IA Summit Recap

1. IA Summit Recap April 16, 2009

2. Where to Find Stuff • Podcasts are available on Boxes & Arrows • http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/ia-summit-09-day-1 • Most presentations are available on SlideShare (tagged with ias09) • http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?lang=en&page=3&q=ias09

3. Selling UX • Several sessions focused on the concept of selling UX (whether as a service to potential clients, or as a practice within an organization) • These included: • Eric Reiss, “ROI: Speaking the Language of Business” • Gary Carlson & Samantha Starmer, “Using Enterprise IA to Support Business Strategy: Driving Revenue and Brand Health with Better Information Management” • Naomi Norman, “When Appeasement is Not Enough - Or How to Work Within ‘Government Time’” • Richard Anderson & Craig Peters, “Strategies for Enabling UX to Play a More Strategic Role” • Samantha Starmer, “Turning HiPPOs into Allies: How to Connect with Powerful People in Your Organization”

4. Eric Reiss, “ROI: Speaking the Language of Business” • Focused on speaking/selling in terms that your client (or your company’s key stakeholders) will understand • “If I don’t understand it, I don’t want it, and I don’t want to pay for it” • You need to understand business language • It’s not about ROI as such, it’s about inciting emotion and perceived value • “There are two levers to set a man in motion: fear and self-interest” • Need to describe actions/results, not intangible “benefits” • Don’t sell a service, sell a relationship • If they trust that you have their best interests at heart and will take care of them, they will buy whatever you recommend • Great time to sell UX—take advantage of fear and need for self-preservation during the economic downturn.

5. Gary Carlson & Samantha Starmer, “Using Enterprise IA to Support Business Strategy: Driving Revenue and Brand Health with Better Information Management” • To get a project approved, need to evangelize both horizontally and vertically • Write a business case that speaks both to the CEO and to the developers, and makes perfect sense to both of them • Document exactly how your project will support business objectives

6. Naomi Norman, “When Appeasement is Not Enough - Or How to Work Within ‘Government Time’” • Included advice on how to work with clients in a highly political environment • Define clear goals to establish a common focus • Define the users and their context, and acceptable usage levels • Leverage user research (preferably quantitative) to cut through the deliberation • User surveys • Scored interviews • Data mining • Train your client—help them understand your process • Know your client—know each person’s responsibility and target your communication accordingly • Establish an audit trail of when decisions were made and why • Make it clear ahead of time what questions need to be answered/decisions need to be made in each meeting, so that the appropriate people are in the room. • Card-sorting/cluster analysis • User testing • A/B testing

7. Richard Anderson & Craig Peters, “Strategies for Enabling UX to Play a More Strategic Role” • Small groups discussed which strategies would and would not work in their organizations, including: • Just say “No” • Evangelizing/Influencing/Education • Calculating and showing ROI of UX work • Adjusting placement of UX personnel in organizational structure • It was recommended that UX teams partner with other groups that lead/gather research in order to combine efforts/share findings

8. Samantha Starmer, “Turning HiPPOs into Allies: How to Connect with Powerful People in Your Organization” • Understanding people and their relationships is key • Need to know not only who reports to whom, but also who used to report to whom, and who wants to report to whom (and who is friends with/dating whom!) • Understand people’s divisional and personal goals—what motivates them? • Be sure you’re using the same terminology/definitions as your stakeholders • Watch people’s reactions and expressions • How is the info you’re sharing being received? • “Lay pipe” • Set the stage for what you want to happen in the future • Sell your ideas up, down and sideways • Make people “barely uncomfortable” • Find the HiPPOs breeding ground • Where do they hang out? Can you insert yourself into their conversation?

9. Selling UX: Common Themes • Get to know your stakeholders • Speak their language • Become a trusted advisor • Demonstrate value (not necessarily a formally-calculated ROI) • Make allies throughout your/your client’s organization • Share data that is relevant/of interest to your stakeholders • Communication is critical

10. Content Strategy Consortium • The IA Summit held its first-ever consortium on content strategy this year • Content strategy has significant impact on and crossover with the field of information architecture • “Content strategy is to copywriting as information architecture is to design” (Rachel Lovinger) • Key articles on content strategy: • “Content-tious Strategy” by Jeffrey MacIntyrehttp://www.alistapart.com/articles/contenttiousstrategy • “The Discipline of Content Strategy” by Kristina Halvorsonhttp://www.alistapart.com/articles/thedisciplineofcontentstrategy • “Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data” by Rachel Lovingerhttp://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/content-strategy-the • Presentations from Consortium should all be uploaded to SlideShare • Also initiating an online community blog and e-mail discussion list