Taxonomy WorkshopsNovember 8, 2010, 11:30-12:30 ET

Rachel Sondag, Senior AssociateJill Tabuchi, Principal Analyst

Agenda

• What is Taxonomy?• Concept and Configuration• Workshop Approach• Challenges• What’s Next?

What is a Taxonomy

• Overall scheme for organizing content to solve a business problem:– Improve search. – Browse for content on an enterprise-wide portal.– Enable business users to syndicate content.– Provide the basis for content re-use.

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Agenda

• What is Taxonomy?• Concept and Configuration• Workshop Approach• Challenges• What’s Next?

Taxonomy Building

Manual/Top-down • Work with librarians and functionally- or

subject-based individuals or Focus Groups

• Identify overall ontology and major categories of information

• Subdivide categories as necessary to build taxonomy

• Individual-driven; may entrench obsolete or arbitrary categories

Automated/Bottom-up• Identify overall ontology and major

content collections• Analyze content collections using

automated textual analysis tools• Reveal major and minor topics of

information; build taxonomy based on the relationship of these topics

• Content-driven; may reveal new associations of information

Health Education

Finance

HR News Finance

Agenda

• What is Taxonomy?• Concept and Configuration• Workshop Approach• Challenges• What’s Next?

The Workshop Concept

User Focus

Convene a diverse group of users (representative of your end users)

Focus needs of end users and content owners

Simplification

Simplify requirements and guidelines to most basic level

Recognize that “better” is “good enough” to start…move forward from there

Iteration

Set expectations for long-term process

Focus on iterative design and evolutionary improvement

Workshop Configuration

Format Mix of training and exercises

Audience Cross section of subject matter experts and project owners; need solid representation of key departments/business units:

• Human Resources• Sales• IT

Mix levels, but ensure people are open to discussion and new concepts

Primary Goals

• Define taxonomy, metadata, and related terms consistently• Set expectations for long and challenging process:• Establish overall goals – create a “Starter Taxonomy” and initial

metadata strategy to be used as a jumping-off point• Create a value statement

Creating a value statement ensures all participants are on the same mission, and can describe and disseminate the project the same way

Business Case/Value Statement

• Provide example of summary Business Case and Taxonomy Justification:• “We are constructing a business taxonomy to provide our users

with an intuitive browse experience. Specifically, we want to construct a system that will allow both internal users (employees) and external users (customers) to navigate to find the latest product information, including sales reports. This will allow all users to access their core information faster, and with greater confidence. As a result, traffic on our website should increase by 40% and frequency of help desk calls should decrease by 20%.”

Business Case/Value Statement

• Five components of a successful business case:• Description of the issue - what’s changing? • Description of the issue’s importance - why are we changing?• Description of the benefits of addressing the issue - what’s in it for me

now? Later?• Description of the costs associated with the change - what is the

cost/benefit analysis for me and the business?• Measures for success - how will we know the change is accomplished?

Audience1. List all the potential audience (role) types for the taxonomy

For an external portal:EmployeesChannel Partners

DistributorsOEMsRepresentativesConsultants

CustomersOEMsEnd Users

Business PartnersPublic

InvestorsMediaAnalysts

For a public website:Educators

Pre-TeenTeenAdult

StudentsPre-TeenTeenAdult

BusinessesCommunity MembersMedia/PressInvestorsPolicymakersActivists

Verbs

2. Identify the “things we do”• Helps users move away from organizational lines• People have missions – the verbs align with the missions users

need to accomplish / need for information

Care for associatesBuildDesignProfitSellManufactureBuildDeliverStoreShipSupportManufacture

ManufactureDesignPurchaseSellMarketShipEnsure SafetyProvide SecurityTest QualityTrain UsersMarketPurchase

InnovateProvide SafetyTestMarketSupportGuaranteeTrainUseBuyWriteShipManufacture

Care for associatesDesignSupportManufactureMarketShipEnsure SafetyProvide SecurityLearnTeachProtectServe

Nouns

3. Identify the topics: Record all input, even repeats, for visual cognition!

CustomersProductsAssociatesPlanSupply ChainInfrastructureComplianceProductsCustomersFinanceAuditingAssociatesKnowledgeCustomers

SafetyEnvironmentProfitSafety TrainingEmployee BenefitsProductionQuality ProductsSalesMarketingQuality Control DeptProductsPeopleSafetySolutions

ComputersSupply ChainSalesResearchProductsProcessesTechnologyEmployeesResearchSafetyServicesSalesMarketingSafety

ProductsMarketingResearchCore IndustriesTrainingTeamsCompetitorsSalesEmployeesProductsResearchPlantKnowledge ManagementTraining

Nouns - Topics

4. Map topics

Nouns - Topics

5. Continue to map topics

EMPLOYEES PRODUCTS

SAFETY/HEALTH SALES/MARKETING

RESEARCH

FINANCIALS

MANUFACTURING

The Starter Taxonomy

• Employees• Products• Sales/Marketing• Financials• Safety/Health• Research• Manufacturing Process

Metadata Collection

6. Capture the non-topics on separate listing and then define them

FormsPoliciesProceduresNewsEventsMeeting Minutes

HR DepartmentAdministrationSales/MarketingLegal Department

PublicInternal UsersStudentsBusiness UserManagement

Washington, DCU.K.New York OfficeLondon Office

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Agenda

• What is Taxonomy?• Concept and Configuration• Workshop Approach• Challenges• What’s Next?

Lack of Understanding

• The primary concepts and value of taxonomy and metadata are often misunderstood:• Managers, Designers, Architects• Content Publishers• End Users

Complexity

• Organizations design overly complex taxonomies and metadata strategies:• Too deep and too wide• Too much jargon• Too many fields• Too many pick options• Too much variation

• Entry forms are often overly complex or lengthy

Compliance

• Regardless of training, education, threats, or enticements, many users will not provide effective Metadata

• Even the “best” content contributors typically won’t exceed a certain effort threshold

• Dilution Factor: The poor work of some devalues the good work of others

Resistance to Change

• Users will be averse to moving away from their existing ways of storing and finding information• Organizational to Topical• Secure access to more Open access

• Content owners will fear losing control of their content• Content Managers will fear losing their “role”

Agenda

• What is Taxonomy?• Concept and Configuration• Workshop Approach• Challenges• What’s Next?

Follow-on Process

• Consistently and repeatedly test progress using combination of card sorting exercises, focus groups, and usability surveys

• Engage additional end users for validation and guidance• Hold additional workshops to refine and provide greater

detail• Utilize focus groups for further validation and naming• Match with analytics, content analysis, and technologies as

complexity increases

Taxonomy Development Process

Identify Business

Case

¿Questions?

Rachel Sondag, + 703-748-7071, rsondag@ppc.com Jill Tabuchi, + 703-748-7108, jtabuchi@ppc.com

http://www.ppc.com

ASIST Taxonomy Webinar Series

• Introduction to Business Taxonomies– November 5th 11:30am-12:30pm EST– Joseph Busch and Zach Wahl

• Taxonomy Workshops– November 8th 11:30am-12:30pm EST– Rachel Sondag and Jill Tabuchi

• Practical taxonomy Design– November 10th 11:30am-12:30pm EST– Jill Tabuchi and Joseph Busch

• Taxonomy Governance and Maintenance– November 12th 11:30am-12:30pm EST– Nick Nylund and Joseph Busch

Summary

• This session presented a proven methodology to leverage your own organization’s stakeholders and system end users to design taxonomies. It detailed a practical approach to user-centered business taxonomy design that yields taxonomy designs that make sense to your users, while driving adoption and ensuring the ultimate usability of your designs.