You may have heard that I’m the new guy in town, and I’m happy to say this is my first blog post as a member of the Gilbane Group.  I am thrilled to be a part such a well-respected organization, and I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work on all things WCM!

A little about me: I’ve been a practitioner and a consultant in the WCM space for over ten years, but I’ve worked for an analyst firm for all of two days.  The good news? I know, first hand, the pains users experience when it comes to web content management.  I empathize with the marketer who knows there must be a way to put all this content to work in her next pull-through campaign, and I sympathize with the Intranet Manager who has been directed to deploy more Web 2.0 tools into the enterprise, even in the absence of a business case. [I’m not a Web 2.0-basher, by the way.] I consider myself a passionate user advocate, and if I’m true to myself (and to you) I’ll continue to bring that perspective to all of my work here at Gilbane.

To continue my let-me-tell-you-about-me schtick, here are a few random thoughts that come to mind which will hopefully provide further insight into my philosophy as it relates to WCM:

  • Usability has become a commodity; It’s time for vendors to stop bragging about it and for users to stop accepting anything less.
  • Technology for the sake of technology leads to dissatisfaction every time.
  • “What problem am I trying to solve?” — If you can’t answer this, stop what you’re doing.
  • Technology won’t change human nature…but it will amplify it!
  • You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing…there’s a good chance they’ll fail anyway.
  • “Grassroots” applications require more planning, not less.
  • User research is never a bad idea… but don’t just ask them, watch them.

And finally,

  • If we spent as much time crafting strategies as writing RFPs and selecting tools, we’d achieve a much higher ROI.

So that’s it for now. I look forward to writing more on these pages and hope you’ll chime in with your thoughts and reactions.

 

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