The content engineering function is now critical to successful Customer Experience Management. Content engineering plays a central role in delivering relevant and accurate content designed to deliver personalized experiences across multiple channels, at every touch point across the brand. Content Engineering bridges business strategy and content strategy with design and implementation. Missing any part of the continuum introduces unsustainable project risk for CEM initiatives. This talk challenges marketers, technologists and content creators to rethink the way they create, manage, and deliver content experiences. This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 2, 2015.

1. CONTENT ENGINEERING: A
COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT
APPROACH
Understanding content strategy and content engineering roles within teams
delivering successful Customer Experience Management
Presented
for:

2. Presented By
FOLLOW: @SimpleATeam
VISIT: simplea.com
Cruce Saunders
Founder, [A]
@mrcruce

3. We are deep in an era of
digital transformation.

4. More content has been created in the last two
years, than in all of human history combined.

6. More devices and channels for content exist
now, than in all of human history combined.

10. Change is constant.
Flexibility is a survival skill.

11. Content BOOM!
Channel BOOM!
Device BOOM!
Executive DOOM?
@mrcruce

12. Study Conducted by the CMO Council and
sponsored by IBM:
"Brand Attraction from Enriched Interaction"

13. How successful are you and your organization
at Customer Experience Management?

14. The answer: not that successful.

15. What is
Customer Experience
Management (CEM)?

16. Customer experience management (CEM) is made up of the processes a company uses to track, oversee and
organize every interaction between a customer and the organization throughout the customer lifecycle.
Source: TechTarget

18. CEM Puts Focus on
the Customer
Customer experience
management focuses the
operations and processes of our
organization around the needs
of an individual customer,
however that customer reaches
us.

19. CEM Puts Focus on
the Customer
Customer experience
management focuses the
operations and processes of our
organization around the needs
of an individual customer,
however that customer reaches
us.

20. CEM Puts Focus on
the Customer
Customer experience
management focuses the
operations and processes of our
organization around the needs
of an individual customer,
however that customer reaches
us.

21. CEM Puts Focus on
the Customer
Customer experience
management focuses the
operations and processes of our
organization around the needs
of an individual customer,
however that customer reaches
us.

22. When we succeed at CEM, we engage customers
via continuous experiences across mobile, web and
social channels.
@mrcruce

23. What does it take to be “good” at customer
experience management, at scale?
@mrcruce

24. HOW CEM HAPPENS
Competencies
Practices with Disciplines
Content Strategy
Content Engineering
Experience Design
Analytics and Optimization
Security and Risk
Intake and Prioritization
Knowledge and Training
Patterns and Rhythms
Structure and Governance
DevOps and Support
Infrastructure
CEM Platform
Delivery Platform
Data Platform
Content as a Service APIs
Alignment
Business strategy
Content strategy
Business Intelligence / Big Data
Business process management
Change management
THE INGREDIENTS OF CEM

25. HOW CEM HAPPENS
Intelligent Content…
which emerges from:
Model,
Metadata,
Markup,
Schema,
Taxonomy
THE INGREDIENTS OF CEM

26. • Only 5% reported they are “extremely good”
• 16% believe they are doing a “good job”
• 32% report doing “moderately good”
…and many of these are
marketing executives!
47% of senior level executives believe they are
failing at CEM,
and 95% feel they need improvement:

30. What is broken?
How do we take our customer experience from
“failing” to “moderately good” to “extremely good”?

31. THE ANSWER:
COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT,
CONTENT STRATEGY & CONTENT ENGINEERING
ACROSS SILOS

32. Introducing
THE DIGITAL MANAGEMENT OFFICE
Led by a Chief Digital Officer
Incorporating a Content Engineer and a Content Strategist

34. Alignment
Strategy
Standards
Intelligence
Integration
Security
CEM

35. THE DIGITAL MANAGEMENT OFFICE
Cultivates enterprise value via content assets & systems
that deliver experiences to customers.
@mrcruce

36. Content is an expression of everything an
organization is and does. All of our stories,
knowledge, and data are content.
@mrcruce

37. Content should be a balance sheet asset.
@mrcruce

38. Content = Data & Data = Content
In organizations large
and small, content
assets have more value
than derived from any
single function.

39. Content Should be Nurtured As an Asset
Organizations are waking up
to the strategic importance of
intelligent content as an asset
to be grown, nurtured and
ultimately reflected as a
valuable line item on the
corporation's balance sheet.

40. Who’s In Charge of your
Content Assets?

43. It Takes a Collaborative Development Approach …

44. As an enterprise asset, content has
value that transcends any one silo.
@mrcruce

45. Content strategy & content engineering practices are components
of a cross-functional digital management office (DMO).
Content Coordination & the Digital Management Office (DMO)

46. The CE builds relationships across organizational silos, forging cooperation,
strategy and resource planning to leverage content value across the board.
The Content Engineer & the Content Strategist Play Key Roles

47. … but Importantly it Takes Executive Leadership
It takes a CEO, COO, CDO, or politically key
executive that has the ability to provide fiat –
one who has decision-making authority and
power to move change in a fully informed
and unified way. CEM fails without leaders.

48. Without Executive Leadership…not much happens.
Without an enterprise view and key
executive involvement and authority, CEM is
just another IT or marketing project. And it
will have limited impact.
So get the CEO on board!

49. Let’s focus on the Content Strategy and the
Content Engineering practices.

50. Content Strategy and Content Engineering
are separate but equal practices.

51. The Content Strategist and the Content
Engineer work together within the Digital
Management Office and across departments.

52. We are not going to blow up silos.
But we will connect and empower them.

53. When we apply content strategy and
content engineering across silos,
the entire organization wins.

54. Content Strategy

55. Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content…
The content strategist defines which content will be published, and why we’re publishing it. Source: AListApart.com

56. Content Strategy Focus: Who, What, When, Where
• Audience, User, Content Audit and Analysis
• Content Planning: What, When, Where
• Content Research, Testing, and Strategy
• Content Standards, Voice and Tone, and Optimization
• Content Workflow, Governance, Management, Systems

57. The Content Strategist Performs
• Content Research
• Audience & User Analysis
• Content Analysis
• Editorial & Message Strategy
• Content Creation
• Content Promotion
• Content Inventory & Auditing
• Sr. Information Architecture
• Content Standards, Voice & Tone
• Content Planning & Calendaring
• Content Authoring Workflows
• Content Systems Requirements
• Version Control Approach
• Content Optimization
• Content Management

58. Content Engineering

59. Content Engineering orchestrates content technology, content delivery, intelligent
content assets, and the tools and infrastructure supporting it.

60. Content Engineering Focus: How
The content engineer organizes the shape,
structure and application of content.
Content engineers facilitate the Content
Model, Metadata, Markup, Schema,
Taxonomy, Reuse, Variation, Delivery,
Syndication, and Infrastructure.

61. The Content Engineer (CE) Performs
• Content modeling
• Metadata and Schema definitions
• CMS platform configuration planning
• Content author experience (AX) design
• Content syndication and content API specifications
• Technical requirements and development planning
• Personalization and content targeting mapping
• Schema, Markup, Metadata, Taxonomy Implementation

62. The Content Strategist is the CEO of content
The Content Engineer is the CTO of content
Content strategists and content
engineers team up to lead the
customer experience evolution.
It takes teamwork.

63. Content
Strategy
Content
Engineering
Intelligent Content Takes Teamwork
…

65. The CE builds relationships across organizational silos, forging cooperation,
strategy and resource planning to leverage content value across the board.
The Content Strategist & Content Engineer Travel to Silos

66. The CE builds relationships across organizational silos, forging cooperation,
strategy and resource planning to leverage content value across the board.
The DMO Assembles the Parts to Work as a Single Organism

67. The CE builds relationships across organizational silos, forging cooperation,
strategy and resource planning to leverage content value across the board.
The Chief Digital Officer Leads the Process & Aligns Strategy

68. The CE builds relationships across organizational silos, forging cooperation,
strategy and resource planning to leverage content value across the board.
Even without a formal chief, anoint a leader & get moving

69. Teamwork works.
This stuff is hard. It takes teamwork. You don’t
want to be out on fields herding cats by yourself.

70. At least I am not
Managing Digital
Content!

71. Start Your Digital Transformation Engines.
Attendees may receive the [A] eBook:
Content Engineering for a Multi-Channel World
Email Cruce at c@simplea.com, with subject
“eBook Request” or simplea.com/ebook
And, do follow @simpleAteam & @mrcruce .

72. BONUS ROUND

73. What is
Intelligent Content?

74. Structurally rich,
semantically aware,
automatically discoverable,
reusable,
reconfigurable,
and adaptable.
— The Intelligent Content Conference

75. Intelligent Content:
Content broken into parts so it can meet the
people that need it, when and where they need it.
@mrcruce

76. Intelligent Content “Parts”:
Model,
Metadata,
Markup,
Schema,
Taxonomy
@mrcruce

77. Intelligent Content is a way to deliver the right content to the right customer
at the right time in the right way on the right device.

78. Content with Schema.org Markup

79. Teamwork = Better Customer Experiences

80. Content Strategy + Content Engineering + the DMO
Together we coordinate standards,
schemas, taxonomy, content models,
reuse, discovery and delivery mechanisms
across all organizational silos.
When done well, it’s as awesome as a
Lizard playing a leaf guitar.

81. The Content Model
• Presents all the different content types for a given project.
• Defines content types, their elements, and how they relate.
• Guides the design of content components, assemblies and linkages.
• Illuminates what content to write or create, and how to input it into the CMS.

82. It all begins with a Content Model
But what is a Content Model?

83. A content model is
a representation of
the types of
content and their
interdependent
relationships.

87. How Does Content Adapt and Respond?
Adaptive content: dynamically adapts content based on a
customer’s clicking activity, interests, and context.
Responsive interfaces: dynamically morph design and content
containers to match the user device types.

91. BONUS ROUND 2

92. How to Cost-Justify Content Engineering
• Improved sales lifecycle, sales performance, sales metrics, and sales
channels
• Improved customer satisfaction via personalization means more
rewarding and relevant interactions.
• Marketing and IT peacemaking: happier developers, happier
marketers produce better work
• Far more efficient development cycles and developer time investment

93. How to Cost-Justify Content Engineering
• Efficiency of CEM license cost investment, more value for the money
• Insurance policy for market relevance long-term. Intelligence will
become mandatory.
• Competitive market advantage by improving and exposing content
assets across the enterprise, and connecting those assets with
customers intelligently.

94. The Content Strategist & Content Engineer Mindsets
CONTENT STRATEGISTS
DEVELOP THE CONTENT,
THE STRATEGY AND
THE ROADMAP
CONTENT ENGINEERS
STRUCTURE CONTENT
AND THE TECHNOLOGY
THAT DELIVERS IT

95. ’’
“
A content engineer is one part creative director and one part data
analyst. They use both the left side of their brain and the right ...
Most importantly, they love data and use it to help plan, measure
and optimize their content. They represent the evolution of
content marketing, online marketing and inbound marketing.
Erik Bratt
Blogger and VP MarCom at Tealium.com
“Why We All Need to Become
Content Engineers,” at Inboundwriter.com

96. ’’
“Content engineering leads to happy teams and
happier customers.
@mrcruce

97. THE END

98. The Tragic Story of
Digitalbridge
A Project Gone Wrong

107. Cruce Saunders
Information Development World
Content Engineering — A Collaborative
Development Approach
4:00 - 4:45 pm, Cascade Room (1st floor)
Friday, Oct. 2, 2015 in San Jose, CA