Copyright © Joe Gollner 2013

The Technical

Communicator within

the Integrated

Product Lifecycle

Joe Gollner

Gnostyx Research Inc.

jag@gnostyx.com

www.gollner.ca

@joegollner

A Global Economy calls for

Continuous

process improvement

Maximized automation

Dynamically tailored products

Localized delivery & support

Reconfigurable supply chains

This Demands

Standardized parts

Flexible & dynamic assembly

for products, services & content

The Facts of Business Life

The Practice of Management

(1954)

Peter F. Drucker

XML Behind the Scenes

Extensible Markup Language

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation

A simplification of ISO8879 Standard Generalized

Markup Language (SGML) to enable portable web data

Massively influential on

• Technology interoperability

• Electronic data interchange

• Supply chain automation

• Internet commerce

• Social media integration

• eBook publishing

• Responsive web design…

Absolutely Central to the way business is conducted

Thomas L. Friedman

in his book

The World is Flat specifically focused on the

levelling effects of XML

XML

Enabled

supply chain automation

The drove the ability to

massively distribute

manufacturing & distribution

This is not a Secret

(2005)

What does this mean for Products?

ProductStrategy

Acquisition Delivery

Governance Operation

No Trade- offs Allowed

Specialization is

the order of the day

Not a bad thing

Not something that

can be reversed

What does this mean for Knowledge Workers?

(1993)

But

It does

pose us

challenges

in how we

communicate

There is a new

and more challenging

communication problem

to be solved

Not only do we need to make

technology understandable

to users….

We need to make technology

understandable in the first place

And what does this mean for Communicators?

(1932)

A Bigger Step than it may appear…

The Problem of Silos

Sound Familiar?

Course Materials

Documentation

Specifications

Whitepapers

Requirements

Un

coo

rdin

ated

C

on

ten

t Si

los

Un

coo

rdin

ated

C

ust

om

er E

xper

ien

ce

Knowledge Base

Sales Collateral

Training

TechComm

Engineering

Marketing

Product Mgt

Support

Sales

Case Study: Massively Integrated Systems

Market-Leading

Software Company

Embraced

Agile Methods

Embarked on

aggressive innovation

Ran straight into

the complexity of

their own product

& of their customers’

environments

Agile success led to

general failure

Agile meets Lean

Specialist departments, teams, individuals find it

harder and harder to communicate to each other

Don’t understand

each others’

Language

Goals

Constraints

Approaches

It shows

Specialization undermines itself

Some Questions Arise

The Roots of Lean

Training Within Industry (TWI)

World War II initiative

to mobilize US industry

Old School Engineering

All about communication

Cold War engineering was

powered by these practices

Example: Avro Arrow CF105

Dissipated in the 1980s….

Current Practices are not Sustainable

Content is

placed in the

center

of the

Integrated

Product

Lifecycle

Content

Lifecycle used

to connect all parts

of the product lifecycle

The Answer

Remind me: What is Content Again?

CONTENT

INFORMATION Content is

potential information

It is what we create

in order to produce

• Effective information

• Effective processes

• Effective products

It is a multitude of pieces

that come together including

automation components This is important

Inukshuk-shaped

communicators

Two horizontal areas

of specialization

• Writing, Illustrating,…

• Usability, Analysis,…

Two technical fields

of specialization

• Product discipline

• Publishing technology…

Why is this Important?

“I tell my people to be well-versed in two technological fields and in two

functional areas, like design and marketing. Even in an engineering-oriented

company like ours, you can't get ahead without the ability to foresee

developments in the market.” Epson executive quoted by Nonaka & Takeuchi

Information Analyst

Business Analyst

Taxonomist

UX Designer

Usability Specialist

Content Engineer

Cybrarian / Metador

Social Media Facilitator

Analytics Researcher

Content Strategist,…

Ascendant Specializations to Choose From

Product Certification becoming more

and more common as an expectation

No – Not Really

Competitive pressures make re-integrating the

product lifecycle mandatory

Technical

communicators

will make

themselves

a visible part

of the solution

or…

Is Adaptation an Option?

Making Connections

Joe Gollner

Gnostyx Research Inc.

www.gnostyx.com

jag@gnostyx.com

Twitter: @joegollner

Blog: The Content Philosopher

www.gollner.ca