Modern product development (especially in the software industry) is a faster-paced and more iterative process than ever before. In business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets, globalization puts added pressures on innovation and the ability to give specific audiences the customer experience they are after. Using both theory and case studies, this presentation will address ways of increasing the customer experience by: Being the user advocate in product design for a more consistent, streamlined user experience. Ensuring your content management process can handle the future of content delivery, embedded User Assistance (eUA) and dynamic, multi-device, mobile-ready content experiences. Using tech comm to bridge development, support and content by soliciting and actioning customer feedback. Structuring for success in the face of diversifying, accelerating product development requirements with topic-based authoring, structure, metadata and content management.

1. Giving Customers What They
Want
Integrating Content in the
Customer Lifecycle
Noz Urbina
noz.urbina@mekon.com
@nozurbina

2. Me & Mekon
• Consultant, Trainer,
Author
– Content strategy,
TechComms focus
– Mekon 20 years, me 10
years, in content and mark-
up
– Small-to-medium-to-huge
enterprises globally
• Chairperson for Congility
Events (congility.com)
– Today‟s Content Needs
Agility

4. Teaser
This deck contains a bat-eared fox
...with good advice for you

5. Agenda
~ The TechComm raison d'être
~ LifeCycles
~ Why integrate?
– The future revisited
– eUA
~ Why not?
~ Doing it

7. A TechComm Content Strategy
“Making accurate, best-in-class manuals, help and tutorials
available to our clients in the format of their choosing.”
Blech. It‟s not about manuals, single sourcing or
even content
“Transfer contextually relevant product knowledge to staff
and customers such that we increasing customer
satisfaction and drive repeat business”

8. A TechComm Content Strategy
~ Increase profit margins by increased
efficiency...
~ Raise brand profile by publishing our
content online...
~ Drive revenues by streamlining access to
appropriate content in the pre and post-
sales phases...

10. The Pac-Man Customer (Simple)

11. Complex

12. Deliverables > Customer LifeCycle
Customer
Unaware Recognition Relevance Education Comparison Selection Purchase Support
Product video
Brochure
Related product
information
Case Studies
Whitepaper /
blog articles
App note
User manual
FAQ
Prod selection
tool
How to
Programming
Reference

13. Lifecycle

17. Thoughts
~ Device manufacturers are tripping over
each other to be the first to usher in the
new “killer device” that changes the
content consumption landscape
~ It might be a new device, or a combination
of devices brought together to deliver new
experiences

20. Users expect more

21. eUA, EmHelp, UAP, mini-help
~ Terminology seems to be evolving
~ Integral part of the application
– Still owned by the authors
~ Minimalism is King
– Limited real estate
– Consumed at a glance (then back to work)
~ Pop-ups are evil(?)
– Scratching the surface of eUA
– It‟s NOT Clippy

22. Canon Printer eUA
~ When my printer errors, it asks me if it can send
my data to the manufacturer to send m e the
latest, greatest content from their servers
– Errors link directly to the trouble-shooting task and
navigate for me to the right content
– I can build up „my manual‟ of my favourite topics
~ (Key tasks appear with animations on the printer
itself)

23. Over the consent wall

25. Ableton Live
~ Ableton Live delivers two types of
embedded help
~ 3rd parties have built iPad interfaces,
meaning you can simultaneously control
Ableton‟s software from the iPad and/or the
PC

26. Ableton Live

27. And so on...

29. Benefits of eUA
Why is it better than PDF, Tripane or Context sensitive Help?
~ Doesn‟t break user context
– Proactive in giving help
– Not waiting for frustrated user
~ Speed
– Your software or device is to help them do their day job
~ Learning tool
– For users and for you!

31. Silos
The business has silos.
The business is a silo.

32. Silos in the Organisation
Customer Needs

33. Business Unit Silos
Customer Needs

34. Silos in the SME Departments
SME‟s say: “Find a
good piece of
content and grab it!
You might never see
it again!”

35. Silos Have Different...
~ Budgets
~ Managers
~ Editing Tools
~ Formats
~ Repositories
~ Cultures
~ Countries?
~ Languages? Business Units?

37. Do it
~ Map the customer journey
~ Map the content model and assets to the journey
~ Gap analysis
~ Build a (modular) model to address gaps
~ Build cross-silo strategy to fill
– Information architecture & taxonomy standards / process:
~ Cross-functional scrums?
~ Embedded UA?
~ Support/Training mapping etc?
~ Establish non-partisan „Content Standards Board‟
~ Governance suffers from silos

38. Repurposing with content curation
Original Flow

39. Content curation and reuse
~ Content curation is reusing content for new
aims
~ Sometimes it can be automated, sometimes
can be hand-curated
~ If your content is intelligent, you can use
existing assets to tell new stories, anywhere

40. Curation-ready content
~ Must be defined and sold differently for different
silos and audiences
~ Content Strategy driven by formal user and task
analysis and corporate goals
~ Format neutral , not proprietary(DITA, XML)
~ Repository that supports structured content
modules
~ Delivery platforms that support content queries

41. Content > Development LifeCycle
M0 M1 M2 M3 M... Launch
Market
Requirements
Initial
Specifications
Development
Specifications
Test Specs
UI Strings
User Manuals
Sales Materials
Marketing
Materials
“Other DB”
...

42. Layers of Standardisation and Reuse
~ Some
standards are
company-wide,
some are local
~ Assets =
– Content
– Templates
– Multimedia
– Guidelines
– (Tools?)

43. Take-aways
~ There isn‟t one standard that will work for the whole
enterprise
~ It‟s vital to map to the internal and external process, then
standardise on what‟s best for the business need
– Don‟t chase the “one standard to rule them all”. Something
things, like terms, should be globally standard. Other assets
might be more local.
~ Content needs to be tool agnostic, but each tool can then
apply its formatting specifics

47. Software Process Integration
~ Benefits
– A variety of viewpoints integrated to
make the product better
– User Assistance avoided last minute
surprises and ‟just before launch‟
crunches
~ Even if last-minute changes were
made, UA already had the majority of
the work done
– Percentage of UA time spent writing
went down
~ More time on reviews, but were
needing to write less because the
interface required less documentation

48. Software Process Integration
~ “Documentation was a 2-way
communication tool with customers”
– Commenting on the documentation and
product in the supported in contexual help
~ Future plans to support:
– Recorded training access
– Proprietary social network access
– Log support tickets (implementation status
unknown)

50. Duplicated: “What is it?”
“Show/Hide”
- “What is it?” and/or
- “Showing/hiding it”
Also reused in
10 other lessons
+ manual 10 other lessons
+ UI eUA itself + manual
= 13 instances
= 13 instances

51. Manual Only
What is it?
Show/hide Instructions
(Can show image or
<desc> text depending
on output context)
Manual Only

52. Reuse means:
- Write once
- Translate once
- Approve once
- Pay for once

53. Final Take-Aways
~ The customer doesn‟t care about the org chart
– They just want their answer so they can get move on
~ We are responsible for the whole CX
~ Communication of knowledge is the focus, the
deliverables are a means to an end
– Focus on task-oriented content services and
applications
– Your content exists to support their tasks

54. Final Take-Aways
~ The content strategist is often
the consultant that aligns the
planets so greatness can
happen
~ Our competitors are starting to
work this way, even if we‟re not

55. Listen to your customers!
Thank you!