aka How to Get Everything You Need from Excel for web content projects presented by Sarah Beckley at LavaCon Portland, 2012.

1. The Content Matrix:
Quantitative and Qualitative Metrics to
Power Business Decisions
Presented by Sarah Beckley
Content Strategy Workshops
October 10, 2012

2. ME: Sarah Beckley
• Senior Content Strategist at Razorfish
• Formerly of Manifest Digital, Ogilvy, DDB, and
VSA Partners
• Six years as an “official” content strategist
• 15 years in content (print/web) plus some IT
• Specialize in financial services and online apps
• Sub-niche: embedded help/training
Page 2 © 2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

3. RAZORFISH
• 3rd largest US digital agency
• 4th on Ad Age’s Agency A-List
• 300+ staff in Chicago
• 2,500+ staff worldwide
• Owned by Publicis
• One of Forbes’ Top 100 Global
Ad Agencies That Know Social
Media and Google
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4. AGENDA
• What You’ll Learn Today
• The What/Why/When of Matrices
• A Matrix Methodology
• Matrix Challenges
• Summary
• Resources
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5. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN TODAY
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6. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN TODAY
• A repeatable methodology to create powerful
matrices to help you and your stakeholders make
better business decisions around content
• Methods for automating/accelerating Excel
• A zip file of the templates we cover today
• What we’re not going to cover:
• How to turn a matrix into C-suite consumables
Page 6 © 2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

7. THE WHAT/WHY/WHEN OF MATRICES
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8. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CONTENT MATRIX?
• It is what we make it
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9. WHY DO I NEED A CONTENT MATRIX?
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10. WHEN DO YOU USE A CONTENT MATRIX?
• Any time you need to understand your content
• Structure unstructured content
• Whenever you need a:
• Content inventory
• audit/assessment
• Gap analysis
• Migration plan
• Content development tracking
• Capture any data about content
“A superficial understanding of content isn’t going to cut it
anymore.” -Rachel Lovinger
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11. WHEN BY PROJECT PHASE
• Discovery: inventory, audit, gap analysis
• Design: site map, content model
• Develop: page templates, tracking
• Deploy: migration plans
• Govern: metadata, taxonomy
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12. WHEN DON’T YOU USE A CONTENT MATRIX?
• Your CMS can produce all the reports you need
• Your company uses automated inventory tools
• But you may still be validating both of those, which were probably
exported into Excel or a proprietary spreadsheet
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13. A MATRIX METHODOLOGY
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14. A MATRIX METHODOLOGY: Part 1
• Discover
• Plan for the handoff; consider the entire project lifecycle’s needs
• Matrix goals: audit, gap, migration, content dev. tracking
• Client needs: offshore developers, reviewers, legal tracking
• Can one matrix rule them all?
• Define
• Outputs: audit findings, site map, CMS import
• Matrix audience(s): content owners, SMEs, legal, developers
• Required fields: page name, url, content type, reviewer, template
Page 14 © 2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

15. A MATRIX METHODOLOGY: Part 2
• Design
• What can you automate or accelerate?
• Create filters, formulas, macros, and/or pivot tables
• Test your design: is it client proof?
• Format for ease of use and readability
• Assign numerical values when appropriate
• Deploy
• Socialize, socialize, socialize
• Morph matrix to accommodate project needs
Page 15 © 2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

16. SAMPLE MATRIX INPUTS
• Content
• Text, images, whole Word docs
• Metadata
• Structural, admin, descriptive, 508(c)
• Reviewers
• Legal, lines of business SMEs
• Status
• With business, with legal
• Ratings
• Brand, accessible, tagged
Page 16 © 2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

17. CONSIDER MATRIX STAKEHOLDERS
• If anyone on the client-side is going to see the
matrix, socialization is essential
• Include key stakeholders in Discover and Define
• Socialize matrix with extended team in Deploy
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18. ACCELERATOR: FILTERS
• Sort matrix on one or more fields
• Find content (values)
• Slight overlap with value formulas
• Turns spreadsheet into a table on a Mac
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19. ACCELERATOR: VALUE FORMULAS
• Excel formula that references textual cell content
• “Data mine” content
• Gather quantitative data
- Search and sum keywords, content types,
templates, etc.
• Aggregate values for audit/gap analysis
• Use Conditional Formatting formulas to highlight
key content
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20. ACCELERATOR: MACROS
• Automates repetitive tasks, including formatting
• Reduces time to create inventories or parse large
spreadsheets
• Don’t need to code to create macros
• Easier to create than you think
• Tip: Tools> Macro> Security: set it to medium or
low or macros blocked due to virus risk
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21. ACCELERATOR: PIVOT TABLES
• Create “sub” matrix from original with a subset of
the content/data
• Great for special audiences and audits
• Gather detailed stats quickly
• E.g., How many pages in each category use a particular template?
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22. WHEN TO USE PIVOT vs. MACRO
• Pivot tables summarize and highlight values
• How many instances of “purple” appear in Section 5?
• Identify all uses of the brand name in the red template
• Custom filters can duplicate some pivot table functions
• Macros automate actions
• Hide and unhide rows or columns
• Add or remove formatting
• Copy and paste content
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23. CHALLENGES
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24. CHALLENGE: MAPPING CONTENT
• Auto quote content needs to map to Business
Requirements, Wireframes, and include Standard
Path, Alternate Path, plus Help copy
• Content in both wireframes and copy deck
• How do you map your content (in the matrix) to
multiple deliverables?

25. SOLUTION: COLOR CODE AND TRACK
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26. CHALLENGE: MANUAL INVENTORY
• Non-profit needs a content inventory
• Small project (~500 pages)
• Or sample-size inventory of larger site
• What inputs do you need?
• Can you automate it? How?
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27. SOLUTION: Inventory with macro
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28. INVENTORY MACRO
• Demo of Content Inventory Macro.xlsm
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29. CHALLENGE: CONTENT AUDIT
• Large site with many SMEs
• Need to evaluate content for quality
• Client has politically sensitive content
• Can you quantify quality?
• What inputs do you need?
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30. SOLUTION: QUANTIFIED RATINGS AUDIT
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31. CHALLENGE: MULTIPLE AUDIENCES
• Insurance company wants one matrix for the auto
quote authors, legal, developers, and marketing
• Different views needed across audiences
• Large volume of content
• How can you accommodate everyone without
every audience seeing all content?
Page 32 © 2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

32. SOLUTION: AUDIENCE MACRO
• More features than filters, but sometimes fragile
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33. CHALLENGE: MULTIPLE VERSIONS
• National company’s product varies by state
due to legal requirements
• How do you track the content variances?
• Can you automate it?
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34. SOLUTION: VARIATIONS MACRO
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35. CHALLENGE: MATRIX-SHY REVIEWERS
• Company stakeholders refuse to review a
“regular” matrix
• Many reviewers, little collaboration between them
• Client won’t consolidate review feedback
• How can you get good feedback and automate
feedback consolidation?
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36. SOLUTION: DYNAMIC PROTOTYPE
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37. CHALLENGE: THE DEVELOPER VERSION
• Bank is handing off content to offshore
developers and it must map to the page template
• Content editing and delivery must be in a matrix
• Copy has long and short content blocks
• Must map to other deliverables
• How do you deliver this content?
Page 38 © 2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

38. SOLUTION: GET GRANULAR
Bank Bank
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Ban
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aBan B
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k
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39. SOLUTION: EMBED WORD FILES
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40. DON’T LET I.T. CREATE THE MATRIX
Bank
Bank Bank
Bank
Bank
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41. SUMMARY
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42. A MATRIX METHODOLOGY
• Discover: what is the desired end result?
• Define: what/who are the inputs and audience?
• Design: Build in accelerators and automation
• Deploy: Socialize and tweak
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43. RESOURCES
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44. RESOURCES: FREE TEMPLATES
• KPN: kevinpnichols.com
• Intentional Design (Rahel Bailie)
• Google Knoll
• Web Content Strategist’s Bible (book is not free)
• CMS Consultants
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45. RESOURCES: EXCEL MASTERY
• Excel Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools by
David E. Hawley, O’Reilly
• Excel Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things
about Your Favorite Spreadsheet by Curtis Frye, O’Reilly
Publishers
• “Become Awesome in Excel”
• Count (value) formulas
• Learn VBA
• Excel macros video
• Filter intro; Custom filters
• Pivot tables video
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46. RESOURCES: AUTOMATED INVENTORY
• XML SiteMaps
• Snap Sitemap
• CAT Content Analysis Tool
• Website Auditor
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47. THANK YOU!
• Questions?
• Info:
• @sarahbeckley
• Sarah.Beckley@razorfish.com
• Linkedin/in/sarahbeckley
• www.razorfish.com
Page 48 © 2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.