The Solution

The energy company engaged Enterprise Knowledge (EK) over a 3.5-month time period to refine their product roadmaps and align and combine them into a unified 5-year roadmap for the entire portfolio. In addition, the company tasked EK with developing a supplemental landscape design diagram to visualize the information management team’s technical scope to strengthen the delivery per product and value to the company.

EK began by analyzing existing roadmaps and reviewing them with the product managers, identifying the target state for each. We facilitated multiple knowledge gathering sessions, conducted system demos, and analyzed relevant content items to understand the strengths, challenges, and scope of each product area, as well as the portfolio as a whole.

EK then provided recommendations for additional tasks to fill observed gaps and opportunities to consolidate overlap, aligning the roadmaps across 5 recommended KM workstreams:

• Findability & Search Insights: Provide the business with the ability to find and discover the right information at the time of need.
• Graph Modeling: Develop a graph model to power search, analytics, recommendations and more for the IM team.
• Content & Process Governance: Establish and maintain content, information, and data governance across the company to support reuse and standardization.
• Security & Access Management: Support the business in complying with regulatory requirements and security considerations to safeguard all IM information assets.
• Communications & Adoption: Establish consistent processes and methods to support communication with the business and promote the adoption of new tools/capabilities.

To strengthen and connect the organization’s AI strategy, EK threaded automation throughout and incorporated it within each workstream wherever possible and/or feasible. The goal of this was to improve business efficiency and productivity, as well as to move the team one step closer to making IM “invisible.” Each task was also assigned a type (foundational, MVP, enhancement, operational support), level of effort (low, medium, high), business value (1 (low) to 5 (high) on a Likert scale), and ownership (portfolio vs. individual products). EK marked which tasks already existed in the product roadmaps and which ones were newly recommended to supplement them. By mapping the tasks to the 5 workstreams in both a visual roadmap diagram and an accompanying spreadsheet, the IM team was able to see where tasks were dependent on each other and where overlap was occurring across the portfolio.

An abstracted view of one task from each product’s roadmap, demonstrating how the task type and prioritization factors were assigned for readability.

Additionally, as supplemental material to the roadmaps, EK developed a diagram to visualize the team’s technical landscape and provide a reference point for connections between tools and capabilities within the portfolio and the company’s environment, as well as to show dependencies between the products as mapped to EK’s industry standard framework (including layers encompassing user interaction, findability and metadata, and governance and maintenance). The diagram delineated between existing applications and platforms, planned capabilities that haven’t been put in place yet, and recommended capabilities that correspond to EK’s suggested future state tasks from the roadmaps, and clearly marked AI-powered/-assisted capabilities.

 

 

The EK Difference

Throughout the engagement, time with stakeholders was difficult to find. To make sure we were able to engage the right stakeholders, EK developed a 15-minute “roadshow” and interview structure with targeted questions to optimize the time we were able to schedule with participants all across the globe. Our client team praised this during project closeout, claiming that the novel approach enabled more individuals with influence to get in the room with EK, generating more organic awareness of and excitement for the roadmap solutions.

Another key ingredient EK brought to the table was our expertise and insight into AI solutioning, tech and market trends, and success stories from other companies in the energy industry. We injected AI and other automation into the roadmaps wherever we identified the opportunity – prioritizing a strategy that focused on secure and responsible AI solutions, data preparedness, and long-term governance – and were even able to recommend a backlog of 10 unique pilots (with varying levels of automation, depending on the targeted subject and product area) to help the company determine their next steps.

 

The Results

As a result of our road mapping alignment efforts with the IM team, each product manager now has more visibility into what the other products are doing and where they may overlap with, complement, or depend on their own efforts, enabling them to better plan for the future. The Unified Portfolio Roadmap, spanning 5 years, provides the energy company with a single, aligned view of all IM initiatives, accompanied by four Product Roadmaps and a Technical Landscape Diagram, and establishes a balance between internal business demand, external technologies, strategic AI, and best-in-class industry developments.

The energy company also chose to implement two of the pilots EK had recommended – focused on reducing carbon emissions through AI-assisted content deduplication and developing a marketing package to promote their internal business management system – to begin operationalizing their roadmaps immediately.

 

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In this presentation, Majumder and Spoelker explored how a large supply chain organization implemented green information management best practices to support their sustainability goals, showcasing a hybrid AI framework combining heuristic and LLM-based approaches to effectively analyze and reduce duplicate content across enterprise repositories at scale. They demonstrated the environmental benefits of reducing duplicate content, focusing on carbon footprint reduction, and addressed how this information ultimately pushes for a cultural shift among employees to want to contribute to greener information management within their organizations.

Participants in this session gained insights into:

• What “green” information management means;
• The practical implementation of AI-driven content analysis frameworks;
• The environmental impact of effective data management, and the importance of integrating ESG goals into information management strategies; and
• How modern AI techniques can transform their enterprise’s data practices and support a sustainable future.

The post Hybrid Approaches to Green Information Management: A Case Study appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

The webinar is being hosted by Semantic Web Company. Held on May 19th at 11am EST, the 1-hour webinar will include a presentation of Enterprise 360 by Andreas Blumauer, CEO Semantic Web Company, followed by a panel discussion with Wahl and Florian Bauer, CSO of Semantic Web Company.

With the help of graphs, information from all data silos can be linked together, and this can be done in an efficient and agile manner without having to drastically change existing systems and workflows. Knowledge graphs span an umbrella over all data and reduce the semantic gaps between all the languages and data models that HR (Employee 360), product managers (Product 360), sales teams (Customer 360) and marketing (Market 360) develop and use over time.

For more information and to register, follow the link. https://www.poolparty.biz/events/the-key-to-successful-digital-transformation 

The post Wahl Speaking on Enterprise 360 Panel appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

One way we do this at EK is by defining a series of pilots, which are limited-scope efforts, focused on quickly demonstrating value to organizational stakeholders by solving targeted issues and exploring new technologies and practices. Each pilot is intended to validate that the KM Strategy approach we’ve developed will work for the organization and to determine how that pilot can be scaled. These pilots also serve to drive incremental change and excitement for “what could be.” This exercise in defining pilots begs the question though, “How do we know where to get started?” 

Here are 6 questions that help us determine the best approach for an organization to start their KM transformation. 

1. Where is the low-hanging fruit?

A commonly used metaphor, what I mean by “low-hanging fruit” is that we’re looking to identify the simplest activity to implement within an organization that will produce immediate, tangible value. What this means from a practical standpoint  is that the pilot has a low-level of complexity. There are a few ways to judge this:

• The pilot is able to be conducted using solely the internal expertise and experience of the organization’s staff. In this scenario, no external subject matter expertise or consultancy is required. The organization can get started today with the skills and competencies they have in house.
• The pilot involves one department (or business area) or up to two closely-aligned departments. Scoping the pilot to one or two departments allows an organization to test a methodology or process within a specific function before it’s adapted and scaled for the enterprise’s benefit. 
• The pilot is building off and enhancing a pre-existing technology or practice. We’re always looking for examples of “good KM” when we’re conducting our Current State Assessments because we know that there are strengths that can be leveraged. Some of our pilots do just that – they improve something that is already in place that has the potential to be transformative if modified or if the right incentives are in place to increase adoption.

2. What does the organization care about, and what would get them excited?

At the onset of a KM Strategy project, we ask staff at different levels of the organization, “If you had easier access to the people and information you need to effectively execute your daily tasks and responsibilities, what would that mean for you? How would that help you be successful?” Ultimately, we’re trying to understand the downstream effects and business value of KM for the organization. 

In every organization, the downstream impacts and business value of KM can vary depending on the teams and departments whose insights are being solicited. For those in Sales roles, for example, it could be access to accurate, current, and competitive market information that is going to help them pursue and close sales deals. For those in Customer Service positions, it could be having the ability to find customer and account information to provide the right level of service to customers based on what the organization has done for them in the past. For other organizations, it’s ensuring continuity of operations by ensuring that knowledge does not walk out the door when their employees leave or retire. 

It’s these value statements that help us think through what pilots can serve to further these goals:

• Does the organization need a pilot around content clean-up to ensure that when people do come across information, they have confidence that it’s up-to-date and accurate, and they can use it to take action or make a decision?
• Could we come up with a pilot that helps to define what customer-facing staff would want to see when searching for past information on customers and accounts? 
• Do we need to consider a pilot around experimenting with knowledge transfer techniques to support colleagues in sharing what they know throughout their tenure with an organization?

My colleague, Mary Little, discusses the importance of aligning KM with your organization’s strategic goals and this can start as early as the pilot definition phase. 

3. Who is interested in being an early adopter of KM, or is equipped with the capabilities and resources to support a pilot immediately?

If we’re conducting an KM Strategy project at the enterprise level, we always ask to speak with staff who represent different functions and departments with the organization. We do this for a variety of reasons, one being that it helps us understand those pockets within the organization that are acutely experiencing a KM challenge and who are eager to see change. This approach not only helps us brainstorm options for what recommendations and pilots we will define for the organization, but it also helps us identify who might want to be a part of a pilot. Identifying early adopters in the form of a department, group, or team helps the organization drive interest in and momentum for its KM initiatives. This is critical for the long-term adoption and sustainability of a holistic KM program, which will be focused on solving different challenges over time and necessitate changes in how people work. 

Another angle to consider is whether there is a department or group who has the capabilities and resources needed to support a pilot immediately. Part of this involves exploring what skill sets will be needed to perform associated responsibilities and whether the organization can draw on current employees with specific expertise to support the implementation of a pilot. Conversely, it is also important to gain an understanding of an organization’s internal processes around approving funding for projects. It can be beneficial to have these conversations to determine whether departments have their own pool of funding to use at their discretion or whether projects have to go through a more formal review process that happens at different intervals throughout the year.  

4. Is there an existing organizational initiative that we can align a KM pilot to?

In developing a KM Strategy, we look at five different dimensions within an organization: People, Process, Content, Culture, and Technology. Because we’re looking across these dimensions, we often hear about other initiatives that are going on in the organization. We love to hear about these because they can be tangential to what we’re doing and there are opportunities for alignment. In the past, these tangential initiatives have taken the form of:

• Data inventory and governance efforts.
• Enterprise search projects.
• Process improvement efforts.
• Initiatives to consolidate content management or customer relationship management systems.  
• Records management implementations.
• Selection and implementation of a learning management system. 
• Sunsetting legacy knowledge repositories and related content migration efforts.

Just as it can be easier to secure support for a pilot if it’s tied to an organization’s strategic objective, it can be easier to secure support for a pilot if you can communicate how it will support the success of another initiative. By aligning a KM pilot to another relevant initiative, you’re helping to ensure the maximal effectiveness of both.

5. How many people will the proposed pilot impact?

In considering what pilots we recommend prioritizing as part of a KM transformation, we’re thinking about what is going to drive the biggest return on investment. Part of that has to do with how many people will be affected by the proposed change. Early on in our KM Strategy engagements, we request an overview of our client’s organizational structure, their departments, and which departments have interdependencies. This gives us a sense of how big the departments are in relation to each other and which work closely with one another. In return, as we conduct interviews, focus groups, and workshops, we start to understand the degree to which staff are experiencing similar KM challenges regardless of where they sit in the organization, and which KM challenges are most pressing. Armed with this information, we can think through how to prioritize our pilots based on how many people it will impact positively. These pilots often end up being holistic efforts that will benefit all departments over time, as they are scaled. 

6. How foundational is the pilot?

When developing pilots and recommendations, we are also outlining a roadmap across which these can take place. Our roadmaps span different timeframes based on an organization’s needs and resources, but they can include both “foundational” and “advanced” pilots. A foundational pilot is one that helps establish the success of subsequent efforts in the roadmap. This could include, for example, developing metrics to monitor the success of KM pilots, enable alignment across different initiatives, and allow the organization to make data-driving decisions on how to adapt its KM Strategy, as needed. We may also include, if the organization is ready, advanced pilots that lay the groundwork for AI applications – for example, developing a knowledge graph to connect and show meaningful relationships between data regardless of where it is located. While the advanced pilots can sometimes be more “exciting” work, we want to ensure an organization is laying the foundation to explore advanced AI capabilities in the right way and in a way that will be scalable and sustainable. Prioritizing foundational pilots on your organization’s KM Strategy Roadmap is essential to building that infrastructure.

Closing

Regardless of how big your company is, how many millions of documents your organization might maintain, or how widely disparate the processes are between staff to capture critical information, we know it can be overwhelming to contemplate the question “Where do we start?” But it doesn’t have to be. We’re here to help! Contact Us at Enterprise Knowledge to navigate this ambiguity and jump start your KM transformation.  

The post 6 Questions to Help Determine Where to Start Your KM Transformation appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

The Solution

Enterprise Knowledge (EK) partnered with the organization to assess the current and target state of their KM priorities, practices, and technology and subsequently designed a strategy and three-year roadmap to help the organization achieve their desired KM maturity. EK leveraged a hybrid, top-down, bottom-up approach to assess and benchmark the organization’s current state of KM using EK’s proprietary maturity benchmark. After defining the current and target state, EK developed a fully customized, iterative, task-based three year roadmap for the organization to achieve their target state. As part of the initiative, EK defined personas, pictured below, that represent user groups at the organization for which we defined the strategy for, in order to address their main needs and pain points. 

In addition to providing the organization with the assessment and strategy and leveraging the aforementioned information gathering activities, EK implemented quick search enhancements to help the organization optimize the use of their existing search tools. Finally, EK provided the organization with a content inventory and clean-up plan, content tagging plan, and content type design to equip the organization with the foundational elements to improve the state of their content creation, tagging, and overall management, as well as enable optimized use of the AWS Cloud platform. 

The EK Difference

Using a hybrid analysis approach, consisting of a combination of user-driven research (facilitated workshops, focus groups, and interviews) and technology-driven research (in-depth analysis of the existing technology and existing content), EK captured the current state of KM leveraging our proprietary benchmark of over 40 factors to fully assess and understand the comprehensive KM landscape across five key workstreams: people, processes, content, culture, and technology. EK ensured that the strategic recommendations resulting from these activities were aligned with organizational goals and priorities. Additionally, EK leveraged our extensive experience designing and implementing customized search solutions for organizations with similar business and content needs to deliver quick enhancements to their enterprise search design and provide actionable results. 

The Results

As a result of this effort, the organization was able to build upon the foundational elements required to ensure that the migration of their content to the AWS Cloud results in: 

• Improved content management processes to help standardize and streamline content management processes, including clearly defined content types, a well-designed business taxonomy, and a robust content clean-up approach;
• Enhanced access to the most relevant, up-to-date content;
• Well-defined processes to both consistently and efficiently create maintain, and evolve content, as well as capture, preserve, and share key organizational knowledge that the organization was at risk of losing; and
• Ongoing optimization and governance plan for technologies and tools that best support content management, document management, collaboration, and search across the organization in the long-term. 

The organization now possesses a detailed, dynamic, and innovative plan to transform the organization’s content management processes, knowledge sharing and transfer, and technical stack in order to mature the way they generate, manage, find, and share information. 

A-Knowledge-and-Information-Management-Strategy-that-Optimizes-Cloud-Migration-for-a-Legal-InstituteDownload

The post A Knowledge and Information Management Strategy that Optimizes Cloud Migration for a Legal Institute appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

Applying any of the principles identified in the above infographic can upgrade your search strategy to a future-ready, semantic experience. Whether you think your search needs a simple update or is ready for a serious upgrade, we can help. EK offers a range of search-specific services that will produce actionable recommendations. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

The post The 5 Key Components of a Semantic Search Experience appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

On September 10th, EK CEO Zach Wahl will join a panel of experts to share expertise and trends on the Power of Knowledge Graphs and AI. The discussion will focus on how organizations across industries are using knowledge graphs to deliver intuitive search results and personalized experiences and recommenders to deliver new insights that drive business results. The panel will also provide concrete recommendations regarding the outlook for knowledge graphs that serve as the foundation to develop robust AI applications. 

On September 9th, Lulit Tesfaye, EK’s Practice Lead for Data and Information Management, will share relevant experiences and case studies on how enterprise knowledge graphs play a fundamental role in complementing traditional information models and how they provide the architecture to bridge the gap between unstructured and structured data, laying the foundation for the next generation of knowledge management leveraging a fusion of AI recommendation, analytics, and question-answering machines. 

EK will also be participating in the Sponsors Exhibition on the 10th and 11th of September at the Karlsruhe Gartenhalle. EK will showcase real-world use cases and case studies to demonstrate the value and application of semantic solutions and enterprise knowledge graphs.  

About the SEMANTiCS Conference 

SEMANTiCS is an established knowledge hub where technology professionals, industry experts, researchers and decision makers can learn about new technologies, innovations and enterprise implementations in the fields of Linked Data and Semantic AI. Since 2005, the conference series has focused on semantic technologies, which are today together with other methodologies such as NLP and machine learning the core of intelligent systems. The conference highlights the benefits of standards-based approaches.

To learn more and register for the event, visit: https://2019.semantics.cc/conference.

The post Enterprise Knowledge Sponsoring and Speaking at SEMANTiCS Conference 2019 appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

As I will discuss in my next blog, the best way to ensure that the “know-how” of your organization is captured and disseminated effectively is to build and sustain a culture of knowledge sharing. A knowledge sharing culture enables knowledge transfers to occur frequently and instinctively by people across an organization, avoiding the need for formalized transfers at the point when information is at risk of being lost. Having said this, if your organization is at a crisis point and needs an immediate solution to its knowledge management challenges, then the best starting point is to implement the most crucial components of a knowledge transfer. Below, I share my top five tips for a successful knowledge transfer during times of chaos, crisis, or rapid change.

TIP #1: ENCOURAGE EMPLOYEE BUY-IN AND HAVE LEADERSHIP SET THE TONE.

When a knowledge transfer effort is not delivered with the proper messaging, it is easy for employees to view the process as creating additional work, rather than creating value. This is particularly true when sharing knowledge is viewed as relinquishing one’s power or expertise within an organization, in other words, “If I am not the primary holder of this knowledge, then I will not receive recognition or rewards.” 

For this reason, it is vital that leaders of an organization provide their employees with context about a knowledge transfer and keep them feeling included in the process. This involves openly sharing the processes that will occur throughout the engagement, conveying short-term and long-term goals, identifying required resources and tools, and making it clear that leaders are also contributing to and investing in the effort. For example, EK previously worked with a client’s leadership team to develop a communications plan that outlined how they would introduce and continuously communicate the steps and level of effort involved in accomplishing their knowledge transfer goals. This involved EK facilitating a workshop for the client’s core team members that demonstrated the need and value of a knowledge transfer and concluded in the development of a consensus-driven roadmap that denoted major action items, timelines, and team involvement. Ultimately, the key is to unite the members of the organization and show their efforts and knowledge as contributing to a mutually beneficial end-goal.

Similar to how my colleague suggests employing gamification to ensure effective change management, outlining the benefits that can be earned by individuals that contribute to the knowledge transfer will also create an incentive that enables the transfer to gain momentum. This might involve offering monetary rewards, such as bonuses or cash prizes, for those that contribute to the knowledge transfer effort or ensuring that those who share information are adequately recognized and praised for doing so. By making it clear that those who are sharing and transferring knowledge will be compensated in a meaningful way, your knowledge transfer will be better prepared to receive the level of effort and engagement that it requires.

TIP #2: IDENTIFY WHO IN YOUR ORGANIZATION KNOWS WHAT KNOWLEDGE IS MOST VALUABLE.

Not all knowledge is created equal. The task of identifying what knowledge is most valuable for employees, whether it is tacit or explicit, is crucial for a knowledge transfer as it allows for knowledge to be both recognized and prioritized. For many, this task can feel daunting, particularly if your organization possesses large quantities of information and lacks well-defined repositories that make knowledge findable and discoverable for users.

The best place to begin is to discover and work with your organization’s “human search engines,” or those individuals who are frequently asked questions by fellow employees about how to best do their jobs. These are the experts of your organization who will have the best insight into what knowledge will be necessary to capture throughout the knowledge transfer. Ask them questions, such as “What are the daily needs of our knowledge consumers?” and “What is the information that an employee at a particular level or in a specific sector needs to be successful in their job?” These conversations will enable you to gain a holistic view of the organization and identify what knowledge is being utilized by particular groups of employees.

TIP #3: IDENTIFY THE APPROPRIATE KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER METHOD FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION.

There is no one-size-fits all solution for those seeking to complete a knowledge transfer. Factors like an organization’s culture, size, industry, available technology (such as collaboration platforms), knowledge repositories, and employee buy-in all play a role in determining which knowledge transfer method will best suit your organization’s needs. Some of the most common methods for undergoing a knowledge transfer include:

When selecting which method or combination of methods is best for your organization, seek to answer the following questions:

1. How quickly does this knowledge transfer need to occur? Do we have days, weeks, or months?
2. How many experts should be involved in the process? How long are these experts available/how much time can they commit to this endeavor?
3. What is the depth or complexity of the knowledge that needs to be transferred? Is the knowledge technical, difficult to understand/convey, or multi-faceted?
4. What is the ability for experts to articulate their knowledge?

By being aware of the effort level and complexity of your knowledge transfer, you will be able to best select which method(s) will be most effective for capturing, managing, and disseminating your organization’s crucial knowledge. In truth, there is often no single approach that meet an organization’s knowledge transfer needs, so at EK, we often construct a strategy that leverages a combination of these and other approaches in order to ensure that comprehensive, natural knowledge transfer is occurring.

TIP #4: RECOGNIZE WHEN TO CALL IN A THIRD PARTY OR ENLIST ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.

Recently, Enterprise Knowledge partnered with a client facing a major knowledge dilemma.Having chosen to terminate one of their primary office locations in an effort to downsize, “Client X” was confronted with the reality that they had not captured any of the knowledge possessed by employees who were planning to leave the organization. Faced with losing expert-level knowledge and experience, “Client X” attempted to engage in a speedy knowledge transfer, only to find that they lacked the resources and employee buy-in necessary to make progress. As a result, “Client X” turned to Enterprise Knowledge to help them understand how they could ensure that the knowledge that was so critical to their organization was not lost and could be leveraged by current and future employees.

If tensions are running high, resources are lacking, or there is insignificant buy-in from members of your organization, it is often best to bring in a third party to facilitate your knowledge transfer. By bringing in experts from outside of your organization, you are not only ensuring that knowledge transfer best practices are being employed but are increasing the overall legitimacy and perceived importance of the knowledge transfer.

TIP #5: USE THE INSIGHTS AND EXPERIENCE GAINED FROM THIS RAPID KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER TO LAY THE FOUNDATION FOR INCREASED, CONTINUED KNOWLEDGE SHARING WITHIN YOUR ORGANIZATION.

Don’t let a rapid knowledge transfer in a time of chaos or crisis be the end of your organization’s knowledge transfer journey. Forbes estimates that poor knowledge-sharing practices cost Fortune 500 companies $31.5 billion annually and that effective knowledge management increases company productivity by up to 40%. The best knowledge transfers aren’t those that occur at the point of crisis, but are those that are naturally ingrained in an organization. At Enterprise Knowledge, we are adept at helping organizations, both in the short- and long-term, achieve successful knowledge transfers and build a culture rooted in knowledge sharing so that their employees have access to the right information at the right time.

Interested in completing a successful knowledge transfer for your organization or beginning the process of developing a knowledge sharing culture? Contact us at info@enterprise-knowledge.com for more information.

The post Top Five Tips for A Successful Knowledge Transfer in Times of Chaos, Crisis, or Rapid Change appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

For those who are unfamiliar with the World Cup, each soccer team (or “football” team, if you are outside of the US) fields 11 players, and broadly speaking, each team is composed of a mix of attackers, defenders, midfielders, and a goalie. Ideally, a team brings together players that fit into their soccer philosophy (I.e. their approach to the sport, and the play style that defines their team), players whose skills complement their teammates’, and players who are willing to put their own interests aside in search for a larger objective: bring home the cup. 

Similarly, every effective content governance process requires a team. We can call it a Governance Council, a Governance Board, or whatever fits best with your organization’s language. No matter the name, this is the decision-making body that shapes content strategy and oversees content operations with a single objective: helping the organization’s knowledge workers achieve their goals through content. In this case,”bringing home the cup” may include helping a customer find the perfect gift for their loved one, providing the help-desk agent with some relief by maintaining an accurate and up-to-date self-service knowledge base, or making it easier for a new employee to navigate the organization’s HR bureaucracy.

The first key to better governance is choosing the right people to bring into the Governance Council. This involves ensuring that your key players possess diverse profiles and can bring a variety of skills and experiences to the table. In soccer, this diversity translates to wanting both offensive and defensive players: Perhaps strikers who are good at heading balls in from set plays, offensive midfielders who can dribble past defensive lines, wingers who can outpace any defender, a strong defender who can stop any offensive play, and finally a goalkeeper with cat-like reflexes. Similarly, for content governance purposes, we need a variety of members who can provide their expertise and advocate for their users’ needs. Having diverse voices on the Governance Council stops it from becoming an echo chamber, avoids groupthink, and lays the foundation for the rest of the governance work. So, who needs to be a part of this team?

We can categorize participants in two classes: Our business stakeholders and our core support group.

The core support group is composed of experts in diverse fields, such as communications, user experience (UX), search, and IT. As the name suggests, it is the core support group’s main task to support the content strategy – processes such as authoring, tagging, systems integration, searching, and defining workflows fall under their core responsibilities. These experts can talk to the capabilities and limitations of the organization’s systems and processes. 

The organizational stakeholders are representatives of units from around the organization whose interests lie in having good, quality content. Content enables them to achieve their objectives. This may be to engage with their target audience, it may heighten their visibility across the organization, or help their employees be more efficient in their jobs. It is important that organizational stakeholders have been empowered to make content-related decisions on behalf of the unit they represent. Moreover, it is important that they feel ownership over their section of the site, so that they can claim responsibility over the content and can be held accountable for keeping the site relevant, informative, and up-to-date. This responsibility and accountability provides additional leverage when requesting new features for the site because it signals a business need, and thus, establishes a direct relationship between decisions about the content platform and business benefits.

Finally, every team needs a good captain. Good captains set the tone for their team, they support their teammates, and they make sure that every member is doing their part to play according to the strategy to ultimately win the game. For Content Governance, the team captain is the Content Strategy Owner. The content strategy owner steers every individual’s efforts towards the vision and the goals that the organization is delivering through its content strategy.

A significant amount of the work that occurs within this governing body revolves around conversations. Conversations allow us to collectively make sense of the content needs and challenges, achieve a shared understanding of the work that needs to happen, and align our various priorities. The Content Strategy Owner ensures that the Governance Council is having the right conversations at the right times, with the right inputs. In Part 2 of this blog series, you will be able to learn what inputs your team will need to accomplish their goals.

Do you need help defining a content strategy and governance at your organization? Let’s continue the conversation. Contact us at info@enterprise-knowledge.com and tell us more.

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