“What a company values they will invest in.- @rehelab”
Citation:
Bailie, Rahel Anne (2021) The Business Value of Content Operations at Any Scale with Cruce Saunders on Towards a Smarter World Podcast.
Many of today’s executives need to understand that content is one of the most significant assets of an organization. They don’t perceive content as a ‘product’ that provides value by meeting a customer’s information needs. Some executives must recognize TECM as a bonafide profession rather than expect engineers to do technical writing work. In this blog, my quest for value continues by sharing insights from instructional materials on SWOT and content operations used for creating a content strategy.
From my Readings
Surprising:
In the above-cited Bailie, Rahel Anne (2021) article, it was interesting to read how her TECM career began and why content ‘often gets the short end of the stick’ in enterprises. I found it surprising that she blames content people, state of tools problems, lack of understanding of TECM, and regulators who look at code and data but never content governance. She forgot to include the profession’s associations; let’s share the blame equally, shall we?
Delightful:
Watching Val Swisher on Content Reuse (2021) video was a pleasure. Her closet and little black dress analogies used to explain unstructured and structured content worked well. The most informative discussion was about the big tool problem of needing one that can address reuse between marketing and technical content.
Disappointing:
I was slightly disappointed with McClean, Roy’s (2015) Use SWOT Analysis for Content Audit article. I expected to read more about applying SWOT to technical documentation content issues. His ideas were to match strengths with opportunities, transform weaknesses into strengths and turn threats into opportunities. Arguably they are more applicable to marketing instead to TECM practitioners; at least, they were more enlightening than MindTools (2018) How to Use SWOT Analysis which was a waste of time – albeit 3 minutes.
What I found Meaningful
Furtula, Nenad (2021) Finding the Value When Selling Structure was eye-opening to learn about the perception of content by today’s executives. As a future TECM practitioner, I must understand and show how and where my work will bring the most value to my prospective client. Depending on the industry, value propositions may include risk mitigation, regulatory compliance, or ROI on a content tool/project. The challenge will be for me to tie structured documentation to increased revenue resulting from efficient content operations that will improve user experience, lower content translation costs, or increase productivity of TECM and/or customer support teams.
The topic-based authoring techniques proposed by Preciado, Regina Lynn (2018) on 5 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Content for Tomorrow were quite insightful for those writing digital content. Preciado advocated using keyword headings, focusing on one subject, avoiding dependent language, creating content models, and writing topics with a reuse mindset to make it easier for users to find the information. I will need to set aside my school writing skills/conventions and remember to always keep my client’s users in mind.