Cori Stankowicz :: Information Architecture : Experience Solutions

Yes - believe it or not, other things did take place at the IA Summit other than the wall of deliverables and way before any adventures in South Beach. Though I did enjoy all the sessions I attended, two presentations have really stuck with me. The first was one that I must admit I attended for a variety of completely selfish reasons – Leadership in IA.

I felt that personally, the session on Strategy was the session that would take me the farthest. I’ve admittedly have had trouble processing abstract concepts – and Strategy always seemed like one of those. No one could ever seem to define it; it was watery and, though well intentioned, it always seemed to lack sustenance. It was always one of my missing links – just something I could never ever “get”.

Imagine my surprise as a 21 year old “designer” (then titled User Experience Analyst) when I was told to “Bill everything! If you even think about a client over the weekend, bill it!” and they weren’t kidding – they were! Strategy never seemed tactical and always tended to lose steam once the product entered the development stage. It was all talk and no action – very smoke and mirrors with a lot of Power Point charts. When I first came to the industry there Brand Strategists, Content Strategists, Business Strategists, Experience Strategists, etc. and I think I worked for four years not really understanding what either’s role truly was, however, I’m not sure if they did either, I mean I was an “analyst” and was being billed out as a usability “expert” when in fact I had no experience at all other than a keen sense of design, a BFA and a lot of aspirations.

Needless to say I was a little skeptical when the role suddenly re-appeared on a recent project. Content Strategist. I figured this time around, a little older and a little wiser, I would ask people to define the role for me and more importantly tell me how they envisioned the Content Strategists’ role in my established IA process. Still nobody could really sell me on it – they just assured me that the Content Strategist would follow the work that I had already done and would not cause extra re-work. Still skeptical, I forged ahead. We ended up collaborating, but was that really “strategy”?

Fast forward about one month and here I am in a workshop that I’m honestly hoping will give me the information that I need to go from Lead or Senior IA or UXA (which by definition is my role) into a more managerial position where I am not only leading a project, but leading a team. Leadership in IA. Then here comes Harry Max; obviously seasoned, intelligent, well-spoken, funny, etc. He was an IA before there was an internet in the sense of how we’ve come to know it. 1987. He moved into strategy not really knowing exactly what it entailed, so he immediately had my attention. I can’t wait to hear the podcast from Boxes and Arrows so I can post it because I really don’t think I could do him much justice.

Believe me I was all ears when he began to define what strategy is and is not – I wanted to scream from the hilltops that strategy is not clever tactics - but the first thing that I could truly relate to was the concept of the “Big S” and the “Small S” – “Big S” being the goal of the overall business and “Small S” being the goal of a specific project for that business. Perhaps it’s the nature of the “Agency” that I’ve been involved on dozens of “Small S” projects and very little “Big S” projects – agencies generally don’t get the opportunity to do the “Big S” for clients. Oftentimes there are several agencies involved in the business – some specialize in that business strategy that produces the “Big B” – other agencies seem to be relied upon to just do projects on an as needed basis. I just got back from Miami on Tuesday and today, Thursday, I’ve been placed on my first Big B project in three years. Funny how that works -

The most important thing that I took from it – my new strategy mantra - is that strategy is an approach to create the future that we want (when done correctly) I think that that line meant the most because it can mean so much. So beyond making the abstract concept of strategy a tangible one, I was able to begin to look at strategy as it applied to me beyond projects or even work for that matter. I told you my reasons were selfish! What is my Big S? What is my Little S? What is my goal today? What is my goal for this year? How will what I accomplish today allow me to get closer to my goal for the year? So yes. Today I’m blogging about IA. It’s definitely a “Little S” strategy, but baby steps, baby.

Here are all those lovely documents. I know that at this point, I’m milking it but I don’t care!

Enjoy.

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So just regrouping and I guess blogging now. This page was set up to eventually house my portfolio which could probably happen sooner than you think. I spent the last four days on a considerable high from the IA Summit in Miami and well, I’m trying to keep the momentum going. Literally hit the ground running Tuesday morning at work. Though exhausted, I was looking forward to getting home and getting back down to business, implementing what I learned and, to be completely honest, receiving some well deserved accolades for taking home the best documentation prize. Though I was really excited to come home and get life back to normal, I found my mood turning very sour yesterday halfway through because the summit was over and things were pretty much back to the usual. Oh well. So I’ll be posting more and more and will definitely be posting some learnings from the summit along with some of the work that I showed (in full color, thank you very much).

Here is the “wall” - I highlighted my last minute posting. View the documentation by clicking the link below: