Change can be delight-ful:

digital strategy @ Harvard

Perry Hewitt | October 6, 2014

Photo credit: Strolic Furlan

VIDEO

1. Re-imagining a news platform: From static destination to active syndication

2. Getting social: Aggregated, coordinated, shareable (& true)

TODAY’S CHANGE STORIES

Re-imagining a news platform

1.

Influence

Control

2009

Transitioned from hand-coded HTML to “blogging software” WordPress• Quick win• MVP approach

3 months from conception to launch

• Managed small internal team + vendors

• Trained editors on CMS

• Ported 500 stories and iFramed the rest; redirect strategy

• Moved hosting from in-house to MediaTemple to Rackspace

2013Continued to iterate based on audience needs, analytics data, news trends • Platform for

storytelling• Responsive• Award-winning

Designers and developers brainstorm ideas and approaches in the same room

There are small details, but no trivial ones

Getting social2.

aggregated

coordinated

coordinated

shareable

1st University Twitter account

1st University YouTube channel

1st #harvard10

1st aggregated mobile application

0 to 3.6M fans in 5 years

Clearing the bar & keeping momentum

Drivers wanted.

(for both kinds of leadership)

Find a quick win that solves a problem

Embrace and celebrate the MVP versus

detour down consensus highway

Allow risk, but know what’s acceptable

failure

Share your mistakes and lessons

learned

In the enterprise, keep one eye on the

horizon

Checklist for change agents

“pragmatic fields from science to politics to business are looking to design for ‘inspiration, alternative processes, metaphor and a bit of uplift’”

thank you