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Why Content Projects Fail
…and what we can do about it.
@gadgetopia
Content projects fail.
Five reasons why they fail.
Five things we might do to prevent it.
Spoiler:None of these problems are technical
How Projects Fail
• AbortiveFails to launch
• QuantitativeFails to make project numbers
• ROI / GoalsDoesn’t bring about desired change
• Expectations“It just doesn’t feel like I thought it would.”
Disclaimer
This is not meant to be accusatory.
#1Case Study Syndrome
You know what you’re doing.
You have a very limited and slanted view of what other people are actually doing.
Case Study Syndrome
• “I read this in a case study, so clearly everyone is doing it.”
• People don’t produce case studies about things that didn’t happen.
• Form of Survivor Bias.
No one writes case studies about the 99% of companies that aren’t doing anything
interesting.
“The Law of Narrative Gravity posits that the public and press are drawn to narratives, and the
more widely accepted a narrative, the more it attracts and shapes the perception of facts.”
− Aaron Zamost for BackChannel
Case Study Syndrome is the sum total of all the things you’re convinced you should
be doing.
Not right for your organization.
Not enough staff.
Not the right skills.
Not your most pressing problem.
Case Study Syndrome steals attention away from more critical problems that you
can actually solve.
#2
Development Myopia
Building a New Home
• Deciding to move
• Developing floor plans
• Buying a lot
• Budgeting for construction
• Apply for financing
• Preparing to move
• Actually moving
• Redecorating
• Buying new stuff
• Learning how to use new stuff
• Planning new services
• Planning new commute
• Changing vehicles
• Changing schools
• Sending address changes
• Throwing a house-warming party
Transitioning to a New Home
We tend to focus on what we think is (1) novel or (2) risky.
Training / Re training
Migration
Internal Marketing / Reporting
Governance
Infrastructure
Tool
Productization
Sales and Marketing
Ecosystem
Multi-User
Scaling
Far more projects have failed over non-development issues than vice-versa.
#3Control Fixation
We often want effort put into things that don’t provide much measurable value but
make us think we’re in “control.”
“I love it when a plan comes together.”
− John “Hannibal” Smith
Control Fixations
• Workflow
• Dashboards
• Multi-site management
• Exhaustive content management
• Form building• Pseudo-application development
“Return on Management”
More effort has been wasted chasing control more than almost any other aspect
of a website project.
#4Deus Ex Machina
The Truth
• There’s a good chance significant parts of our problem originated external to technology
• We tend not to look to people, governance, or process, because these things exist now
• If problems could been fixed without new technology…why weren’t they?
• It’s easy to say, “things will be better when we have new technology because we’ll have something we don’t have now.”
Software is one aspect of a content environment, and it’s rarely the most
important one.
#5Big Bang Syndrome
Things that leave on Day 2…
• Your budget
• Your staff
• Your contractors
• The attention of the C-level
• Any sense of urgency
• Your enthusiasm
• Your job?
Many projects never make the leap from project to program.
In reality, the only time a website is “done” is when it’s permanently removed from the
Internet.
Launch day is not the finish line.
It’s the starting line.
1. Case Study Syndrome
2. Development Myopia
3. Control Fixation
4. Deus Ex Machina
5. Big Bang Syndrome
OMG, this is depressing.
Five Things We Can Do
#1
Put First Things First
Stop trying to solve Problem B before you’ve solved Problem A.
Questions to Ask:Content Strategy
• Do you know who your audiences are?
• Do you know what they want from your organization?• Not your website; your organization
• Do you know how they try to get it from your website?
• Do you have content to fill those needs?
People Need Behavior Content
Questions to Ask:Content Management
• Can your editors publish a page of content according to their own standards of quality?
• Can your editors aggregate content according to their own needs?
• Can they collaborate as a team to their level of satisfaction?
• Can they do this without unreasonable frustration?
Questions to Ask:Governance and Stakeholders
• Who is your ultimate stakeholder?
• What is their model of success?
• Are they comparing this project to others?• (Spoiler: yes)
• Which projects, and what about those projects makes them a model of success?
“Six months after this project launches, what needs to happen for us to think that it
was all worth it?”
We’re so determined to be amazing that we don’t stop to check that we’re any good.
#2
Plan from True Beginning to True Ending
Do not fixate on development.
Build Web Site
Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 5 Task 6 Task 7 Task 8 Task 9
Non-Implementation Tasks
• Governance planning
• Training / Retraining
• Internal Marketing
• Post-Occupancy Evaluations
• Content Migration / Operations
• Load testing
• Documentation
• QA and Rework
• Political / Organizational Disputes
• Post-Launch Revisions
• Staff Turnover / Continuity
• Editorial Optimization
Pretend that the actual build is guaranteed.
What else do you have to do?
Start: “Hey, maybe we should do something about the website…”
(time passes…)
Start: Development Begins
End: Website Launches
(time passes…)
End: “Hey, aren’t you glad we did something about the website?”
#3
Keep Rough Edges in Context
Vendors and integrators are in an arms race of promises, fueled by irrational belief
from customers.
“One-Stop Shop”
“Integrated”
“Seamless”
“Unified Platform”
“Perfect”
Perfect is the enemy of good
“Return on Management” is a perfectly valid decision factor.
Factors to Determine ROM
• Frequency of the situation addressed• How often does it occur?
• Lead time of the situation addressed• How far will we be able to see it coming?
• Post-launch proximity to the people who can affect the situation.• How big of a deal is it to change manually?
Have honest, direct conversations about budget/polish trade-off.
Cutting corners is sometimes a perfectly acceptable practice.
#4Don’t Confuse Means and Ends
Technology is a means, not an end.
It’s perfectly reasonable to source content and functionality from outside the CMS.
Spend your money on things that matter.
#5
Set the Stage for Incremental Improvement
This is a process, not a moment.
The Sad Truth: Some things just won’t work…
• It won’t fit your content/marketing model
• You won’t be able to staff it
• Existing staff will turnover• A “feature champion” might leave
• Your plans will change over time
• It may have just been a bad idea
You need to indoctrinate your organization to the current website as one stage in an
evolution.
If you don’t like something, just wait a minute…
“We’re programmers. Programmers are, in their hearts, architects, and the first thing they want to do when they get to a site is to bulldoze the place
flat and build something grand. We’re not excited by incremental renovation: tinkering,
improving, planting flower beds.”
− Joel Spolsky
“I was drawn to medicine by the aura of heroism—by the chance to charge in and solve a
dangerous problem.”− Atul Gawande
“Success is not about the episodic, momentary victories. It is about the longer view of
incremental steps that produce sustained progress.”
− Atul Gawande
Incrementalism is where innovation happens.
Fixed Mindset
vs.
Growth Mindset
1. Put first things first
2. Plan from true beginning to true ending
3. Keep rough edges in context
4. Don’t confuse means and ends
5. Set the stage for incremental improvement
Why do content projects fail?
It’s not due to a lack oftechnical heroism.
It’s due to an abundance ofposturing.
All sides of thecustomer, vendor, integratortriad are guilty of posturing.
Realism
Honesty
Advocacy
