1. morville@semanticstudios.com 1 Information Architecture & Strategy Information Architecture & Strategy “ In strategy, surprise becomes more feasible the closer it occurs to the tactical realm.” Carl Von Clausewitz, On War, 1832

2. morville@semanticstudios.com 2 in·for·ma·tion ar·chi·tec·ture n. The structural and semantic design of an information space to facilitate task completion and access to content. The Many Facets of IA A Site Component A Phase A Job / Role A Discipline / Degree A Community

3. morville@semanticstudios.com 3 busi·ness strat·e·gy n. Defining how an organization will use its scarce resources to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

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5. 5 A Strange Connection?

6. morville@semanticstudios.com 6 The Origins of Strategy “That general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.” circa 500 BC Sun Tzu, The Art of War

7. morville@semanticstudios.com 7 What is Strategy? strat·e·gy The science and art of using all the forces of a nation to execute approved plans as effectively as possible during peace or war. The art or skill of using stratagems in endeavors such as politics and business. strat·e·gem A clever, often underhand scheme for achieving an objective.

8. morville@semanticstudios.com 8 What is Business Strategy? “Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities.” “But the essence of strategy is in the activities – choosing to perform activities differently or to perform different activities than rivals.” Michael Porter, Harvard Business School in his book On Competition

9. morville@semanticstudios.com 9 Strategy Formation

10. morville@semanticstudios.com 10 Strategic Fit at Vanguard Early in its history, Vanguard established “a mutual structure without precedent in the industry – a structure in which the funds would be operated solely in the best interests of their shareholders.” Since “strategy follows structure,” it made sense to pursue “a high level of economy and efficiency; operating at bare-bones levels of cost…for the less we spend, the higher the returns – dollar for dollar – for our shareholders/owners.” John C. Bogle, Founder of The Vanguard Group http://www.vanguard.com/bogle_site/october192000.html

11. morville@semanticstudios.com 11 Vanguard’s Activity System Map (partial view). Adapted from On Competition Featured in Information Architecture for the World Wide Web http://webword.com/download/chapter18.pdf

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13. morville@semanticstudios.com 13 “Why do we have so many unusable things when we know how to make them usable? I think it has to do with the fact that the usability advocates don't understand business.” Don Norman recent interview on NewScientist.com NewScientist.com

14. morville@semanticstudios.com 14 “There's a gigantic gray area between good moral behavior and outright felonious activities. I call that the Weasel Zone and it's where most of life happens.” Scott Adams

15. morville@semanticstudios.com 15 “…management theory and practice…move on tragically separate paths…between 1988 and 1994, I followed a group of visionary top managers and watched each one fall prey to corporate politics, self-interested boards, and the whims of financial analysts.” “Companies invest billions in endless cycles of quick fixes to ‘rediscover’ their end consumers.” “Organisms that confront system-threatening challenges tend to keep doing what they know how to do successfully, only with more vigor.” transaction crisis, mass production, enterprise logic, deep structures, consumers, employees, chronic stress, organizational narcissism…

16. morville@semanticstudios.com 16 “People have changed more than the business organizations upon which they depend.” “In the late 1990s pent-up demand for sanctuary, voice, and connection exploded upon the new digital medium called the Internet, driving a frenzy of innovation.” “Today’s individuals have new dreams… Dreams make markets.” “When we face discontinuity, the answers we seek cannot be found under the light from the lamppost.” new enterprise logic, deep support, relationship value, federated networks, complexity, fractal geometry, feedback, adaptation…

17. morville@semanticstudios.com 17 Strategy for the IA Community 1.Understand the context. 2.Turn weaknesses into strengths. (see also: embrace your weasel nature) 3.Leave the lamppost. “What is our aim? I answer in one word. Victory – victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however hard and long the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.” Winston Churchill

18. morville@semanticstudios.com 18 Organizational Context Compensation Incentives Mission, Vision, Goals Strategy Value & ROI Metrics Politics & Culture Human Resources Governance Staffing Content Management Knowledge Management Technology Infrastructure Processes Project Management Scope Schedule Budget Society, Markets, Culture…

19. morville@semanticstudios.com 19 “It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first and to wait for disaster to discuss the matter.” Thucydides

20. morville@semanticstudios.com 20 “Most of the complaints we get are due to the way users search; they use the wrong keywords.” - manufacturing company manager “On a scale of 1 to 4, I would rate our search as a 4; it’s excellent. If it wasn’t good, then I’d expect a higher % of people calling our toll-free number.” - telecommunications manager Forrester Research, Must Search Stink?

21. morville@semanticstudios.com 21 “The Fortune 1000 stands to waste at least $2.5 billion per year due to an inability to locate and retrieve information.” “While the costs of not finding information are enormous, they are hidden within the enterprise, and…are rarely perceived as having an impact on the bottom line.” The High Cost of Not Finding Information An IDC White Paper, July 2001.

22. morville@semanticstudios.com 22 Invisible Strategy

23. morville@semanticstudios.com 23 Invisible Information Architecture Sorting Things Out “Large information systems such as the Internet or global databases carry with them a politics of voice and value that is often invisible, embedded in layers of infrastructure.”

24. morville@semanticstudios.com 24 “Companies need to stop their rush to adopt generic ‘out of the box’ packaged applications and instead tailor their deployment of Internet technology to their particular strengths.” “The very difficulty of the task contributes to the sustainability of the resulting competitive advantage.” Michael Porter, Harvard Business School In “Strategy & The Internet” Harvard Business Review, March 2001

25. morville@semanticstudios.com 25 “We are the blind people and strategy formation is our elephant. Since no one has the vision to see the entire beast, everyone has grabbed hold of some part or other and railed on in utter ignorance about the rest.” Henry Mintzberg, McGill University in his book Strategy Safari (written with Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel) Strategy Revisited

26. morville@semanticstudios.com 26 Strategy Defined as 5 P’s Plan. A direction, guide, course of action. Pattern. Consistency in behavior over time. Position. Locating specific products in specific markets. Perspective. Way of doing things (The McDonald’s Way) Ploy. Specific maneuver to outwit. From Strategy Safari (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, Lampel)

27. morville@semanticstudios.com 27 10 Schools of Thought Strategy Formation As: Keywords DesignConceptionFit, Think PlanningFormalFormalize, Program PositioningAnalyticalAnalyze, Calculate EntrepreneurialVisionaryEnvision, Centralize CognitiveMentalFrame, Worry, Imagine LearningEmergentLearn, Play PowerNegotiationGrab, Hoard CulturalCollectiveCoalesce, Perpetuate EnvironmentalReactiveCope, Capitulate ConfigurationSelectiveIntegrate, Transform Adapted from Strategy Safari (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, Lampel)

28. morville@semanticstudios.com 28 Adapted from The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning by Henry Mintzberg (1993) 10% 90% The paradigm “ready, aim, fire” no longer applies; it is now “ready, fire, steer.” Paul Saffo

29. morville@semanticstudios.com 29 PrescriptiveDescriptive Top-DownBottom-Up PlannedEmergent StableAdaptive CentralizedDistributed “In today’s marketplace, it is the organizational capability to adapt that is the only sustainable competitive advantage.” Willie Pietersen

30. morville@semanticstudios.com 30 The Speed of IA

31. morville@semanticstudios.com 31 The Yahoo Taxonomy Model An informal count suggests more than 67,000 categories in Yahoo with roughly 4 to 8 levels of hierarchy between the main page and actual content.

32. morville@semanticstudios.com 32 Search Log Analysis 33,000 queries (27,000 or 81% unique)

33. morville@semanticstudios.com 33 con·tent man·age·ment n. The organization and structuring of information resources so they can be stored, retrieved, published and reused. cms software information models content types & granularity sgml, xml & metadata single source strategy syndication business processes & workflow

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35. morville@semanticstudios.com 35 Facets at Wine.com

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37. morville@semanticstudios.com 37 Wine.com by the Numbers Facet# of Vocabulary Terms Type46 Region16 Winery750 Price6 Ratings6 Total Terms824 Total Combinations19,872,000

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39. morville@semanticstudios.com 39 endeca.com Guided Navigation “Multi-dimensional indices are both lighter-weight and more powerfully expressive than a single large taxonomy.” “The Library of Congress uses a “monolithic taxonomy of compound subjects, and needs a five Volume reference catalog of over 250,000 subject terms…”

40. morville@semanticstudios.com 40 Corporate Facets FacetsDescription TopicsEnterprise-wide subject hierarchy. OrganizationsBusinesses, functions, departments (authors/owners). Countries & LocationsGeographic indicator of intended audience. Products & ServicesComplete range of products and services. FormatsContent/object types that are meaningful to employees. RolesMajor employee roles (e.g., managers, admins). LanguagesLanguage of documents.

41. morville@semanticstudios.com 41 Management by Metadata Enterprise Certified Metadata approved by Enterprise IA Team. Featured in Taxonomy. Featured in Searching (“Best Bets”). Organization Certified Metadata approved by Information Steward. Secondary placement in Taxonomy / Search. Author Certified Metadata provided by Individual Employee. Not in Taxonomy. Included in Search Results. Uncertified No metadata provided. Not in Taxonomy. Not in Default Search Results.

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43. morville@semanticstudios.com 43 Socially Translucent Systems Babble Google Blogdex Buddy Lists Purchase Circles

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45. morville@semanticstudios.com 45 Tools for Adaptive Web Sites… User Interviews Card Sorting (e.g., affinity modeling) Task Performance Analysis (varied levels of fidelity) Ethnographic Observation Adaptive Framework (facets, thesauri, novel UI) Usage Logs (search, page hits, clickstream) Link Analysis (Google, referrer logs) Customer Interaction (via the web site) Collaborative Filtering (Amazon) Social Computing (Slashdot, Babble)

46. morville@semanticstudios.com 46 “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.” Seneca, circa 65 AD

47. morville@semanticstudios.com 47 The End Peter Morville morville@semanticstudios.com Semantic Studios http://semanticstudios.com/ Presentation http://semanticstudios.com/events/strategy1102.ppt “We shape our buildings. Thereafter, they shape us.” Winston Churchill “The beginning of all understanding is classification.” Hayden White