Blaine Kyllo

Blaine Kyllo helps enterprises understand and optimize their content processes. A key part of his work is helping his clients develop governance models that keep content operations on track.

Blaine and I talked about:

his background in journalism and publishing

how large enterprises tend to have the big, sticky problems that governance can solve

how media companies - whose business is content - can be a model for non-media enterprises

how content crosses departments, how it's cross-functional by its very nature

how content strategy at its core is really change management

how governance is the people side of change management

how content governance starts with the "what"

the content lifecycle - discovery, planning, design & creation, maintenance - and the processes needed at each stage to make sure the work gets done

the importance of thinking as early in the process as possible about how you'll measure content success

how to visualize success for each kind of content intention, as well as for your content operations

how the practice of content ops has emerged - "Content is not something that you ever finish and leave" - it's not a project

how efficiency and measurable impact are two of the key benefits of content strategy and content governance

clever ways of measuring content ROI, beyond page views, downloads, etc. - e.g. a calculation showing how much customer service time is saved by knowledge center content

the importance of setting baseline metrics at the start of a project

how content marketers are probably further ahead in using content metrics

how the processes that content managers use look very similar from a high level - regardless of channel, content type, industry, etc.

how to apply knowledge of process-pattern best practices to your organization's unique needs

his definition of "governance": "how you manage the work of content" - encompassing the tools, the technologies that support the work (CMS, e.g.), the people, your publishing model, and roles and responsibilities

the common problem of establishing a "the buck stops here" point in your content processes

his upcoming Confab talk, "Process to the people: How content governance can power content teams"

Blaine's Bio

Blaine is a senior content strategist at Content Strategy Inc, where he focuses on enterprise content governance. His clients have included BC Hydro, Investors Group, and Pearson. He’s also structured content teams for other contexts and has become a master at streamlining complex content processes.

Before content strategy, Blaine worked as managing editor for a leading independent book publisher, as well as with a national telecommunications company, and a non-profit initiative.

He’s also an audio and print journalist.

Video

Here’s the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/voXW8poCGpY

Transcript

Larry:

Hi everyone. Welcome to episode number 41 of the Content Strategy Insights podcast. I'm really happy today to have with us Blaine Kyllo. Blaine is a senior content strategist with Content Strategy Inc, up in Vancouver, BC. Let me have Blaine tell you a little bit more about his background, what he does up there. Welcome Blaine.

Blaine:

Hi Larry. Yeah, thanks so much. I appreciate the opportunity to join you. I come to content strategy like so many do from my particular background. There are people who come to content strategy from a technical communication background. I come to it from more of a journalism and publishing background. I worked with an independent book publisher in Vancouver for a long time, transitioned from there into doing digital content and journalism as a freelancer and had ...