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Make Enterprise Search Less Broken
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Transcript of Make Enterprise Search Less Broken
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Enterprise Search - How to triage problems quickly and prescribe the right medicine
Helen Lippell Enterprise Search Europe, 30 April 2014
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Slide 2
Search and discovery
•Search is important - plenty of demand for scalable, powerful tools
•Search is evolving
• Big Data (or is it the less-snappy “Lots of Different Data”)
• Structured data and semantics (not just searching free text for keywords)
• Search tech underpins other applications e.g. BI and analytics
• Rise of open-source
• But, for many, search within the enterprise still isn’t what it
could be - Sometimes people just want to find their company’s holiday form
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Slide 3
Agenda
•Methodology for triaging search problems
–With an emphasis on workability
–Laying foundations for bigger improvements
•Cumulative experience of years in the trenches, both as in insider and an outsider
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Slide 4
“Search is rubbish!”
• Has there been an outbreak of “Something must be done”itis?
• Is this true?
• What’s not working?
• Who is saying this?
• Users
• Senior management
• Other stakeholders
• Noisy stakeholders
• You?
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Slide 5
Start from where you are • Who owns Search?
• …If anyone?
• E.g. IT/ Comms / Editorial
• Who owns the data (and where is it)?
• Who owns the technology?
• Who, if anyone, is accountable?
• Useful to understand how the land lies when looking for support and focus
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Where to start
• Set realistic expectations for the work
– Don’t over-promise – It should be achievable
• A great search experience is
the result of a blend of disciplines and skills
– Search might have one champion but no ‘knight in shining armour’ will fix it alone
Slide 6
Information management
Search tech management
Content creation
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Slide 7
How bad a state is your search in?
If your search is known colloquially among users as the Random Page
Generator, it needs some TLC
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Slide 8
1. User needs
2. Content
3. User interface
4. Technology
5. People and process
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•It’s a holistic approach
•Which areas get most of your attention will depend on your own time, interests and who else you can call on
•Some recommendations might seem straightforward or obvious – but if search was easy there wouldn’t still be user dissatisfaction…
Slide 9
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1. User needs
• Arguably the most important area to look at • Data, data and more data • Get query logs • As much as you can to start with
• Analyse them
• Repeat…with a sustainable process ((read “Search Analytics for your Site”)
• Determine user intent
• Group common task searches together to aid prioritisation of content review
• Aim is to derive insights to shape and complement everything else I’ll cover
Slide 10
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2. Content
• Content is king (but you might be in a republic) – Search experience function of the quality of the content that is indexed • Do a content audit – Duplicates / Redundant, Outdated, Trivial / Bad metadata
• Start with a sample, even if only small • Content howlers can be great for powerful anecdotal evidence of problems:
• “lorem ipsum” • “title goes here” • “deletethis” • “Arial bold 14” • “Helen’s test content” (embarrassing)
Slide 11
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Metadata
• A “Minimum Viable Product” to aim for should be good, unique page titles and descriptions/summaries
• Also consider: – Tagging for different user groups – Last modified date (and other date fields) – Owner/author/creator – Subject tags (whether from a taxonomy or user-
generated)
Slide 12
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Content strategy and information architecture
• Search is one part of a wider information ecosystem – It shouldn’t look like the tube map on a strike day • Review:
• Overall IA • Other tools like A-Z • How easy it is to access search from elsewhere • Are there different search functions?
Slide 13
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3. User interface
• No need to reinvent the wheel, lots of prior art in search UI design thinking
• Focus on quick wins – May be limited capability and appetite for redesign projects
and template changes • Seek out guerilla feedback – Informal research fine for triage • Eliminate page clutter – Default settings? Long-forgotten feature requests? • Review information displayed for each result • Facets and filters • Aim is to build confidence!
Slide 14
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4. Technology
• How easy is it to tinker with the platform? • Has it been configured well? At all? – Configuration must suit what is being indexed eg document
length, format • Is anything documented? – What features are switched on? What were the out-of-the-box
settings? • Is there a test environment? If not, get one • Review features and defaults e.g. Boolean searching,
synonyms, indexing, spellcheck • Benchmark, and repeat often
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5. People and process
• Hearts and minds • Ongoing quality management
• Accountability • User research • Dedicated people resource • Regular editorial and tech tasks • Co-ordination across teams • Support and guidance to content authors
• Stakeholder workshops • Listen to moans • …but don’t allow a big grumblefest • Elicit unmet needs, offer reassurance
Slide 16
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Slide 17
Prescription
• You can do triage relatively quickly
–Prioritise areas for action
– Identify recommendations – and be prepared to follow them through
• Delineate quick wins and longer term strategy
• Shout about successes
• Iterate
• Strategy and culture change take longer
• Ideally, Search should have a dedicated team
• If Search is very political, consider outside help