5 key takeaways from ContentCon 2023

The first-ever Composable Charter

Customers and partners from over 100 leading enterprises at ContentCon 2023 participated in the creation of the first-ever Composable Charter, a roadmap for any business to be successful on the path to composable.  

The Composable Charter provides a framework of 10 guiding principles applicable to enterprises across all industries seeking to future-proof their business through the adoption of composable technologies and architectures. 

It takes a village to raise a platform 

Procurement in the age of composable technology is no longer just one contract but many. Keynote speaker Mindy Montgomery offered a “procurement survival guide” based on her experiences as senior technical product manager at ASICS. 

"I think communication and managing expectations amongst the team of the solution provider, the brand and the integration partner is going to be more and more key because we are dealing with much more complex solutions that we need to bring to market,” Montgomery said.

Her recommendations for brands implementing a composable platform also included:

• Product management should lead procurement activities but not be the decision maker.
• Create a contract expiry and scope schedule and review it quarterly.
• A scoring matrix for requirements makes it easier to quantify and defend decisions to internal stakeholders and solution providers.

A framework for getting everyone on board

Jurre van Ruth, strategic program manager at PostNL, shared how he used a storytelling framework to persuade decision makers to invest in a fully composable digital experience platform.

Name your enemy: “You could say we created a Frankenstein out of our old CMS,” van Ruth said. Like Frankenstein’s monster, “It was alive. But alive doesn’t mean it’s bringing joy and happiness,” van Ruth said. 

Create a sense of urgency: The existing platform provided inconsistent communication and a long lead time for content changes, resulting in unhappy customers and employees and slow time to market.

Agitate the problem: If the company didn’t act now, customer satisfaction would keep dropping, costs would keep increasing and employees would become more dissatisfied.

Offer the missing piece of the puzzle: Content as a service in a central platform

Spark intrigue: van Jurre created a model that showed how a headless CMS would save up to 90% of time spent on content management.

Sell benefits, not features: A headless CMS would deliver a consistent experience, cost savings and customer satisfaction.

Show, don’t tell: A workshop with users allowed them to experience the changes and understand the impact of the headless CMS.

Build trust: Rather than presenting the need for change himself, van Jurre gained support from others so decision makers knew employees were already on board.

Demonstrate the potential: van Jurre’s team created an inspiring video to share the possibilities of the new CMS with employees to get them on board.

Show long-term vision: Jurre’s team positioned the headless CMS as being part of something bigger, a composable DXP with capabilities to facilitate the best possible digital experience.

A ‘360-degree’ approach to content strategy for AI 

Ana L'Antigua, global head of technology partnerships, and Sam Chapman, vice president of content and communications at Aprimo, led a workshop on how to develop an approach to content strategy to get the most out of generative AI.

“Our lives are about to change as a result of generative AI,” L’Antigua said. “In fact, they already are in so many ways. The way that we do business will never look the same. And with those changes will come extreme challenges, and unless you and your teams are equipped and prepared to face them, you will be left behind.”

L’Antigua and Chapman presented Aprimo’s “360-degree” approach to content strategy to get the most out of generative AI. The steps include:

1. Create a cross-functional steering committee to develop a centralized company POV on opportunities to use generative AI.
2. Consider AI use policies and brand safety risks and develop an approach to mitigate them.
3. Identify budgeting and process changes that will be needed to take advantage of AI.
4. Develop a prompt-management strategy as a reference point for content creators.
5. Create training strategies for creating effective AI prompts and scaling performance and consistency.