So, you say you want your customers to have an exceptional experience with your brand? Are you willing to pay the price? For a lot of organizations the answer is no. Despite all we talk about customer experience, we still want to keep the same work experience for ourselves. That means hoarding customer information and data in business silos in order to compete with neighboring business units; thinking about content as “our” content and “their” content. And, shamelessly participating in power struggles between Marketing, IT, and business units. Power struggles that manifest on websites and other digital channels as a disintegrated customer experience. In truth, you haven’t made the decision to change the way you do business internally, so your customers take the hit. Silo’d and debating business factions lead to a silo’d disintegrated experience. That’s probably not good for the bottom line either. You can change. And, it’s not as hard as you think. Lisa Welchman describes how to enhance teamwork around digital channels through effective governance, and discusses the collaboration challenges inherent in creating an effective online presence. This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 2, 2015.

1. Us or Them?
Who Wins the Customer Experience Tug of War?
Lisa Welchman
@lwelchman

2. today

3. the answer to scalable collaboration is standards.

4. many people believe that if
they work within a standards-
based framework, they will be
unable to invent or innovate.

5. that’s not true.

6. speech

7. talking drums

8. music

9. moveable type
a revolving typecase for wooden
type in China, from Wang Zhen's
book published in 1313

10. metal moveable type

11. telephony

12. typewriters

13. telegraphy

14. radio

15. television

16. punch cards

17. personal computers

18. all of these thing operate over a standards-based framework.
that’s what made them revolutionary, disruptive, and powerful.

19. our world

20. the Internet and Web impact all that has come before
and enables things to happen that we’ve never dreamed of

21. if we try to grow without
standards, we are likely to
make a mess

22. we’ve absorbed these types of disruptions before.

23. Western Union
internal memo,
1876
"This 'telephone' has too
many shortcomings to be
seriously considered as a
means of
communication. The
device is inherently of no
value to us.”

24. “…the Department of Commerce became worried that too many
stations -- especially amateur and experimental -- were making
broadcasts intended for the general public, and, effective
December 1, 1921, adopted regulations which restricted public
broadcasting to stations which met the standards of a newly
created broadcast service classification.”
US Early Radio History
– Thomas H. White

25. “The time will come, and in less than 10
years, when the children in the public
schools will be taught practically
everything by moving
pictures…Imagine a public library of the
near future, for instance. There will be
long rows of boxes of pillars, properly
classified and indexed, of course. At
each box a push button and before
each box a seat.”
The New York Times, from an interview with D.
W. Griffith - 1915

26. standardization and regulation is the norm.
the question is when are standards determined, by
whom, and to what end?

27. governance maturity

28. policy
guidance about
governance

29. making a governing framework
1. organize your team
2. figure out who is supposed to establish the vision
and enable the organization to achieve that vision
3. determine who decides the must do’s and must not
do’s for online behavior
4. establish who decides the nature of the things you
make for your digital presence

30. this is your team
Extended Team
Working Groups & Committees
Distributed Team
Core Team
your digital team is the full
set of resources required to
keep your digital presence
functioning for your
organization

31. your team
Extended Team
Working Groups & Committees
Distributed Team
Core Team
core:
the part of the
organization that
establishes strategy,
policy and standards
distributed:
employees that make
websites, mobile
applications, and
moderate social
channels
working
groups/committees:
strategic and tactical
steering and working
bodies that enable digital
development and
operations
extended:
external vendors that
support digital
development in any
capacity

32. digital strategy
articulates an
organization’s approach
to leveraging the
capabilities of the Internet
and the World Wide Web
to support organizational
goals.

33. digital policy
high level statements of
beliefs, goals, and
objectives in order to
comply with laws, manage
risk, or drive competitive
advantage

34. digital standards
formal specifications that
guide what is to be done
in regards to aspects of
digital publication and
development.
•Tools
•Protocols
•Information
Access
•Hosting
•Security
•Software
•Hardware
•Branding
•Content
•Language
•Typography &
Color
•Images
•Templates
Design Editorial
Publishing &
Development
Network &
Infrastructure

35. freedom of expression within a standards-based
framework is the most powerful – not the ability to do
whatever you want, whenever you want.

36. “I call our remarkable capacity for
sharing information “collective
learning.” While other intelligent
species, such as chimps, learn for the
most part as individuals, so that most of
what they learn dies with them, we
learn collectively, so that what we
learn is preserved in the community
and can accumulate from generation
to generation.”
– David Christian

37. thank you
@lwelchman
book: digitalgoverance.com
twitter: @lwelchman
email: lisa@activestandards.com