Tips on visualising problems and selling the need for digital improvements to your boss in a way that allows them to sell it to their boss. A presentation to local government digital crew from around New Zealand at the ALGIM 2014 conference in Auckland.

1. How to Sell Digital
Projects to your Boss
www.juliestarr.co.nz
Visualising the way we work
@starrjulie
…and everyone else you work with

2. New Plymouth, New Zealand, February 2014

3. Got a parking ticket

4. A Reconstruction
Paying my
parking ticket
online

5. CLICK
I started with a search engine

6. I scrolled down the home page

7. CLICK

8. CLICK
I see ‘parking tickets’. That looks promising.

9. Huh?
It takes me a while to realise I’ve ‘landed’ on the same page

10. I notice a helpful looking image so I scroll for more

11. I see Parking Ticket. Yes!
CLICK

12. Really?
I have to promise not to break the system. Gosh.

13. Jump to
the left
A new window opens.

14. Oh… Here!
Please use the ticket number….?

15. Maybe
I’ll try…
Erm?
I typed it in wrong. Now what do I do?

16. What?
No!!!
Can’t use back button because I’m in a new window again.

17. So I start at the beginning …

18. 16Steps! … before I get
anywhere near
entering my credit
card details

19. Sigh

20. 

21. We want to make
life better for users

23. Do what we’ve
always done, but
put it online too
Online =
Some people think

24. Do what we’ve
always done, but
throw it in an app
Mobile =
Some people think

25. Those people
are wrong

26. Process for Sharing Council Minutes (for a long time)

28. Put the PDF online
Process for Sharing Council Minutes (now)

29. PDF?
Really?
Does process give users what they want? No.

30. This is what a
PDF looks like at
readable size on a
mobile phone.
22 pages of
this?Accessible?
NO!

31. “PDFs are where
information
goes to die”

32. free!
Set the information

33. Responsive design
won’t fix this problem.
It’s a process problem.

34. We can’t do what we’ve
always done and just ‘put
it online’ at the end

35. It doesn’t
work.

36. The Daily Telegraph
London | 2006…
Print
team
Web
team

38. We needed to publish
way more on our website

39. But we couldn’t afford to
hire another 100 people

40. We had to look at
the way we did things

41. The Daily Telegraph
London | 2007
Integrated Web-and-Print Newsroom

42. A few things I learned
about ‘selling digital’

43. Get serious

44. If you want people to take
Digital seriously, you have to
elevate the status of Digital
in the organisation

45. Put the Head of Digital
at the top of the org chart

46. Everyone should talk to
Digital before they start any
project anywhere

47. Intervene here
Don’t just take what
you’re given here &
throw it online
Output XML

48. Clout
You need

49. Steal people who ‘get it’ and
put them on the web team

50. Hire people who already know
what they’re doing.

51. Don’t drownBreak it down

52. You have a world of problems to solve

53. Start

55. Improve
something
today
+ keep working on the big fix

56. We can simplify this process without going near the transaction engine

57. 1. Remove anchors,
tighten text and let
people scroll to those
helpful images.
2. Link directly to
parking ticket
payment page.
3. Make ticket number
entry box bigger and
move up page.
4. If must have T&Cs
put tick box here: ‘By
using this service you
agree to our T&Cs.’
Suggestion

58. Example of a
simple but
effective widget
added to a page
(not a big budget
thing at all)
http://wellington.govt.nz/service
s/environment-and-
waste/rubbish-and-recycling

59. Visualise it
Build, sketch, map
Seeing is believing

60. We’ve been using pictures to communicate for a long time. It works.
http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/rockandcaves.html

61. “We show videos of
struggling people to
managers – way
more effective in
getting them to
understand.”
– Ruth Brown, Head of User Experience, TradeMe, ALGIM 2014

62. Problem
Newspaper people didn’t
see why the web should
affect their daily routine

63. Really simplified overview of a day in the newsroom (for a long, long time)

65. Copy & paste/ import
into website,
autopublish at 5am

66. … what are people
reading at 8am,
12pm, 5pm?
If stories are
filed at 6pm…
Does process give readers what they want? No.

67. + Earlier start
+ Earlier conference
+ Better planning
+ Stories filed during day
+ Talk to Digital FIRST not last
We started changing the way we did things. (Still a long way to go.)

68. Problem
Skilled designers spent
hours each day assembling
the puzzles page

69. Draw it & boss immediately understands how convoluted the process is

70. Problem
We got stuck on the
differences between
web and print publishing

71. Print Publishing Process (Top Level Snapshot)
So we drew the print publishing process…

72. Web Publishing Process (Top Level Snapshot)
… and the web publishing process…

73. Combined Web-and-Print Publishing Process (Top Level Snapshot)
…and put it all together. See it. Build on commonality. Eliminate nonsense.

74. Problem
Newspaper people didn’t
understand what website
people were talking about

75. De-mystify. Have workshops. Make posters! Share what you know.

76. Put some numbers
around it
Make your case more convincing
Be Specific

77. “Everyone’s got smartphones
so we should totally
do something for mobile.”

78. “Over half of visits to TradeMe are on
Mobile – and it’s still growing.”
- Ruth Brown, Head of User Experience, TradeMe, ALGIM 2014
“68% of NZ internet users connected
through their mobile phone in the past
year – 48% through a tablet.”
- World Internet Project NZ Report 2013

79. Write for your
Audience
Relevant Accessible Attention

80. How does this project
benefit my boss?

81. …want
this project
Boss is
responsible
for… CUSTOMERS
Boss’s Job Title
Annual Plan

82. Those are
your keywords
right there

83. How can I help my boss
sell this to their boss?

84. Use Plain English
Accessibility

85. We’re going to mumble scrape mumble
backend and parse mumble
mumble Hadoop mumble mumble
Heartbleed and ruby mumble
responsive mumble parallax
and SVG mumble html5

86. Make it easy for customers
to pay a bill
on their mobile & computer

87. Visuals
Numbers
Words
Great. Now your boss can explain it to their boss

88. One more challenge

89. onepageAll the bosses are busy
Attention

90. Get Serious elevate status of Digital
Don’t drown break it down
Visualise it build, sketch, map
Put some numbers around it be convincing
Write for your audience relevant, Plain English
One page hold attention

91. Thanks!
www://juliestarr.co.nz
@starrjulie
julie@juliestarr.co.nz