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In a previous post, I talked a bit about the content strategy pyramid. As a brief recap, I stated that you should put your how-to content on the bottom of the pyramid (they are the most plentiful in your info-ecosystem), place white papers and case studies in the tier above them, and so on until you get to the top of the pyramid, where you put your roadmap pieces that tie everything together for the customer.

It’s time to make this a true three-dimensional pyramid. A pyramid has five sides–four faces that are vertical and a flat foundation (aha! gotcha!). In this post, I’m going to ask you to turn the pyramid a bit so you can see the next face, which we’ll fill in with your capabilities. In a few days I’ll ask you to turn the pyramid once more, and that’s when we’ll talk about your audience. A few days after that we’ll cover user experience design. Finally, we’ll cover the foundation for any good content strategy pyramid–research & improvement.

For right now, though, let’s talk about your capabilities.

Like the content face of the content strategy pyramid, the capabilities face is also tiered. No groaning allowed–this face only has three tiers:

• The bottom tier is all about infrastructure. Do you have a CMS or electronic publishing system? A database to hold information? Tools like Dreamweaver, Framemaker, Robohelp, Photoshop, Fireworks? Do you have Documentum or Subversion for keeping track of versioning? More is definitely not better–the key to success with infrastructure is having the right tools to take on the job before you. No way are you going to be able to keep up with a 2000 content item Web site with text editors and Photoshop.
• The second tier is all about workflow. This is where the rubber meets the road in any publishing endeavor. Who does what with which documents and assets, who has access to which file repositories? Who needs approval from legal to publish documents? Workflow is usually run by some kind of computerized system, but don’t limit yourself. Workflow is also about office politics, working well together, and staying within regulatory boundaries. For example, posting a press release too soon may not be a big deal if you are a privately held firm, but public firms have to follow rules about disseminating information to the public.
• The top tier is about policy. A strong editorial policy will help you define who your audience is, what you will and won’t publish, how your content effort supports the goals of the organization, what kinds of advertising you show visitors, how often you publish, and what would constitute a good reason to stray from the rules. For example, you may only publish every few days, but a late-breaking story that affects your customers might prompt you to not only publish materials on your web site but also push out a special unscheduled e-newsletter.

PWI — policy, worfklow, infrastructure. Do you need all three to succeed? Of course not. We’ve seen plenty of organizations that have no written policies, haphazard workflow, and next to no infrastructure. Yet they manage to add lots of content to their web site…but that’s just it. They use the “let’s see if it sticks to the wall” method, without any idea if the content actually aligns with organizational goals, say, or if it complies with good regulatory practices.

So long until next time.

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