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Workflow conversations
Yesterday, I talked about the “three gears” I consider the core components of workflow. In this post, I’d like to offer some questions that any association, book or magazine publisher can ask themselves to help prepare for a change in workflow.
In asking questions, you want to define what you have in place, identify where it is working and where it is not working, and document the things you need to do in the future (near-term to mid-term) that you aren’t doing or can’t do now. The kinds of questions that can help at this stage include:
Process
How is a typical book/magazine/web page created?
What’s the cycle time for creating basic content (weeks, days, hours)?
How well is the current process working (errors, rework, ability to meet schedules, ability to meet current expectations)?
What changes in expectations do you anticipate in the next couple of years?
Technology
What programs are used to create, manage and disseminate content (InDesign, Quark, Word, etc.)?
Do you have a content management system (CMS) in place? For how long? Has it met your expectations?
Do you have other systems in place (digital asset management, web content management are typical)? How are they linked to the CMS?
How has the technology set-up changed in the last few years? How do you think it needs to evolve?
Organization
How are the people doing content-related work organized?
Have the roles changed at all recently?
Is any work outsourced? How do you interact with these organizations (i.e., content conversion in India vs. someone co-located in a publishing operation)?
Are there any organizations whose work you would like to emulate?
In gathering information about how work is currently done, you can also get a sense of how deeply your staff has thought about workflow issues and how ready they might be to undertake a change.
You don’t need to go hog-wild asking questions like these. Try to have a conversation, take notes and then back-check against a list like this to see if there is anything missing. The more time a team spends talking about workflow, the better.
Posted by Don Linn
These are great Brian.
I think one other key question about cycle time is not only asking what it has been or is today, but what it will be in the near future.
At least in book publishing, it seems clear that cycle times will go from two or three seasonal sales cycles to a virtually continuous one.
Posted by Mike McNamara
Great points. It’s always the simple questions that I find solicit the best responses. Been asking my clients these types of questions for a number of years.
One I also ask is about who the client sees as their main competition, sometimes it’s quite revealing what they say. I suppose it’s similar to your question about emulation.
Posted by Brian O'Leary
I agree with both Don and Mike. There is great value in challenging yourself to look down the road at things like cycle time as well as competition. I find that clients, and potential clients, who have these conversations before they call a consultant are able to focus their use of external resources (and save money). They also stand a better chance of making a successful transition.
Posted by Mike McNamara
Great point about cycle times. Having also worked in Tech. Pubs. with its update cycles, getting publishers to understand what that means from a workflow, production & technology point of view always makes for interesting conversations.
Had one such conversation last week with a publisher about their Biography eBooks. Interesting times!