km chicago ymca of the usa's extranet - march 2014

Lisa Tallman lisatallman@gmail.com

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The Evolution of YMCA of the USA’s Extranet

Agenda Introductions The Evolution

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Who AM I?

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My Career

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About The YMCA

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More than 2,600 YMCAs branches collected into~900 associations

20,000 full-time staff 200,000 part-time staff 500,000 volunteers Serving 9 million youth and 12 million

adults in 10,000 communities

YMCA of the USA

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National RESOURCE CENTER, not a headquarters

~350 staff Chicago Small Washington, DC office Many telecommuters and field professionals

Y-USA supports (just about) anything a Y does

The Evolution

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KM at Y-USA

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Hired in March 2011 Officially a department of 1, but with one

person assigned to me Decentralized structure Subject matter experts and publishers

dispersed throughout departments Influence but no authority

Steering Committee with cross-departmental representation

2010-2013 Strategic Plan

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Develop and implement a robust knowledge sharing and collaboration site to enhance collaboration within the Y Movement.

Exchange should be the Movement’s online resource for knowledge sharing and collaboration to strengthen communities. • By the end of 2013, 75% of surveyed

individuals who use the collaboration pages on Exchange will report high levels of satisfaction with their experience

Year 1 – 2011 Focus

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Content migration Technology build Learn the Y and build relationships

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Content Migration

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20 working sessions with ~100 SMEs Working session agenda: Project overview Wireframe review Bucketing exercise Site landing page drawing exercise Content analysis and migration process

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Lessons Learned

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First impressions mean a lot Relationships are key Know the important players Y-USA culture Welcomed knowledge management Decided shift from print to online Tendency to over-complicate

Technology – level of customization is relative to your starting point

The New Exchange

Learn. Share. Connect.

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Learn •The best practices, latest thought leadership and research to maximize the Y’s effectiveness in strengthening community

Share •Our experiences and stories help us all realize we are part of one, larger Movement

Connect •Unlock the incredible talent and knowledge in the Y – enabling us to create and innovative, effective and timely responses that advance our cause

Site Review

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2012 Focus

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February Launch Finish content migration Internal training Transition to Exchange maintenance Communication to the Movement

2012 Lessons Learned

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Needed more communication and training for the Movement, what we did was not enough: Direct emails Promoted in other communication vehicles,

such as newsletters Emailed monthly digest of select content Y conference presentations Tutorial

3 month survey results Looks great, but I still can’t find anything

2013 Focus – Strategic Plan

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Articulate a long-term vision Awareness and adoption Improve the interaction with online

communities Compelling and actionable content Integration with other systems for a “one-

stop shop” user experience

Long-Term Vision

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What We Launched With

What We Create Today

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Where we Are Today

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A Dream Deferred – Mobile

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PLAN YOUR EXCHANGE SITE An 8-Step Thinking Exercise

1 • What are Y staff looking

for when they come to your site?

• What are Y-USA’s goals for the site?

• What actions do you want visitors to your site to take?

Put Goals First 2 • What content will

visitors consider most important?

• What content is necessary to meet the site’s goals?

• This content may or may not exist already.

• Try to limit to maximum of 3 pieces.

Identify Vital Content 3 • How can you grab

visitor’s attention? • How can you encourage

visitors to take desired actions?

• How can you use visuals to make important content more interesting?

Examples: calls to action, submit story/tool/template, diagrams, webinars

Plan Engagement 4 • List all content that

needs to be present, whether or not it exists now

• Are edits/branding needed?

• Can content be simplified? Is it appropriate for online use?

• Is there related content elsewhere on Exchange? How does it fit in?

Take Inventory

5 • What pages do you

need? • What should be on each

page? • Sketch pages starting

with simple boxes, then refine

• Consider where content would be static vs. dynamic

• After capturing ideas, refine them into a mockup reflecting visuals and real content.

Choose Layout 6 Take time to review quality and usability before you publish and at regular intervals thereafter.

• Is featured content timely or out of date?

• Is text effective for online reading (e.g., simple vocabulary, short sentences and paragraphs, use of visual indicators like headings, bullets, and bolding.

• Do images look sharp? Do they complement the content?

• Do all links work? • Does anything take a long

time to open?

Review Usability 7 • How can you help Y staff

find vital content? • Where does crosslinking

make sense? • How can you

communicate about the site?

• How can you leverage alerts?

Raise Visibility 8 • Get a baseline and set

measurement targets, then measure regularly.

• Experiment to see what works.

• Plan your content to keep it timely. Think ahead to what content you want to feature in a certain month or season.

• How can you repurpose existing content or highlight user-generated content?

Manage and Maintain

2013 Lessons Learned

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Overly ambitious communication plan resulted in poor execution

Experimenting with design team was great, but

Must maintain goal of consistency Less tech-savvy staff must be able to maintain

Simpler process works Usability testing is invaluable

2014 Focus

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Communication, communication, communication

Major revamps with sponsorship by senior leadership

Internal training and consistent reusable design elements

Integrate online, editorial, and marketing communication processes

Mobile is back

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2014 Communication Plan

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A Dream Resurrected

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lisatallman@gmail.com

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Thank You