Measuring what’s working, what isn’t, and acting on this critical information is what drives the continuous optimization of your content. Focusing your quality program roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities is the key to simplifying your workload and lowering costs. In this session, we will demonstrate how to: • Establish your Article Quality Index (AQI) to measure the success of your content quality program. • Determine your Article Utility Index (AUI), what content is valid AND valuable. • Manage your Content Validity Check (CVC) Project(s). • Identify and track improvement opportunities (Flagging) and enhancements (Fixing) on an ongoing basis.

1. Keeping Content Health
and Quality in Check
Presenter: Jason Kaufman
October 23, 2013
LavaCon – Portland, Oregon

2. We all understand the importance
of content quality and how crucial it
is to our business.
The challenge is successfully
conveying that to others.

3. Overview
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2.
3.
4.
5.
Setting the stage
Elements of a successful content program
Measuring article (content) health
Continuous improvement
Q&A

4. Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Setting the stage
Elements of a successful content program
Measuring article (content) health
Continuous improvement
Q&A

5. The Challenge
Change is the only constant.
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Team members: Agents, authors, experts,
managers, coaches, trainers, etc.
Systems.
Products and services.
Market and customers.
1. Setting the stage
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3
4
5

6. KM system landscape and acquisition timeline.
<
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Acquired by
2011
Additional KM solutions.
1. Setting the stage
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3
4
5

7. Change Management
Possible impacts of change:
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Content value, validity, and overall health suffers.
Practices are not handed off appropriately.
Guidelines are lost in the shuffle.
New content is layered on top of old content, without revision.
Content begins to fail; search relevancy declines.
Customer satisfaction is impacted.
Decreased awareness, participation and trust.
1. Setting the stage
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3
4
5

8. Change Management
Perception:
The software has failed.
Reality:
Your content management program
needs attention.
1. Setting the stage
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3
4
5

9. Defining “Healthy Content”
Should be defined by your company to fit your
unique environment.
Our Definition:
Healthy content is valid, useful, clear, timely, and consistent
information that is easily accessible by the intended
Audience via the most intuitive channel(s) possible.
Define these for your organization:
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Validity
Clarity
Timeliness
Consistency
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1. Setting the stage
Ease of access
Proper audience
Proper channel(s)
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3
4
5

10. Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Setting the stage
Elements of a successful content program
Measuring article (content) health
Continuous improvement
Q&A

11. Governance
Steering committee:
Form a Steering Committee comprised of stakeholders across
your organization.
Mission & principles:
Develop and communicate your mission statement and guiding
principles.
Ongoing dialog:
Discuss stats regularly as part of your Steering Committee, refine
guidelines, principles, communications, priorities.
2. Elements of a successful content program
3
4
5

12. Implementing the Mission
Guidelines:
Identify best practices and guidelines that support the vision for
your content, mission statement, and guiding principles.
Roles and responsibilities:
Outline the various roles of teams/individuals who participate in
the content management process.
Checklists:
From the guidelines, develop checklists for each of the roles for
them to leverage when doing their part.
2. Elements of a successful content program
3
4
5

13. Continuous Improvement
Track and trend:
Track and trend the overall content health and areas for
improvement on an ongoing basis.
Optimize:
Formalize plans to ensure communications, training, and coaching
is focused on the areas of greatest return.
2. Elements of a successful content program
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4
5

14. Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Setting the stage
Elements of a successful content program
Measuring article (content) health
Continuous improvement
Q&A

15. Collect Data
Establish your Article Quality Index (AQI)
Facilitate a project to assess
a sample of the site content
to determine whether the
information adheres to your
content health guidelines.
3. Measuring article (content) health
4
5

16. Collect Data
Establish your Article Utility Index (AUI)
Facilitate a project to assess
a sample of the site content
to determine if it meets your
standards for accuracy and
usefulness.
3. Measuring article (content) health
4
5

17. Interpret
AQI and AUI Review Data
Determine the biggest problem areas that need to be addressed
and then track it over time.
3. Measuring article (content) health
4
5

18. Establish
Archival Candidate Report
Based on your users, content types, usage stats, etc., determine
your formula and process for archiving invalid, outdated, lowpriority content.
Examples:
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Items that were created over 3 years ago, not viewed in the last six months.
Items that have been viewed 10 or fewer times per month for the last three
months.
Items that receive user ratings of 20% or lower for the past three months.
Items that appear in common searches that are not relevant.
3. Measuring article (content) health
4
5

19. Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Setting the stage
Elements of a successful content program
Measuring article (content) health
Continuous improvement
Q&A

20. Establish
Take action to improve utility.
Facilitate targeted clean-up projects to improve content health in
the most impactful areas.
Perform peer reviews and facilitate discussions to keep your team
aligned.
4. Continuous improvement
5

21. Establish
Provide immediate feedback and coaching to contributors so they
can learn from their missteps.
Perform regular AQI and AUI audits and track your metrics.
Embrace a culture where it is okay to archive content and ensure
there is a process for searching the archives.
4. Continuous improvement
5

22. Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Setting the stage
Elements of a successful content program
Measuring article (content) health
Continuous improvement
Q&A

23. Q&A
Our Services:
Content Strategy Consulting
Technical Writing and Editing
Knowledge Health Checks
Content Project Management
My Info:
Jason Kaufman
jkaufman@irrevo.com
(206) 229-1032
www.irrevo.com
Twitter: @irrevo
Skype: Jason_M_Kaufman