Monday Keynotes

Reltio's Megan Gilhooly noted that making unpopular policies more readable doesn't make them more popular. 

The problem with being a perfectionist is because it inhibits you from reliably using your data. One type of perfectionist looks for the perfect piece of data, never finds it, and never moves forward. Another type thinks their work is more "perfect," and doesn't trust others' work. And another type is hyper-critical of imperfection. 

How to break free from perfectionism when it comes to data. Perfect costs too much. Accept iterative progress. More precise might not be better. 

Maura Moran, of Contiem, addressed getting business buy-in. Trying to make a case for content investment is intrinsically hard. It's a bit niche, people don't understand what you're trying to do, and you're always competing with other projects. 

Key is to make you value visible in a way that resonates to stakeholders.

Identify the real value to your business. Two business case benefits: financial (ROI) and non-financial.

Align the project to company goals and culture. Reflect the language of the organization. 

You have to make the problem visible. May be that people don't think there is an issue. 

Know your stakeholders. Not only people in your workflow. Look for influential allies. Understand the approval process. Need to know when budgets are signed. Know who is on the approvals committee. Have private meetings and get questions answered early. Find a sponsor with influence. 

Have to be constant and consistent and memorable with communication. Your initiative can be cut after it's been approved. One team came up with the tagline "Taxonomies are our superpower." It helped to keep the visibility of their project high. 

Create a brand. Even come up with a logo--and use it!

Samantha Azzarello, of J.P. Morgan, told a story of building a content strategy from scratch. 

Came from an economist background, did not know much about content. Had lots of questions. But I knew if I built trust and credibility, could be successful. 

Content is super-regulated. But also has to be quick, responding to events. 

J.P. Morgan had never done a content strategy. To do strategy would need better organization and distribution. 

Building trust and credibility means building relationships, with honest communication, in the details.

Don't get to do it sometimes. Have to do it all the time, every time. 

Iterate with language, especially if something doesn't resonate. 

Deliverables go a long way to building trust and credibility. 

Being helpful, responsive, collaborative goes a long way. If  a stakeholder asks, if you can help and respond, it goes a long way. Being helpful and responsive can go a long way for when you need to ask for something. Note that this is not transactional.