While content marketing can improve brand preference, it’s hard to link it to product information directly while maintaining an authentic voice. Conversely, product documentation is perceived as authentic and trustworthy — a potentially powerful marketing asset itself — but can be hard to find and hard work to read. This live use case shows how content marketing can link customers to docs in a relevant, contextual, and scalable way by combining taxonomy and minimalist structured content.
4. @joepairman #LavaCon
Attack of the killer silos: separate language
& processes for each team
~ Docs
~ Support
~ Marketing
5. @joepairman #LavaCon
Attack of the killer silos: separate language
& processes for each team
~ Docs
~ Support
~ Marketing
~ Engineering
6. @joepairman #LavaCon
Will a mega-silo solve the problem?
~ Everyone authors in a big
(DITA?) CMS
~ Anyone can reuse anything
~ Single source of truth for all
content, from product catalogs
through internal policies to
random notes?
~ All those remixed deliverables!
8. @joepairman #LavaCon
The common experience of a mega-silo
~ Complicated
~ Hard to navigate
~ Restrictive
~ At worst, like a jail
Carroll County Jail Complex
17. @joepairman #LavaCon
Taxonomy is:
~ A way to keep track of things that are important to your
organization
– Products, features, versions, environments, teams, users, tasks…
~ A way to keep track of names for those things
– E.G., “hard reset” / “factory reset” is called “master reset” by one team,
and queried by some users under “start over”…
~ A way to indicate some broad relationships between those things
– For support/users, hard reset is a type of reset, under troubleshooting
– For s/w engineers, hard reset falls under core system functions
18. @joepairman #LavaCon
We tag content with taxonomy “concepts”,
so that we can:
~ Find it in “containers”:
site nav; doc folders
~ Filter it (e.g. facets)
19. @joepairman #LavaCon
We tag content with taxonomy “concepts”,
so that we can:
~ Find it in “containers”:
site nav; doc folders
~ Filter it (e.g. facets)
~ Create “See also”
links
~ Let people search using
their own preferred
terms for things
~ And more…
26. @joepairman #LavaCon
The ID’s all we tag content with
(of course, authors need
to see the label)
https://mekon.poolparty.
biz/mekonchef3/164
27. @joepairman #LavaCon
Each platform reads the taxonomy
https://mekon.poolparty.
biz/mekonchef3/164
Filter results by:
Preparation method
Chop (23)
Combine (2)
Mince (3)
Shaved ice (1)
Shred (8)
Dietary suitability
Gluten-free
Halal
▸ More…
Type of dish
Main meal
Side dish
▸ More…
28. @joepairman #LavaCon
Label changes are picked up
https://mekon.poolparty.
biz/mekonchef3/164
Filter results by:
Preparation method
Chop (23)
Combine (2)
Mince (3)
Shave (ice) (1)
Shred (8)
Dietary suitability
Gluten-free
Halal
▸ More…
Type of dish
Main meal
Side dish
▸ More…
29. @joepairman #LavaCon
Hierarchy changes work too
https://mekon.poolparty.
biz/mekonchef3/164
Filter results by:
Preparation method
Flavoring / tenderizing
Marinate (5)
Dry rub (3)
Food processing
Chop (23)
Combine (2)
Mince (3)
Shave (ice) (1)
Shred (8)
Dietary suitability
Gluten-free
Halal
▸ More…
Type of dish
Main meal
Side dish
▸ More…
30. @joepairman #LavaCon
Coming up — two cases of content catwalks
~ Content marketing <> product docs:
Connected customer experience via authoring in
different silos
~ Crossing departmental boundaries and linking modular
information with a taxonomy of tasks
58. @joepairman #LavaCon
Users may not see un-spanned silos,
but they feel their effects
~ Users having to guess whether they’ll find what they need in
docs, support, communities, or marketing content
~ Inconsistent terminology across those resources
~ Lead-gathering getting in the way of easy engagement
~ Operational inefficiency so needed content isn’t available
60. @joepairman #LavaCon
Background
~ Project to make Talend’s support content:
– Easier to find (externally & internally)
– More efficient to author and publish
~ Re-architecting content
~ Design, development, & implementation of taxonomy
– Making it work for users & authors alike
– The process of developing a taxonomy can change the shape of
content itself
63. @joepairman #LavaCon
What were users looking for?
~ Specific goals when using the product
“database migrate oracle postgresql to”
~ Big-picture information
“architecture optimal”
~ Error messages, or troubleshooting
“Cannot commit flush transaction”
“Error converting data int java.sql.SQLException”
~ Rarely, whole guides (and some mentions of those were due
to conditioning?)
“Configuration ESB Guide Infrastructure Services Talend”
67. @joepairman #LavaCon
Task focus also reduced duplication & effort
~ From a comprehensive user
guide per product
~ To a single instance of each task,
reducing product-specific
instructions to installs, etc.
71. @joepairman #LavaCon
An example set of suggested task categories
~ Profiling your data
~ Standardizing your data
~ Deduplicating your data
~ Ensuring data privacy
~ Modeling your data
~ Administering your data
~ Data authoring
~ Preparing your data
~ “Operationalizing data
preparation”
~ Organizing data stewardship
~ Cleansing and curating your
data
~ Installing, configuring and
upgrading
~ Deploying, administering and
monitoring
74. @joepairman #LavaCon
Insight deep in the hierarchy
Users needed to see content related to their task…
…detailed procedures but also overviews/ scenarios
75. @joepairman #LavaCon
Insight deep in the hierarchy
Users needed to see content related to their task…
…detailed procedures but also overviews/ scenarios
80. @joepairman #LavaCon
Assembling text & media components
Authoring
tool
(Oxygen)
build maps Delivery
platform
(FluidTopics)
DITA XML
• re-use/re-assembly
• cascade changes
PDF
Web-based output
81. @joepairman #LavaCon
Assembling text & media components
Authoring
tool
(Oxygen)
build maps Delivery
platform
(FluidTopics)
DITA XML
• re-use/re-assembly
• cascade changes
PDF
Web-based output
Taxonomy
management
(PoolParty
semantic suite)
82. @joepairman #LavaCon
Talend still need some similar pages
Particularly installation instructions:
~ Products in the same family but with different bits to
install depending on subscription level
~ Different operating systems
89. @joepairman #LavaCon
Summary
~ UX
To… Do this…
• Start building a taxonomy, or
pulling together existing
taxonomy resources
• Get stakeholders’ input, and collaboration, BUT:
• Don’t sacrifice user experience
• Don’t force everyone to use exactly the same
names and structures if it is going to put the
taxonomy project at risk
• Link taxonomies between teams /
organizations / systems
• Use web standards, with a URI for each
concept
• Provide a smooth, connected
contextual user experience
• Create content more efficiently
and sustainably
• Make as much use of taxonomy as you can
• Build applications based on taxonomy relations,
not fragile manual links
90. @joepairman #LavaCon
We help you make this stuff happen…
~ Taxonomy design: small or big; repurposed
or brand new
~ Metadata-based content delivery
applications
~ Taxonomy integration with authoring tools /
CMSs
~ Plus: will it work for you in the first place?
(content strategy audit)