Enterprise Search - How to triage problems quickly and prescribe the right medicine

Helen Lippell Enterprise Search Europe, 30 April 2014

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Search and discovery

•Search is important - plenty of demand for scalable, powerful tools

•Search is evolving

• Big Data (or is it the less-snappy “Lots of Different Data”)

• Structured data and semantics (not just searching free text for keywords)

• Search tech underpins other applications e.g. BI and analytics

• Rise of open-source

• But, for many, search within the enterprise still isn’t what it

could be - Sometimes people just want to find their company’s holiday form

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Agenda

•Methodology for triaging search problems

–With an emphasis on workability

–Laying foundations for bigger improvements

•Cumulative experience of years in the trenches, both as in insider and an outsider

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“Search is rubbish!”

• Has there been an outbreak of “Something must be done”itis?

• Is this true?

• What’s not working?

• Who is saying this?

• Users

• Senior management

• Other stakeholders

• Noisy stakeholders

• You?

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Start from where you are • Who owns Search?

• …If anyone?

• E.g. IT/ Comms / Editorial

• Who owns the data (and where is it)?

• Who owns the technology?

• Who, if anyone, is accountable?

• Useful to understand how the land lies when looking for support and focus

Where to start

• Set realistic expectations for the work

– Don’t over-promise – It should be achievable

• A great search experience is

the result of a blend of disciplines and skills

– Search might have one champion but no ‘knight in shining armour’ will fix it alone

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Information management

Search tech management

Content creation

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How bad a state is your search in?

If your search is known colloquially among users as the Random Page

Generator, it needs some TLC

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1. User needs

2. Content

3. User interface

4. Technology

5. People and process

•It’s a holistic approach

•Which areas get most of your attention will depend on your own time, interests and who else you can call on

•Some recommendations might seem straightforward or obvious – but if search was easy there wouldn’t still be user dissatisfaction…

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1. User needs

• Arguably the most important area to look at • Data, data and more data • Get query logs • As much as you can to start with

• Analyse them

• Repeat…with a sustainable process ((read “Search Analytics for your Site”)

• Determine user intent

• Group common task searches together to aid prioritisation of content review

• Aim is to derive insights to shape and complement everything else I’ll cover

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2. Content

• Content is king (but you might be in a republic) – Search experience function of the quality of the content that is indexed • Do a content audit – Duplicates / Redundant, Outdated, Trivial / Bad metadata

• Start with a sample, even if only small • Content howlers can be great for powerful anecdotal evidence of problems:

• “lorem ipsum” • “title goes here” • “deletethis” • “Arial bold 14” • “Helen’s test content” (embarrassing)

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Metadata

• A “Minimum Viable Product” to aim for should be good, unique page titles and descriptions/summaries

• Also consider: – Tagging for different user groups – Last modified date (and other date fields) – Owner/author/creator – Subject tags (whether from a taxonomy or user-

generated)

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Content strategy and information architecture

• Search is one part of a wider information ecosystem – It shouldn’t look like the tube map on a strike day • Review:

• Overall IA • Other tools like A-Z • How easy it is to access search from elsewhere • Are there different search functions?

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3. User interface

• No need to reinvent the wheel, lots of prior art in search UI design thinking

• Focus on quick wins – May be limited capability and appetite for redesign projects

and template changes • Seek out guerilla feedback – Informal research fine for triage • Eliminate page clutter – Default settings? Long-forgotten feature requests? • Review information displayed for each result • Facets and filters • Aim is to build confidence!

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4. Technology

• How easy is it to tinker with the platform? • Has it been configured well? At all? – Configuration must suit what is being indexed eg document

length, format • Is anything documented? – What features are switched on? What were the out-of-the-box

settings? • Is there a test environment? If not, get one • Review features and defaults e.g. Boolean searching,

synonyms, indexing, spellcheck • Benchmark, and repeat often

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5. People and process

• Hearts and minds • Ongoing quality management

• Accountability • User research • Dedicated people resource • Regular editorial and tech tasks • Co-ordination across teams • Support and guidance to content authors

• Stakeholder workshops • Listen to moans • …but don’t allow a big grumblefest • Elicit unmet needs, offer reassurance

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Prescription

• You can do triage relatively quickly

–Prioritise areas for action

– Identify recommendations – and be prepared to follow them through

• Delineate quick wins and longer term strategy

• Shout about successes

• Iterate

• Strategy and culture change take longer

• Ideally, Search should have a dedicated team

• If Search is very political, consider outside help

Thank you helen.lippell@pressassociation.com @octodude @pressassoc