundtable updates
¤ Encouraging more participation

33. Listening and Focusing on
Accommoda<ng Each Member

34. Listen and Accommodate
¤ Take feedback to heart
¤ Be ?lexible and ready to shift priorities
¤ Slack!

38. Educa<ng and Suppor<ng Content
Developers Improves the En<re Site at
Every Level

39. What the Group Is Saying
¤ “The wall between our department and
theirs has been dissolved since we’ve
been coming to Colocation.”

40. Educa<on and Support Brings Change
¤ Dissolving department walls
¤ Users effect change upward
¤ Evangelists advocate for change and progress

41. Community Builds Strategy

42. What the Group Is Saying
¤ “Colocation has given me both the tools and
the relationships to understand so much
more about how I can best share information
as an HLS employee – with colleagues,
students, parents, and the general public
alike.”

43. What the Group Is Saying
¤ “I’m so grateful to have our weekly
Colocation meetings for facilitating useful
dialogue, consistent communication, and
ongoing WordPress training – it all makes a
difference for sure!”

44. Credit: Doc Searls, https://www.?lickr.com/photos/docsearls/5500714140/
Thank you!
Janell Sims, Harvard Law School
@janellsims