Office of Communications and Consumer Information

1. Office of Communications and Consumer Information The Tiny Type: All opinions expressed – especially the really outlandish ones – are mine alone. No IT staff was harmed in the making of this website. Relaunch/redesign of nhtsa.gov (based on a true story) Jim Schulte nhtsa.gov Content Manager

2. Office of Communications and Consumer Information NHTSA.gov redesign & CMSimplementation: Challenges, successes,really hard challenges, creativity… and what do you mean we won’t get any more money until 2007, maybe?

4. We were more ready for reality than reality was ready for us • NHTSA.gov launched in 1996 • Began as a billboard site; evolved to more consumer focus • Seemingly designed for the internal audience; organizational approach to content presentation • No official owner or decision-maker; IT became default editor/owner • Two scariest issues • Daughter sites had sprung up • Content management? People’s memories • End result • Warehousing of content • Nobody really knew what was where and why, how old, or how much

5. Top 10 key issues facing the project • 10. Impossible deadline • 9. Very small project team • 8. Huge internal skepticism • 7. Covert foot-dragging / overt turf tussles • 6. Taxonomy? What the hell do stuffed animals have to do with anything? • 5. Money, money, money, money • 4. What do you mean we didn’t buy workflow? • 3. I thought I was in charge? Who are you guys? • 2. Site licenses? We don’t need no stinking site licenses! • 1. We didn’t know what we didn’t know!

6. From zero to 60 in a relative nanosecond • The start • Internal discovery/decision process from Jan.-June ’04 • Met with Knowledge Advantage Inc. and Infused Solutions early July • Chunked down project into Phases • The fears • Could we speak the same language? • Didn’t want a two-ton pencil with a four-ton eraser • Didn’t want a drive-by delivery • The finish • Launched Phase 1 beta for internal audiences feedback on Oct. 4 • Went live on the web on Dec. 7

9. Reality bites: From 60 back to zero • What happened • No money, honey • What do you mean we didn’t pay for training? • Jettisoning key things to lightening the balloon • Shifting priorities: All consolidation, all the time • Champions leave, vacuum ensues • The impact • Phases 2-on are delayed • Expanding the user-base for the tool is delayed • Project has lost momentum; internal skepticism on the rise again

10. Necessity is a mother … of invention, even • We ain’t dead yet • Small-scale innovation and problem-solving • If you can’t change the tool, then change how you use it • Is anybody writing this down? • Build a test VCM as a test/staging server

17. If we had to do this over again … • The takeaways • Designate an Al Haig; Clear authority on the decisions is paramount • Market to the internal audience, often and then some more; they can kill you, or make you wish you were dead • Have a high-ranking champion … and a couple of white knights • It’s OK to be stupid; As long as you’re not afraid to ask questions • If you love it, set it free: Don’t get too wedded to a feature or function because it might not survive triage and fighting to keep it could impact the project • Change hurts: Never underestimate the amount of training/explaining/education you will have to do with your readers • Always try to break the tool/system as soon as possible • Choose well who you bring to the dance

18. But when all else fails … try these words to live by Semper Gumby or Keep cool, but do not freeze

19. Office of Communications and Consumer Information Questions? Rebuttals? Arguments? Jim Schulte 202.366.6651 james.schulte@nhtsa.gov