A friend of mine used to work as an engineer for Toyota. His job was to constantly refine the Camry’s windscreen wiper blade connection. The changes he engineered in Melbourne would be rolled out at Camry factories worldwide.
His very focused role is a good example of Japan’s “kaizen”, or “continuous improvement”, workplace culture. A
Wikipedia editor writes, “While kaizen usually delivers small improvements, the culture of continual aligned small improvements and standardisation yields large results.”*
I believe anyone responsible for web content should also take a kaizen approach. Too often content development is managed in an “all or nothing” way. No one touches the content for years. Then, as part of a total site redevelopment, entirely new content is included in the project scope.
In a perfect scenario, all this new content would be based on communication briefs, and strategic thinking would be applied to every site section.
In the real world, there usually isn’t the time or resources for end-to-end strategy. In the rush to meet development deadlines, the old website becomes the content writer’s primary information resource, and changes are only skin deep.
A kaizen approach can ensure your company’s digital presence stays fresh and effective even if the page designs remain consistent. Content and UX specialists can work with product teams and customers to optimise pages through multivariate and usability testing. Content development budgets, pipelines and governance models can be mapped out with a long-term perspective, and streamlined over time.
In terms of driving sales, lowering service costs and increasing customer satisfaction, no other communication is more valuable to your organisation than your web content. If you're spending more time developing comms strategies for short-term ad campaigns than for core web content, it’s time to rebalance your approach.
Kaizen!
*You may be wondering, “didn’t Toyota just recall millions of cars?” Keep in mind kaizen is a process. You still have to get things right.