Omnichannel by OmnichannelX

Ep. 14 – Making omnichannel-ready experience maps – Yuri Vedenin

How can you make omnichannel-ready experience maps, instead of the fluffy abstract journey maps we’re used to seeing?

In this episode we hear from Yuri Vedenin, founder and CEO of UXPressia. He explores various user experience methods, such as customer journey maps, and how they can be best used to drive meaningful results in teams and products.

Together with Noz Urbina, they examine the nuances of effective user experience strategy, methods, and how to garner effective insights from research.

 

Ep. 13 – Content Models vs Domain Models – Carrie Hane

What is a domain model? What's a content model? How do they relate? In this episode we hear from Carrie Hane co-author of Designing Connected Content: Plan and Model Digital Products for Today and Tomorrow. She and Noz Urbina examine these questions in the context of effective omnichannel strategy, and the present and future of content and user experience design.

Ep. 12 – Immersive digital experiences and products – Preston So, Oracle

In this episode we hear from Preston So, Senior Director of Product Strategy at Oracle. We explore the past, present, and future of immersive experiences, and how they can be used to deliver rich experiences for users.

 

What are “immersive experiences” in the digital channel space?

 

“These experiences immerse a customer or user in an environment that presents them with content or user experiences that are not limited to a screen. I realize this is a vague definition, but it’s vague on purpose! When it comes to immersive experiences, they run the gambit across a lot of different channels on content or design.”

Ep. 11 – Who is Design for Cognitive Bias for? – David Dylan Thomas

In this episode, we hear from David Dylan Thomas Founder and CEO of David Dylan Thomas, LLC. He explores his book Design for Cognitive Bias and how people who work in the content and user experience sphere can integrate anti-bias processes in their organizations.

 

“If you make assumptions, this book is for you.”

 

And don't we all make assumptions? This book is truly meant for everyone as we all have our cognitive biases, but this book may resonate most with designers, content strategists, and others who build websites, products, and apps for people. This is especially true as the book brings up processes they can use in their work to mitigate design bias.

Ep. 10 – How to join the livestream & podcast revolution – Christophe Trappe

In this episode we talk with Christoph Trappe, Chief Content Officer at The Authentic Storytelling Project. He explores how livestreaming can be an effective way in forging strong relationships with your audience and how it can be used to help your organization craft omnichannel content.

 

We went offline for a long time during the pandemic. This episode was pre-recorded in 2021.

Forging New Relationships

As content marketers, how do we continue to build authenticity and sincerity in our audience relationships? One way to do this is by incorporating livestreaming in your omnichannel strategy. Through livestreaming, you can build audience trust and participation in real time. 

Livestreams, Content Creation, and You

Livestreamed content can be used to build content among many different channels, and this can start from the beginning of the content creation process. For example, instead of private informational interviews with subject matter experts, why not livestream your discussion for your target audiences? From there, that content can be published as a podcast, turned into articles, email campaigns, and other formats.

Ep. 9 – Activating omnichannel with content intelligence – Cruce Saunders

In this episode, we hear from Cruce Saunders, the founder, and principal at [A] (simplea.com). We explore the role of content structure to shape omnichannel enterprise publishing, and to support multiple modes of content delivery. Also, we dive deep into the organizational structures that help support teamwork around the intelligent, modular content that is the foundation for next-generation customer experiences.

The difference between omnichannel, multichannel, and cross-channel

We begin by defining the aspects of omnichannel, multichannel, and cross-channel content. Hear how they differ and why they shouldn’t hinder workflow.

Cruce describes omnichannel as “…a service-oriented approach to publishing in which any future channel may be added without impacting the overall process of creating, managing, and delivering the content.”

Too many organizations compound efforts when attempting to scale delivery, but by deploying better practices centered around content intelligence, they reduce ongoing internal effort, and open up content to reach more endpoints.

What’s holding organizations back from delivering omnichannel experiences?

Delivering omnichannel experiences requires not just structured content, but also a structured and improved content creation process.

“Omnichannel content derives from content that is structured. [The content model] structures the authoring process, which then structures the management and delivery process. Today, all of those things are disconnected.”

Cruce shares common blockers organizations face and the importance of structured content. Structured content he sees as the key to delivering the next-generation of customer experiences, and calls on practitioners to dive into the change process.

“It’s 2020, we need to get over our allergy to these concepts that are foundational and fundamental to the future.”

You can listen to this podcast here or Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Ep. 8 – Content design: Resetting the conversation around content – Sarah Richards

In this episode, we talk with Sarah Richards of Content Design London, the founder of what has become an entire movement in the world of content: content design.

Like all good movements, and in line with the movement's own philosophy, it is synthesis and clarification of what came before. Content design has aspects you might consider content strategy, UX research, and customer journey mapping, all under a unified umbrella discipline. It is a research-driven approach to passing content requirements, planning, content strategy and copywriting through a design thinking and service design lens. It’s based on a research and human-centric approach which puts user needs at the center of all content decisions. Rather than considering producing a deliverable or format in a channel as a goal – for example, creating a webpage or video – the goal is satisfying the requirements laid out in a user story. 

In our conversation, we discuss how content design came to be and how Sarah both needed it and used it to reset the conversation with the entire organisation of UK government about what a content professional is and does, and how the inter-team dynamics need to work to make sure that content is meeting the user's real goals.

Finally, we discuss the many resources that Sarah publishes where you can learn more. Oh, and Noz gets his first job-title change in over a decade!

Ep. 7 – Agile CMS Forrester Research’s omnichannel approach for a new era – Mark Grannan

In this episode, Programme Director Noz Urbina interviews Mark Grannan, Senior Analyst from Forrester Research. Mark takes us through Forrester’s new term: “Agile CMS” and how it separates content management, planning, and analytics from the channel end-points to enable content-as-a-service for all potential channels at once from a single, central hub. Mark’s contributed to several whitepapers on omnichannel and focuses especially on platform and systems, making him a valuable resource for understanding market trends around content management, planning, measurement, and distribution.

Ep. 6 – Operationalising your omnichannel strategy – Chris Avore & Matt Grocki

Design thought-leader and lecturer at Rutgers University Chris Avore and globally recognised Content Strategy specialist Matt Grocki discuss what it means to operationalise your omnichannel efforts.

In this session, we look at questions like:

• How do you best research the diverse sets of stakeholders involved in omnichannel? Are brainstorming and workshops still the best way?
• Does omnichannel strategy implementation need to turn your whole organisation upside down?
• What role do executives and leadership play in improving omnichannel customer experience?
• How technical does a content or design practitioner need to be?
• And, many more.

Ep. 5 – Stories as a Service – An Omnichannel Marketing Strategy – Gina Balarin

Enterprise or start-up – brands need to differentiate & engage. Gina Balarin presents a repeatable model for your omnichannel success: Stories as a Service.