Results from the recent STC Products & Services survey are available here in PDF format. STC sent the survey to all members in late October.
This survey continues the process of regenerating STC by asking members to evaluate the products and services the Society offers members. The data collected from this survey will inform product and service development efforts, including the development of the new STC.org website. When the Society releases the next-generation STC.org website, a new set of member feedback tools will be integrated with the website, enabling the Society to continuously adapt to the evolving needs of members.
See the Project Phoenix web page for more information on the Road Ahead for STC.
No real surprise in Q10: chapters and SIGs far outrank everything else in terms of what folks think is important. (Even membership pins – who’d’ve guessed?)
I wonder what new products and services, not yet being offered, might also rank high.
Larry went right to the most interesting results. One wonders why, if a major percentage of the organization membership values chapters and SIGs so highly, the leadership cadre persists in budgeting only a pittance for such activities? It also raises the question of why most of the budget is tied to irrelevant trivia. Could this have something to do with the rapid decline of STC in recent years? Just wondering.
I’ve had a chance to review and analyze the qualitative data (the open comments) and they are certainly rich in insight. Professional development, in one way or the other, is a driving motivation for being in STC. We gained a lot of insight in this survey about what channels our members want to use, and we also got some insight into the kinds of content. We are no longer a club of newbies; members are looking for advanced topics and expert information about breaking technologies and techniques. We need to be more global and recognize that the world of technical communication is open twenty-four hours a day.
And (notify the media) we have to close the gap between cost of membership and value of membership. The new platform to replace our current website is certainly going to be the necessary vehicle to get us there, but we still have to make sure we are packing the right stuff.
Definitely don’t wait for the new web site, and don’t design membership solutions around it (perform the inverse). It will be good to see what improvements we have planned for 2011.
Spot on, Bill. I’m reminded of the joke about the guy who breaks his finger. As the doctor is putting it in a splint and bandaging it the man asks, “Will I be able to play the piano when all that comes off?” The doctor assures him he will. “That’s great, ” the guy says, “I never could before.”
New website is not the answer, but it is the necessary channel for us to do the “kinds” of things we need to do. But if we aren’t providing the content and connections to resources that the practicing technical communicator needs, it does nothing. But all the other head scratching and planning is going on–it’s just right now you’re hearing about the website because it is the “rails” that our solutions need to ride.
Mike, apart from the Globalization Audit Task Force, is anyone doing any kind of serious content audit of the current web site?
In fact, since you raised the point, do we have a coherent – or any – content strategy for the web site?
I’ve been asking this question in a variety of forums, so far no one has been able to give a clear answer, and that, in itself, troubles me.
Ray;
Great question! In addition tot he GATF, which I have been participating in for the past three months, there are several other content audit initiatives underway.
Last month, I created a content inventory template for the internal and external audit committees to use when reviewing the content that currently lives on the STC.org website, and in iMIS, the association management software (AMS) that STC is currently using.
The content inventory template contains all of the requisite fields, Link ID, Link Name, Link, Document Type, Topics / Keywords, Owner / Maintainer, ROT, Notes, etc. The goal of course is to ensure that the content on the new site is relevant and provides value to members.
Kathryn Burton has pulled together a content audit committee that is assisting with the content inventory, and as you know Kit Brown-Hoekstra is spearheading the effort with the GATF.
In addition to the content inventory, I have been working with members of the information architecture, user experience and usability committee, which includes Mike Hughes to flesh out the information architecture for the new site.
With that said, it is impossible to design the perfect IA in a vacuum. To alleviate the challenges of trying to flesh out a perfect IA and UX by committee (which could be an endless effort), we will be implementing a user feedback solution that will enable us to gather on-going IA and UX post launch.
Delivering an exceptional user experience is paramount for my team; with that said we feel that it is equally important to ensure that the people, processes and tools are in place to ensure that the new solution can, and will evolve to meet member requirements once we are done with our work.
I hope that this answers your questions. If not you can always email me.