Content prioritization: A method to inform what to tackle first so the user + business win
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The document outlines a content prioritization method to effectively balance user needs and business strategies in content strategy development. It presents a content prioritization matrix designed to evaluate content value through user and business criteria, ensuring comprehensive consideration of various factors impacting content decisions. The document emphasizes collaboration among stakeholders and provides practical steps for implementing the matrix in real-world scenarios.
![Examples of business criteria include:
● Revenue (does this directly contribute to making a sale?)
● Membership (does this directly contribute to someone enrolling?)
● Email engagement (does this directly contribute to someone
registering to interact with us?)
● Decrease calls to call center (does this alleviate a top reason people
call the call center?)
● SEO (does this content support top keywords and why people come
to our site?)
● Shareable (does this content support our org’s goal of making our
resources shareable?)
● An organizational principle (does this help us meet our goal of being
… [insert principle, such as being transparent with users])
● Eagerness and/or readiness (Is this a “hot topic”? Are people
already wanting to take on this content need? Do we have staff for it?](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/contentprioritizationcsmeetupdecember2015final-151207203832-lva1-app6891/85/Content-prioritization-A-method-to-inform-what-to-tackle-first-so-the-user-business-win-40-320.jpg)
Content prioritization: A method to inform what to tackle first so the user + business win
- 1. Content Prioritization A method to inform what to tackle first so the user + business win Sara Zailskas Walsh, Lead Content Strategist, Motorola.com UX Elizabeth Carpenter, UX Researcher
- 2. Today’s definitions of content strategy (pick your fancy) 1) Content strategy is determining the best way to present information to your audience so that it’s valuable and makes them want to come back for more. 2) Content strategy is figuring out a way for content to meet business and user needs. 3) Content strategy is about figuring out the right content for the right time -- and what it’ll mean to maintain and govern it too. Business! User! User! … and business! Business!
- 3. Factors affecting content decisions
- 4. Your foundation Content strategy Business strategies Content guidelines Data, analytics, research
- 5. Other factors — often considered independently ➔ User pain point or need ➔ Conversions ➔ SEO ➔ Inventory ➔ Individual business group strategy ➔ Effect on Customer Support ➔ Which stakeholder is the loudest ➔ Resources! ➔ and more
- 6. Not considering all factors can limit you! ➔ Narrowly focused: Not considering whole experience and/or not considering all user needs at the same time ➔ Reactionary or too late ➔ Not always in the spirit of collaboration ➔ Not always considering entire organization’s goal(s)
- 7. Can we find a way to consider ALL factors simultaneously?
- 8. The Content Prioritization Matrix
- 9. This method is ... ➔ A simple way to evaluable content within a project and measure its value for both users and the business ➔ Adaptable ➔ Intended to inform or act as a checkpoint This isn’t THE answer. It just helps you get there.
- 10. Simple matrix
- 12. About the matrix ➔ Organized (and driven!) by user needs and content to support them ➔ Measures value of content against business AND user criteria ➔ Easy for subject-matter expert stakeholders to review! ➔ Allows you to do worry about how to execute later on, so you don’t get caught up in micro solutions too early. This refers to deciding the content strategy for each content need/item -- deciding the format, ownership, messaging, etc. People feel heard !
- 14. How it works in the real world On a +/- 1,000 page site redesign, we needed to offer a plan for overhauling and migrating content to match a future-state site architecture. ➔ Lots of valid opinions ➔ Overwhelming to think about
- 15. Initially on the table ➔ Pick the least popular pages first and tackle the most popular last ➔ Start with the sections that needed the most work first ➔ Tackle entire sections at a time, working section by section ➔ Prepare content and flip a switch to unveil an entirely new site, all at once
- 16. How can we consider all factors + make a recommendation that would result in a usable experience as we overhauled the site over time? Reality.
- 17. Our approach using the matrix 1. Set up the matrix for our needs; played around with it 2. Socialized the idea w/ key work partners 3. Tapped “numbers folks” to validate approach and asked stakeholders for input 4. Invited teams to participate, turning to content champions within a discipline whenever possible 5. Provided a framework; included succinct definitions for criteria so we all evaluated the same way 6. Used the results to offer proposals on how to prioritize
- 18. Revenue criteria Merchandising, ancillary, distressed inventory UX Principles Transparency, Efficiency, Relevant Business Criteria Partnership growth, SEO, engagement, reduce calls Not shown: Business Eagerness & Readiness criteria User task/need Find a deal on a flight, book a flight, etc. Related content to support user need/task Each section has a total. Some sections weighted more than others. We also weighted our user needs by ranking them.
- 19. Happy stakeholders Brand LegalUXEcommerce Not pictured: Marketing, IT, Customer Support, Product manager
- 20. How we used the results ➔ To see how sections rank high/low in terms of total points and averages-- most “value” ➔ To discover which sections and user needs ranked highly multiple times across categories of evaluation ➔ To weigh decisions based on team eagerness and readiness ➔ To compare the highest-ranking user tasks, meaning they were important to the user AND business ➔ To make a list of the content touching the highest ranked task, then check against what was desired and planned for
- 21. Outcomes ➔ We created a ranked list of content that satisfied multiple user needs across sections (strategic cherry-picking). ➔ We made recommendations to de- prioritize already slated content projects. ➔ We validated some of the current projects that were prioritized and we had doubted.
- 22. Instead of ... Section A Section B Section C Section D Section E Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
- 23. We proposed … Section A Section B Section C Section D Section E Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Strategically decided on specific content to overhaul for a smoother user path
- 24. How to get to user needs
- 25. 1. Talk to users yourself (good) 2. Look at analytics (better) 3. Map their journey; think about what they need for each decision point (best) 4. Conduct formal research (best)
- 26. Check data you may already have from: ● Other UX Research like usability tests or customer/user interviews ● Web analytics ● Requirements documents ● Sprint stories, backlog ● Survey data
- 27. Find some users and talk with them: ● Conduct Contextual Interviews ● Create Use Cases and/or Personas ● Perform a Task Analysis ● Create a Journey Map ● Plan a Benchmark study (This doesn’t have to cost a lot.)
- 28. The matrix hands-on! (In-person activity)
- 29. 1. Organize into groups of 5 or 6. 2. Assign yourselves these stakeholder roles: a. Marketing/brand b. Business analyst c. Customer support d. IT e. UX designer/researcher f. Editorial/content strategist Although everyone can talk through the activity, the content strategist should act as the lead facilitator. 3. Read the scenario and complete the matrix!
- 30. Scenario A merger calls for your team to combine two insurance sites into one. One company does some parts of the site better than the other, and vice versa, but your mission is still the same: create one site that represents one brand and meet the needs of your users.
- 31. Your call to action You want to recommend what content the team should focus on first to sell the core products. So after analyzing search results, reviewing what users told you during research, and synthesizing other research, you identify five main user needs and content to support them: 1. Browse Medicare and/or Medicare Advantage plans (Medicare plan descriptions; Guided plan selector) 2. Browse Prescription Drug plans (Prescription drug plan descriptions) 3. Find out if I can get a dental plan with my Medicare plan (Prescription plans, Prescription drug list/lookup) 4. Find out if my drugs are covered by a medical plan. (Redirected to unsecured drug search) 5. Get information about staying independent in my own home (Pharmacy services list)
- 32. Steps for today’s activity 1. As a group, determine which business criteria to consider and if you need to weigh any by adding a multiplier. Fill in your matrix with the group criteria decisions. (The user/content needs column is already filled out.) 2. Next, each stakeholder evaluates whether the user need meets his/her relevant business criteria by ranking it 0 (low) to 3 (high). If you’re unsure, go with your gut and don’t over-analyze! 3. The content strategist synthesizes each of the rows of stakeholder input to create a “master” matrix. (The group can talk through this together for today’s activity.) 4. Finally, the content strategist totals up each row to determine how the user needs -- the content needs! -- rank.
- 33. Content that supports user needs Criteria: Criteria: Criteria: Criteria: Criteria: Criteria: Criteria: Total Medicare plan descriptions Medical plan decision tree Prescription drug plan descriptions Prescription plan decision tree Prescription drug list/lookup Pharmacy services list Rate Low = 0 High = 3
- 34. 1. What is your reaction to how the content needs ranked? If you anticipated results, how did they compare? 2. What was difficult about each of your roles? 3. How well do you think your business criteria represented multiple stakeholders’ needs? How well do you think it represented user needs?
- 35. Thank you! Contact us for a copy of a matrix you can customize (or just say hi!). Sara Walsh - zails@yahoo.com Elizabeth Carpenter - eBethink@gmail.com
- 36. Appendix
- 37. Q&A
- 38. Q: How do I determine what to weight? A: Choose criteria based on organizational need — a larger biz strategy or piece of criteria that everyone is rallying around. For example, in an ecommerce environment where revenue is extremely important and that goal is reflected consistently in business decisions, you might consider weighting the revenue column(s) by 2 or 3. If it’s not something the entire business rallies around, our advice is to not weight that content.
- 39. Q: What if I’m not sure which business criteria to consider? A: This is a good time to go back to the basics. List what you know about what’s important to the organization, then holistically consider what’s important from a business standpoint for your industry. When you socialize your matrix to get buy-in, ask stakeholders to vet your criteria. See the following slide for examples of business criteria. Just remember to choose criteria that’s important to your business or industry.
- 40. Examples of business criteria include: ● Revenue (does this directly contribute to making a sale?) ● Membership (does this directly contribute to someone enrolling?) ● Email engagement (does this directly contribute to someone registering to interact with us?) ● Decrease calls to call center (does this alleviate a top reason people call the call center?) ● SEO (does this content support top keywords and why people come to our site?) ● Shareable (does this content support our org’s goal of making our resources shareable?) ● An organizational principle (does this help us meet our goal of being … [insert principle, such as being transparent with users]) ● Eagerness and/or readiness (Is this a “hot topic”? Are people already wanting to take on this content need? Do we have staff for it?
- 41. Q: Where does IT or dev come in? A: They should be included as part of your project planning early and often, but you can also weave their needs into business criteria. Consider including a column such as Eagerness & Readiness. Or, the criteria “Level of effort” also works — just make sure to adjust your calculations so LOE has a negative consequence on the totals. For example, in a simple matrix in which I simply added up the points for each user/content need row, I subtracted the points I ranked for LOE. You might not know exactly how a content solution would be executed yet to estimate LOE for dev, and that’s OK. At this point, you want to evaluate whether or not the general idea of that content solution is worth exploring. After the need/idea is validated, then begin to consider different ways of creating the content to meet the need.
- 42. Tips
- 43. Practice this first. You want to be comfortable with it before involving external team members. Make sure to get buy-in from stakeholders before introducing them to the matrix. Don’t send them a big matrix and instructions without context! Keep the business criteria easy to rally around. Make sure your user needs list matches the most common user needs. Validate your assumptions!
- 44. To keep it easy for stakeholders to complete … As a lead content strategist, complete the matrix yourself; have a team member familiar with the project and user needs check your work. Then, have the stakeholder focus on the section or column(s) of criteria that is his/her niche expertise and review your work, offering differences of opinion that you’ll synthesize. Tell the stakeholder to timebox it for 20-30 min. Tell everyone to avoid over-analyzing and go with his/her gut!