10 A Model of Content Operations Maturity
Choose the roles, processes, and technology that will allow you to implement your content vision and strategy.
IT’S NOT WHAT THE VISION IS; IT’S WHAT THE VISION DOES.
—Peter M. Senge, systems scientist
DO OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO TRY.
—Yoda
You have a content vision and strategy—perhaps even more than one content strategy. You know what kind of effective and influential content you want to offer. You’re committed to establishing a system of content intelligence to inform ongoing content decisions. Now, you need to execute. Unfortunately, there is no content fairy ready to wave a magic wand. But there is a growing discipline that I call content operations, and it will help you sustain and even scale your implementation.
What Content Operations Is
Content operations is the behind-the-scenes work of managing content activities as effectively and efficiently as possible. Today, content operations often require a mix of elements related to people, process, and technology. Table 10.1 shows a sample.
Table 10.1 Sample Elements in Content Operations
PEOPLE |
PROCESS |
TECHNOLOGY |
|---|---|---|
Content roles Content responsibilities Company culture Content leadership Content training |
Content supply chain Content workflow Content localization Content governance Content templates |
Content management Content automation Content intelligence Artificial intelligence Content translation |
If this sampling already seems like more operations than you bargained for, you are not alone. Many companies I come across think of content operations as scrambling once each month to get a blog post together, if they think about content operations at all. It is time to think differently about your company’s content work.
Why Care About Content Operations
Amateurs talk strategy; professionals talk logistics, as the saying goes. If you are new to content, your instinct will be to underestimate the effort it takes to sustain and scale effective content. Even if you are not new to content, you are facing unprecedented change, as we discussed in the opening chapters. The demand for content that meets high customer expectations has never been greater. So in a way, we are all new to content and at risk of underestimating what it takes to succeed.
Considering content operations will help align your behind-the-scenes activities with your content vision and strategy so that you reduce the risk of failure and make repeating or scaling success easier. More specifically, considering content operations will help you gain efficiencies and make the most of your content assets by
Putting the right people in the right roles
Creating or streamlining processes
Distinguishing between maintenance and ongoing innovation
Choosing the technologies and tools with the right features to support your operations
To help companies plan for content operations, I developed a simple maturity model.
A Maturity Model for Content Operations
Statistician George Box once said, “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” In that spirit, I developed this maturity model to help companies “get real” about their content operations. The model can help your company identify your current level of content operations and then decide whether that level will support your content vision and strategy. If it doesn’t, then the model can help you plan to get to the next level of content operations.
I based this model on
My experience with in-depth consulting for dozens of companies and training for thousands of content professionals
Content leadership and operations studies conducted by Content Science, with 200 content professionals participating
So although this model might not be perfectly right, it’s informed by enough data and feedback to be useful. The model consists of five levels, as you can see in Table 10.2.
Table 10.2 The Five Levels of Content Operations
LEVEL |
DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
1. Chaotic |
No formal content operations, only ad hoc approaches |
2. Piloting |
Trying content operations in certain areas, such as for a blog |
3. Scaling |
Expanding formal content operations across business functions |
4. Sustaining |
Solidifying and optimizing content operations across business functions |
5. Thriving |
Sustaining while also innovating and seeing return on investment |
In our 2017 study of content operations, 51 percent of participants reported that their companies were at level 3, while only 5 percent of participants reported their companies at level 51 (Figure 10.1). I believe that our study sample was slightly skewed toward companies that care enough about content to hire content professionals. Based on my experience, I’d put most companies today at levels 2 or 3.
Figure 10.1: Results of a 2017 study of companies self-reporting their content operating levels
Let’s briefly walk through each level of content operations maturity.
Level 1—Chaotic: AD Hoc Approaches
At this level, content for most people is an afterthought. The key characteristics of this level are summarized in Table 10.3.
Table 10.3 Chaotic Characteristics
CHARACTERISTIC |
DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
People |
No content leadership exists. Few if any defined and dedicated content roles exist. No to little awareness and understanding of content value and issues by stakeholders exist. |
Process |
No content processes exist. If content is needed, it’s a last-minute scramble or even an emergency. Content is not evaluated, maintained, or governed. A change to content is made if there is a complaint or problem. |
Technology |
Few content considerations for technology decisions exist. A content management or marketing automation tool might be present but hasn’t been implemented thoughtfully. |
Level 2—Piloting: Bringing Some Order to the Chaos
At this level, the chaos continues in most areas, but enough people have felt the pain of content chaos or seen the potential of great content that they want to make a change (Table 10.4).
Table 10.4 Piloting Characteristics
CHARACTERISTIC |
DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
People |
Some informal content leadership is emerging. Content is becoming part of already existing roles, such as web development, graphic design, or marketing coordination. Stakeholders’ awareness and understanding of content value and issues are low but growing. |
Process |
A project plan for the pilot(s) is in place, but there are few or no ongoing content processes. Content outside the pilot is not evaluated, maintained, or governed. At least one pilot is used as a success story to gain support for more content operations. A change to content is made if there is a complaint or problem. |
Technology |
Few content considerations are used for technology decisions. A content management or marketing automation tool might be present but hasn’t been implemented thoughtfully. |
Level 3—Scaling: Trying to Repeat Success
With the scaling level, a company has experienced at least some success from piloting content operations and wants to expand the content operations (Table 10.5).
Table 10.5 Scaling Characteristics
CHARACTERISTIC |
DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
People |
A formal content leader, often at management level, is defined or hired. More distinct content roles are defined or hired, usually related to production, such as writer/editor or content designer. Stakeholders’ have growing awareness and understanding of content value and issues. |
Process |
New content efforts get a project plan. Content work is integrated into existing processes, such as marketing campaign planning or agile development. Additional content processes start to be identified. Interest in data to evaluate the impact of content grows. |
Technology |
Technology changes and new technology decisions start to factor into content. Implementation of existing technology and tools changes to better accommodate content work. New technology and tools for content work start to be evaluated and purchased. |
Level 4—Sustaining: Creating More Order than Chaos
Companies at this level of content operations are not only establishing content operations for each business function but also aligning them to create a core content capacity (Table 10.6).
Table 10.6 Sustaining Characteristics
CHARACTERISTIC |
DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
People |
An executive is defined or hired as a content leader. Content-related managers are defined or hired. More distinct content roles are defined or hired related to functions outside production, such as content strategist or content analyst. Stakeholders have widespread understanding of content value. |
Process |
New content efforts get a project plan. Content work that is integrated into existing processes is optimized. Additional content processes are established and working well. Content intelligence is established. |
Technology |
Technology changes and new technology decisions continue to factor in content requirements or needs. Implementation of existing technology and tools is optimized for content work. New technology and tools for content work continue to be evaluated and purchased. |
Level 5—Thriving: Maintaining Order and Systematizing Innovation
Companies with thriving content operations are doing everything at level 4, and they have enough resources to fund, ironically, returning to chaos in a controlled way—innovation. These companies devote some operational resources to explore where and how to innovate, and then pilot select innovations and eventually adopt them in core operations (Table 10.7).
Table 10.7 Thriving Characteristics
CHARACTERISTIC |
DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
People |
A chief content officer oversees all content efforts and operations and leads innovation. Additional content executives and managers are defined and hired. More distinct content roles are defined or hired related to functions outside production, such as content engineer. Stakeholders have widespread understanding of content value, though they still might view it as subservient to other capacities or functions. |
Process |
A process for ongoing content innovation and strategy is established. Content work that is integrated into existing processes is optimized. Additional content processes are established and working well. Content intelligence is used and applied regularly. |
Technology |
Advanced technology and intelligence are explored as part of content innovation. Technology changes and new technology decisions continue to factor into content. Implementation of existing technology and tools is optimized for content work. New technology and tools for content work continue to be evaluated and purchased. |
Large Companies Might Have Multiple Maturity Levels
If you’re a large company or enterprise, you might find that different areas of your company are at different levels of content operations maturity. That’s OK. You can use areas of your company that are more mature as models or sources of ideas for less mature areas. You might even be able to share technology and tools so that you can bring maturity across your company in efficient and cost-effective ways.
For example, I once worked with a large telecommunications client that had very different levels of content maturity operations in its business-to-consumer (B2C) functions compared to its business-to-business (B2B) functions. The B2C content teams operated at a solid level 3 and were making progress toward level 4. The teams were in the process of implementing a more sophisticated content management system, automating their workflow, and exploring how to use machine learning to optimize offers. Additionally, B2C teams were even hiring content engineers. However, B2B content teams had built a good rapport with the team and many stakeholders, and they were composed mostly of writers and editors and operated at level 2. The B2B operations had no content management system (really!), low visibility with content stakeholders, and frequent disagreements and miscommunications both within their team and with stakeholders. As the company realized the disparity, I worked with them to facilitate adapting what was working for the B2C teams to the B2B teams as well as to explore the use of the content management system and workflow tools across teams. The conglomerate has continued to make progress in maturing their content operations.
Small Businesses Can Mature Content Operations Quickly
With operations, small businesses can have a big advantage. Often, small businesses can get to level 3 or 4 much more quickly than a big business because they have less bureaucracy to overcome and more control over the entire customer experience. Burn, the spinning studio I mentioned in earlier chapters, was at level 4 from its start thanks to careful planning of the customer experience. Smart small businesses can also try to optimize solutions faster than larger ones. For example, the Rack Athletic Performance Center has solved the problem of sourcing content in several creative ways, such as
Forming a reward system where the Rack coaches earn the opportunity to contribute articles to a Knowledge Center. The articles are useful to customers and show the coaches’ expertise. Content is something coaches get to do, not something they have to do.
Profiling the Rack customers as they achieve goals and overcome challenges.
Integrating into their daily routines the taking and posting of photos and videos that demonstrate exercises, show clients using equipment, and more.
Encouraging customers to take photos and videos of themselves in action and post them to social media, where the Rack can repost them.
Automating a set of emails for new customers that orient them to the Rack and connect them to more useful content.
The Rack implemented and optimized these approaches over the course of a few months. A large company would take at least a year to do something comparable.
If you consider your company to be at level 3 or below, you’re not alone. In the next chapter, we’ll explore how to mature your content operations from your current level to the next level. If you assessed your company as level 4 or 5, the next chapter will help you maintain or increase that level as you scale.
References
1 “Content Operations and Leadership Study: Detailed Findings,” Content Science Review