Our customers often face complex content problems that hinder their efficiency, scalability, and customer satisfaction. These challenges cost the enterprise money, time, and risk. They often try to solve the problem by buying new software – and then wonder why they still have unacceptable levels of risk, wasted time, or cost throughout their enterprise content lifecycles.
Technology alone rarely solves complex business problems.
The first thing I do when solving a big, complicated, insurmountable content problem is to break it down in smaller problems that can be solved. Over the years I have developed a simple framework that I call the Triage Triangle.
The Triage Triangle divides complex content problems into three categories: Content, People, and Technology. By addressing each of these areas separately, I can identify root issues and put the right team of skilled professionals on each one.
READ MORE: Do you know the difference between content problems vs process problems? Take this quiz!
Understanding the Triage Triangle
The Triage Triangle is a simple framework that helps you separate a big problem into smaller problems so that you can solve them. If you can’t figure out which category a problem falls into, you likely haven’t broken down the big problem into small enough pieces.
Content Problems
Content issues are present in the content itself. They include problems such as:
- Inaccurate information
- Incorrect spelling and grammar
- Missing info
- Mixed messages
- Wrong language
- Inconsistent style
- Outdated or inconsistent media
Content problems can be very difficult to identify and address when you are steeped in your organization’s content. In-house teams are typically too close to the content to truly assess how findable or usable it is to a customer.
It is very common for businesses to look at process or technology and forget to look at the content itself. In my decades of analyzing enterprise content, I can tell you truthfully that the state of your content tells me a lot about the state of your organization. Many of your challenges with people and technology show up in the content.
READ MORE: Try this to improve your AI performance
People Problems
People problems are present in business process and organizational culture. They include problems such as:
- Resistance to change
- Lack of awareness of opportunities
- Lack of training
- Poor communication
- Building old process into new software
Often the business attempts to solve people problems by (a) throwing technology at it or (b) tweaking process. Neither of these actions address the root issues, which have more to do with awareness and engagement than with tasks or tools.
People problems can be challenging to resolve. They require understanding of organizational dynamics and the human factors that influence content creation and management.
As we say at Content Rules, “technology is easy, people are hard.”
READ MORE: This one approach could solve a lot of your content problems right now.
Technology Problems
Technology problems are present in the tools and systems you use to create, manage, and deliver content. They include problems such as:
- Wrong tools
- Too many tools
- Customizations
- Workarounds galore
- Performance barriers
- Access barriers
It’s tempting to solve technology problems by applying more technology. Unfortunately, that is not a guaranteed path to success (and in fact, is often the reason your organization has technology problems in the first place).
Applying the Triage Triangle
Let’s take a common example. Every organization struggles with findability. This broad issue can be divided into specific content, people, and technology problems. Perhaps the content is outdated or contradicts itself (content issue), employees are not adequately trained or motivated to optimize content for findability (people issue), or the existing content repository and search technology is insufficient (technology issue).
Now you can address each aspect individually.
- Content – Update or archive outdated information, correct inconsistencies, and tag content correctly
- People – Train people to follow terminology, taxonomy, and metadata standards, which will help in the short term while you begin the longer-term initiative of adopting structured content
- Technology – Ruthlessly evaluate technology against your business needs and make changes accordingly
Separate, Isolate, and Recombine
The key principle of the Triage Triangle is the concept of “separate, isolate, and recombine.” This approach involves dividing the big problem into many little ones, focusing on each problem, and then putting it all back together. This method prevents the common pitfall of becoming so paralyzed that you can’t even start or can’t see the business transformation initiative through the end.
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