5. ALIGNMENT
GET YOUR WHISTLES
READY
6. CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
LEAD AND TEACH
Like the whistle-wielding headteacher, who can both command respect and endear him
or herself to a playground full of children, organisation-wide agreement on vision and a
robust governance process are critical to managing the chaos. The larger the organisation,
the more robust these alignment systems must be, as weak alignment often leads to the
implementation of competing tools or services that muddy the water and sap ROI.
First things first: Put a leader in charge and ensure he or she is laser-focused on
accountability. Guided by the vision, a good leader will move, change and even break systems
to find better, faster ways to improve the system overall. Next, get the masses educated.
An effective DAM system is dependent on users that have respect for, and a commitment
to, the workflow and standards required to effectively organize first-order assets. Consider
developing an infographic or cartoon to show users how the system fits together at a high
level. Utilise it regularly to emphasise the importance of adhering to the workflow and
standards.
7. CONTENT
ORGANISATION
CHALLENGE YOUR
DEFINITIONS
The single most impactful lever in the success of a DAM system design is content
organisation, i.e. categorise, organise and label your content. Everything related to content
functionality—findability, reuse, ease of use, intelligence, search precision—is all dependent
on how the system is organised. So why are so many organisations doing it wrong, or not
doing it at all? Well, in most cases, it comes down to semantics. Content organisation
primarily relies on metadata and taxonomy, i.e. classification systems. However, taxonomy is
often confused with navigation. So read this: If you don’t have a sophisticated taxonomy, or
your taxonomy and navigation are one in the same, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. To do