The document discusses a partnership between the City of Red Deer and Yellow Pencil to redesign the city's website. It describes the stages of the partnership from 2011 to 2014, including a strategic plan, website redesign, and 2014 launch. It also identifies factors that made the partnership successful, such as finding partners instead of vendors, separating strategic planning from discovery, being nimble, prioritizing training, establishing governance, and gaining executive support. The key message is that today's digital landscape demands new collaborative approaches to building municipal digital experiences.

1. (Web) Success in the City:
Collaborating to build a
better municipal experience
April 14, 2014

2. Nice to meet you
Carrie Keylock
Communications Consultant,
City of Red Deer

3. City of Red Deer

4. Nice to meet you
Alaine Mackenzie
Content strategist, Yellow Pencil

5. Yellow Pencil

6. Content strategy?
http://blog.braintraffic.com/2011/03/
brain_traffic_lands_quad/

7. Today’s web demands
a new way of working.
!
You can’t buy this change –
partner to build the team
and skills you need.

8. Today:
1. Our partnership
2. RedDeer.ca sneak peek
3. What made the difference?

10. YP + City of Red Deer
2011: Web strategic plan
2013: Website redesign
2014: Website launch, celebration!

12. What made the
difference?
Find partners, not vendors
Separate discovery and strategic planning
Be nimble
Train, don’t (just) do
Establish a governance structure
Get executive support

13. Find partners,
not vendors
Collaborate to find the best use
of people, time, and budget

16. Separate discovery and
strategic planning
Define your problems and goals before
you start a redesign project
Be more efficient once you start redesigning

17. Be nimble
Adjust as things change (because they do)
Your web partner can augment your resources

18. Train, don’t (just) do
Web writing training
CMS training
User testing
Rinse and repeat

19. Establish a
governance structure
Web content champions + web editors = success

20. Get executive support
Pull out the big guns – you’ll have to

21. In sum
Find partners, not vendors
Separate discovery and strategic planning
Be nimble
Train, don’t (just) do
Establish a governance structure
Get executive support

22. Today’s web demands
a new way of working.
!
You can’t buy this change –
partner to build the team
and skills you need.

23. Thank you.
Carrie Keylock
carrie.keylock@reddeer.ca
Alaine Mackenzie
alaine@yellowpencil.com
!
For more info: yellowpencil.com/cities