Getting Started With Business Taxonomy Unlocking the Keys to Successful Information Management. Zach Wahl Vice President Strategic Solutions

Transcription

1 Getting Started With Business Taxonomy Unlocking the Keys to Successful Information Management Zach Wahl Vice President Strategic Solutions

2 ROI / Benefits of Taxonomy Establish effective information governance policies Improve usability (freshness) and improve findability (access) Improve collaboration amongst all stakeholders Reduce wasted effort Improve decision making capabilities Improve stakeholder engagement/personalization Improve innovation process Learn better, faster and cheaper 2

3 Taxonomy Savings - illustrative Time Savings improved productivity, reduced frustration Lost time searching - $12M a year per 1,000 Cost of recreating lost information - $4.5M per 1,000 Cost of not finding the right information years? 10% improvement = $1.2M a year per 10,000 * ROI on Taxonomy/Semantic Infrastructure from Forrester 3

4 Taxonomy Definitions and Value

5 What Is Taxonomy? A taxonomy is controlled vocabulary used to describe, organize, and classify information in order to make it easier to find and use. The problem Content is fragmented, redundant, and hard to find. Content is siloed. High quality content is underleveraged. Site visitors find content uninspiring. Content lacks an overarching brand story. How taxonomy can help Using a common language to describe and organize content helps people and search applica:ons find relevant informa:on. Using an agreed- upon language to describe a business assets, taxonomy builds bridges between siloed departments and encourages a unified approach to marke:ng campaigns and product branding. Taxonomies help drive dynamic publishing, allowing content to appear in all relevant loca:ons on a website. Taxonomies help drive personaliza:on so the business can feed consumers customized content based on their likes and past behavior. Taxonomies capture the language of the business, allowing the brand to organize and distribute informa:on in a way that supports a consistent and compelling brand story. 5

6 Definitions Metadata Values (As Taxonomy) Audience Metadata Title Author Department Audience Topic Internal Executives Managers External Suppliers Customers Partners Topics Employee Services Compensation Retirement Insurance Further Education Support Services Infrastructure Supplies Products and Services Finance and Budget 6

7 Business Taxonomies Tend to be less rigid and constrained Influenced by usability concerns Minimize number of clicks Often content-driven Ensure balanced content distribution Allow flexibility, redundancy Items may be organized into multiple categories May support multiple taxonomies for disparate audiences May use one or more different categorization approaches 7

8 Structured vs. Unstructured Content Unclassified content and documents Key Infrastructure Systems Document Management s Internal and External Web Sites Content and Data Feeds Databases Today, 80% of business is conducted on unstructured information Gartner Group 85% of all data stored is held in an unstructured format Butler Group Unstructured data doubles every three months Gartner Group 7 million web pages are added every day Gartner Group Volume of content increases Systems & Applications cannot keep pace 340 million internet users world-wide Andersen Consulting 8

9 Traditional vs. Business Taxonomy Taxonomy for Scientists and Librarians An overall organizational system with many branches or sub-branches that attempt to organize their world of information Each book or plant falls into one specific category Taxonomy on the web or with a portal Document-driven, some redundancy Minimize empty folders Flatter, simpler, more navigable More common, intuitive language 9

10 Front-end interface How business taxonomy translates into front-end interface Metadata Field: Type Taxonomy Values: Athle:c Inspired Boots Loafers and Slip- ons Oxfords and More Sandals Metadata Field: Color Taxonomy Values: Black Blue Brown Green Grey Ivory Metadata Field: Size Taxonomy Values: Metadata Field: Brand Taxonomy Values: Antonio Maurizi Bacco Bucci Ben Sherman Bruno Magli 10

11 Front-end interface for YOUR BUSINESS How business taxonomy translates into front-end interface for YOUR BUSINESS. Metadata Field: Topic Taxonomy Values: Manufacturing Benefits Infrastructure Quality Safety Metadata Field: Document Type Taxonomy Values: Forms Policies Procedures Reports News? Metadata Field: Locale Taxonomy Values: North America Europe Asia South America Metadata Field: Department Taxonomy Values: HR Sales and Marke:ng Communica:ons Shipping 11

12 Taxonomy Design Best Practices, PPC s Approach to Taxonomies

13 Define Your Purpose and Approach Define what a taxonomy means to your project Will you be using taxonomy for back-end metadata or frontend exploration? Are you building for information professionals or business professionals? 13

14 Understand your audience Recognize that users may think about and look for information in different ways Understand your business practices and use the most appropriate categorization method(s) Consider multiple taxonomies for disparate audiences Use familiar vocabulary and organizational schemas to ensure a logical browsing experience. 14

15 Understand your audience End users drive the language and complexity of the structure. Who are they? Who is the lowest common denominator? Define the spectrum of experience: Tenured Employee New Employee Technophile Technophobe Younger Older Na:ve Speaker Foreign Language 15

16 Understand your publishers Publisher determine the reasonable complexity of a taxonomy/metadata strategy: Acceptable amount of time per document Number of metadata fields Complexity of taxonomy Informa:on Professional User Business Dedicated Posi:on Part- :me (Volunteer) Few Publishers Many Publishers Homogenous Publishers Diverse Publishers 16

17 Define Governance Apply the core governance principles to your taxonomy and metadata strategy: Roles and Responsibilities Managers Reviewers Policies For naming Required Fields Procedures For reviewing and approving metadata placement For acting on poor metadata application Communications, Education, and Marketing 17

18 Understand Your Platform Taxonomy design seldom works outside the context of a business mission, typically tied to a technology: Web Content Management Social Media Portal Document Management Records Management Looser Tighter Less Complex More Complex 18

19 Make a Long-term Investment Taxonomy development is an iterative and on-going effort Respond to change: validate and modify regularly Invest in dedicated, long-term resources Initial effort must have foresight Establish a solid foundation Allow extensibility to accommodate new information Plan for iterative development Consider auto-categorization/auto-taxonomization technologies But recognize that human intervention and oversight is critical Establish maintenance and governance processes Conduct regular (quarterly) taxonomy and content categorization reviews 19

20 Control Depth & Breadth Depth A flat taxonomy ensures that users can find information quickly Avoid deep taxonomies: May frustrate users with too many clicks May indicate too much specification or too much information Guideline: 2-4 levels deep Breadth A focused taxonomy ensures that users can easily digest the scope of information Avoid overly broad taxonomies: May frustrate users with too many initial options May indicate your categories are too specific Guideline: top-level categories! Remember, proper breadth and depth should ultimately be determined by your content 20

21 Getting Started

22 The Workshop Concept Convene a diverse group of users (representative of your end users). Focus needs of end users and content owners. Simplify requirements and guidelines to most basic level. Recognize that better is good enough to start move forward from there. Set expectations for long-term process. Focus on iterative design and evolutionary improvement. 22

23 Recommended Configuration Schedule Two-three days, mix of training and exercises. Audience Mix of subject matter experts and project owners representing a cross section of key departments/business units. Human Resources. Sales. IT. Mix levels but try to secure people open to discussion and new concepts Attendees Maximum. 23

24 Primary Goals Define taxonomy, metadata, and related terms consistently. Set expectations for long and challenging process: People, by nature, do not agree on concepts, naming and categorization. We don t know all user needs (and won t throughout the process). Not everything we do will be intuitive to all (or even most) users. The taxonomy will never be completely finished or completely right. Establish overall goals create a Starter Taxonomy and initial metadata strategy to be used as a jumping-off point. 24

25 Follow-on Process Consistently and repeatedly test progress using combination of card sorting exercises, focus groups, and usability surveys. Engage additional end users for validation and guidance. Hold additional workshops to refine and provide greater detail. Utilize focus groups for further validation and naming Match with analytics, content analysis, and technologies as complexity increases. 25

26 Zach Wahl Project Performance Company LLC