The Art of Taxonomy Luke Bragg Director of Enterprise Architecture MSD / Merck Luzern, Switzerland

• I was born in colorado • I studied international relations and political

science • I work for MSD/Merck, first in their veterinary

business and now in human health • I know a little bit about… enterprise architecture,

digital strategy, multi-channel marketing, content management, taxonomy design, ‘beyond-the-pill products/services

• I have lived in the US, Ukraine, Russia, The Netherlands and now reside in Switzerland

• I can juggle, yet I can’t multi-task

J. Boye Aarhus 14 - Networked Knowledge in Action 5 November 2014

The Art of Taxonomy Luke Bragg Director of Enterprise Architecture MSD / Merck Luzern, Switzerland

• Mission… • to share my experiences with developing a

framework for thinking about taxonomy implementation

• hear about your trials and tribulations as well • Scope…

• customer facing multichannel content taxonomy (not ERP-based taxonomy)

• To Ponder… • your experience with taxonomy • how you see its role in digital trends • organizational challenges

J. Boye Aarhus 14 - Networked Knowledge in Action 5 November 2014

3

why is a

taxonomy important?

Content Context Channels Devices

Differentiator

Commodity

Content Context

Channels Devices

Differentiator

Commodity

good content rises to the top

good context -> findability

content streams are the trend

smart matching

channels will improve on a predictable path

disruption will occur

device evolution

6

what does good look like?

guiding principles‣ taxonomy should align with how we talk about our

business but should also improve on that reality ‣ taxonomy should be institutionalized into our

business and be the oxygen for our multi-channel efforts

‣ ease of administration and maintenance is paramount and all solutions should be elegant

‣ sacred cows make the best hamburger : everything we’ve done before needs to re-justify its existence

‣ the enterprise/market challenges addressed thoughtfully and not centered on largest market

serving The Three Masters…

… and the key business goals ‣ incentive structure must be in place to ensure the highest possible

completeness and accuracy of metadata ‣ ease of use and support material for non-technical people to manage

metadata at the content level as a natural part of a content administrators role ‣ future-proofing for the next-gen scenarios (such as personalization) by

imagining future scenarios and baking them in now.

Reporting & Analytics business intelligence based on

who, what, where, why, when, & how - mapping content’s

interactions & life across channels

Channel Features metadata used by the specific

channels to aggregate, display, & otherwise manipulate individual

content for specific purposesPersonalization the ability to match content & services with

customers based on explicit profile information or based on digital body

language

organizational challenges‣ existing

taxonomies • retrofitting

required (ROI?) ‣ complex

stakeholders ‣ low

understanding of taxonomies

‣ focus on governance, sponsorship & ownership

‣ ROI of a good taxonomy ‣ future integrations ‣ admin costs ‣ channel templates ‣ future proofing

the future state… the ‘meta’‣ a comprehensive customer-facing taxonomy

integrated into all of your digital efforts and institutionalized in the organization

‣ clear governance allowing perpetual improvements & growth of taxonomy based on the feedback loop of The Three Masters

‣ productized of taxonomy • exposed & promoted within the organization • detailed like a product (categories & keywords) • examples of insights, content-profile matching, dynamic

functionalities fueled by taxonomy

/

the future state - the ‘micro’‣ all content and services travel with

all their relevant context in the forms of metadata driven by our taxonomy

‣ distributed through any channel or made available to any stream; either internal or external channels

‣ can be coupled and aggregated with related content & services based on its context

‣ matched up with customers based on metadata and profile information (either explicit or digital body language)

‣ travels with an analytics beacon to report back on its interactions and life cycle (the who, where, why, how)

Content & Services

Context

12

the secret sauce

the secret sauce‣ what’s the elevator pitch for including this metadata

field? What’s it’s story? ‣ how will the values for this metadata be produced?

• populated automatically or by a real live human being • if human, how will they know the right value? role-based

knowledge? • are all fields universally required or is it based on type of

content? ‣ will this metadata field have a list of possible

values? • are these values universal or different per market or audience? • how is this list of possible values managed? • how organic is this list? does it grow or shrink often?

challenger questions - part 1

the secret sauce‣ how will the metadata be consumed? by which master?

• analytics/reporting • channel function • personalization?

‣ where is the most appropriate place in the content hierarchy for this metadata to be captured? • note: this is the most neglected yet most important question to ask • by automation based on relevant context from outside your cms? • at the content level by a content admin? • through context of where the content resides? folder, website,

page? ‣ is there a dynamic relationship between metadata

fields?

challenger questions - part 2

Key takeaway : the art comes before the science

‣ A quality taxonomy implementation is about caring about your content and services and preparing them to go out into the big bad world with everything they need to survive and thrive. It will involve the soft sciences of change management, betting the proper buy-in, and making sure everything in your taxonomy serves a specific purpose. And it’s important to imagine what it all looks like, how it all operates, beforehand. Have a vision (and work to sell that vision) and work backwards from there.

‣ All these things need to be considered carefully before anyone turns on a computer or writes a line of code

J. Boye Aarhus 14 - Networked Knowledge in Action 5 November 2014

The Art of Taxonomy

Questions / Discussion