subject: How Do You Simplify Access To Knowledge? [print this page] An organization that provides an online network for senior financial executives has an immense amount of content on its web portal. To improve the user experience of their target audience, they want to make access to this knowledge very simple. How do you simplify access to knowledge?
Notes from a conversation with John Kogan, CEO, Proformative:
Let's start by defining the challenge. We have a very rich portal which contains an immense amount of content potentially valuable to senior corporate finance executives. We have many ways to access this content - perhaps too many. Our objective is to get the highest quality answers in front of the user with the least effort on the their part. Google has done a very good job of pulling the best content to the top given a million possibilities to each query. If we can do this, we become the Google of finance and accounting!
Most people know what they want when they come to a site. We have started by stripping the interface down to create a very clean user experience to allow them that good "line of sight."
You might want to think of the triage approach in emergency care to see how we target the right content. The objective is to allow the user to identify the right content with a small number of targeted questions. From the user perspective, exposing the wrong content is a waste of time. We want to show them high quality content which directly addresses their need with a compelling answer.
To develop this content, you must have a very open mind. It's not about what you yourself want to say, but understanding the user's needs and addressing these. All sacred cows must go on the table. You have to be guided by the data to tell you what's going on on the site and what the user wants to see, and then provide information relevant to the user. This is especially the case when there is so much content on your site.
Achieving this when we are not marketing geniuses means that we must find people who are smarter than us in these areas and get input from them. In the end, your company is no better than the ideas that you can either dream up or gather from others. We constantly seek new and fresh perspectives from investors, advisors, users and potential users.
Finally, you have to assume that you will be ready to do something with the data that you gather. Too many companies suffer from information paralysis. You have to figure the key challenges out and make the changes necessary to execute your plan. The solution is Vision plus Will plus Doing it!
