Sarah O'Keefe's keynote presentation at tcworld India, delivered in Bangalore on February 20, 2014. Highlights include a discussion of minimum viable content, career paths for technical communicators, and some ideas about new directions for technical content.

1. The
Future
of
Content
Sarah O’Keefe
@sarahokeefe
Scriptorium Publishing
contentstrategy101.com

2. Sarah
O’Keefe
@sarahokeefe
❖
Founder and president, Scriptorium
Publishing, www.scriptorium.com,
North Carolina, USA
❖
Coauthor of Content Strategy 101
❖
Interested in collision of content,
publishing, and technology

3. tcworld.info

4. techwhirl.com

5. scriptorium.com

6. Reality

7. Minimum
viable
product
A minimum viable product has just those features
that allow the product to be deployed, and no
more.

8. Minimum
viable
product
A minimum viable product has just those features
that allow the product to be deployed, and no
more.

10. Minimum
viable
content
flickr: john.schultz

11. Minimum
viable
content
Minimum
Not enough
Too much

12. Minimum
viable
content
❖
Meets regulatory requirements
❖
Meets business goals

13. Minimum
viable
content
❖
Accurate, concise, and complete
❖
Delivered in the needed formats
❖
Delivered in the needed languages
❖
Delivered on time

14. Supports business goal
Not enough
Obstructs business goal
Too much

15. Supports business goal
Zone of
viable content
Not enough
Obstructs business goal
Too much

16. @uselessassist

17. @uselessassist

18. @uselessassist

19. Minimum
viable
content
❖
What are the regulatory requirements?
❖
How does this content help meet the
organization’s business goals? What is the
purpose of this content?
❖
In what formats is this content needed? In
which languages?
❖
Who must create the content?
❖
What is the content velocity? How quickly must
it be delivered and how often will it change?

20. 80%+
research
online
before
buying.
Sources:
PwC study: https://www.internetretailer.com/2012/03/30/most-shoppers-go-online-research-products
GE Capital Bank study: http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/study-81-research-online-making-big-purchases
Image: flickr, MarcMcPherson

21. flickr: meganfitzgerald
Are
you
a
user
advocate?

22. flickr: meganfitzgerald
Are
you
paid
by
users?

23. Who
is
my
customer?
flickr: rosmary

24. Who
is
my
customer?
❖
End user
❖
Corporation
❖
Marketing team
❖
Product manager
❖
Technical support staff
❖
Department manager

25. So
many
possibilities…
flickr: davestreet

26. So
many
possibilities…
Print
❖
PDF
❖
HTML
❖
Help in various formats
❖
EPUB
❖
Kindle
❖
Mobile app
❖
and more…
flickr: davestreet
❖

27. We
need
to
rethink
the
book
container.
flickr: davestreet

28. “A
dictionary
is
not
a
book.”
Erin
McKean
flickr: greeblie

29. “A
dictionary
is
a
database.”
Erin
McKean
flickr: greeblie

30. flickr: jimmiehomeschoolmom

31. Image: amazon.com

32. A
book
is
not
always
the
best
container.

33. How
can
tech
comm
use
new
technologies?
Image: wired.com and Audi

34. Not enough
screen space for
help? Use audio!

35. How
to
survive
and
thrive
flickr: jenniferboyer

36. How
to
survive
and
thrive
❖ Product
knowledge
❖ Research
and analysis
❖
❖
Customer assessments
❖
❖
Web analytics
Mining user-generated content
Convergence between tech comm and
marcom

37. Tech
comm
career
paths
flickr: sidharth_sharma

38. Tech
comm
career
paths
❖
Writer
❖
Tools specialist
❖
Management
❖
Site designer
❖
User experience (UX)
❖
Information architect
❖
Content strategist

39. Information
in
the
wild.
flickr: v923z

40. https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/logon.asp

42. http://www.civicforumz.com/maintenance-121/online-hondaservice-manual-list-91627/

43. Most
people
need
just
one
bit
of
information.
flickr: v923z

46. Mahindra corporate
Mahindra dealer who made the video

47. Where I live
Mahindra corporate
Mahindra dealer who made the video
YOU ARE HERE

48. Questions?
flickr: seatbelt67

49. Contact
information
❖
Sarah O’Keefe
@sarahokeefe
info@scriptorium.com