An Operating Model to Optimize Content Operations (and Probably Lots of Other Stuff)

Michael Spenceley is Leader, Learning & Content Standards - Innovative Medicine at Johnson & Johnson and a CMS Critic Contributor. 

Most organizations understand content operations, even if there are differences in how it's executed. Generally speaking, it's the foundation of people, processes, and technology that enables a brand to manage its content at scale across a multitude of channels. But it's also a living, breathing activity that requires continuous maintenance and consideration. 

Regardless of how you navigate the ebb and flow of creating, reviewing, publishing, and managing your content, there are fundamentals that almost every model shares – and areas where things can be optimized and improved.

In my years of managing content across large enterprises with distributed teams in highly regulated industries, I've formulated an operating model for optimizing content operations. Not only has it proven very successful in content applications, but it also has the potential to improve collaboration, support strategic goals, and enhance other facets of your business operations.

Why is this important?

You may already intuitively think about your operation in this way. However, this structure provides a clear path for continuing to optimize your operation over a longer period. 

It also gives your team and your broader organization a clear language to articulate where and how work gets done today and a roadmap to get it to where it should be in the future. 

While I’ve framed this concept in the context of content operations, most of it likely applies to any service delivery operation across a wide range of processes and industries.  

What is it?

This model provides a clear set of options for how work gets done, where it gets done, and who does it – with a focus on ensuring that the how, where, and who is fit for purpose based on the nature of the work. 

Here is an example of a tiered operating model: 

• Tier 1 – Stays with the business
  • Mostly strategic work that requires a high level of business or product subject matter expertise
  • Highest cost tier 
• Tier 2 – Centralized content services
  • Mix of tactical and strategic, requires moderate level of business or product subject matter expertise, significant content strategy expertise, and proximity to business stakeholders in tier 1
  • Lower cost tier
• Tier 3 – Outsource/Offshore
  • Mostly transactional, requires low level of business or product subject matter expertise but still requires human intervention
  • Low-cost tier
• Tier 4 – Automate
  • Transactional, repeatable and requires minimal human intervention
  • Lowest cost tier 

How do you do it?

It’s worth mentioning at this point that all the steps below shouldn’t be done in isolation; they should all be done in partnership with business stakeholders who currently own and interact with these processes. 

1. Start by defining the tiers in your model. Determine which tiers already exist and then consider tiers you need in the future that you may not have today.
2. Document processes, activities, and tasks that are done in each tier today. It’s up to you how granular you get. If your processes are complex, you’re going to need more granularity. If you plan to split certain activities across tiers, you’re going to need more granularity to understand which parts of the process should sit in different tiers. 
3. Estimate your cost for each tier. This can be as simple as an average hourly rate by tier.
4. Based on cost and complexity of the work in each tier today, consider where you have opportunities to centralize, optimize and move work down the tiers. Work can move down the tiers over time, or it can skip tiers depending on the nature of the work. 

How might this help you? 

It provides a roadmap to take in new work in a structured way, and it shows your business partners that you’re willing to collaborate in a way that acknowledges what they value, their pain points, and their appetite for change. 

In the beginning, you may be focused on work that’s perceived as tactical or tedious that you don’t want to do, but that gives you an opportunity to centralize, standardize and optimize it. This opens the door to begin a conversation about taking on more strategic and impactful work. This doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a journey.  

Watchouts

Here are some common pitfalls to be aware of as you consider implementing your version of this model:

• Don’t create unnecessary handoffs. Be thoughtful about splitting up related activities across different tiers. Sometimes it makes sense to keep certain activities together.
• As you implement, you’re moving work between teams, between vendors, and maybe between countries. This is a delicate process that requires a focus on managing and leading through the change.
• While there will be challenges and a learning curve, once a process moves from one tier to another and is stabilized, it should be better than it was before. This isn’t just about cost; it’s about optimization of both the process and the experience of everyone who interacts with that process.
• Make sure your lower-cost tiers (especially automation) actually cost less. If it costs you millions of dollars to build an AI to do a task that a human can do for a few thousand dollars per year, it may not be worth it – at least not yet. As AI becomes more advanced and cheaper, that time will come.
• If you come across activities that just don’t make sense, always question it. Don’t try to optimize something that shouldn’t be done at all.    

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