experience design
innovation
"sales enablement 2.0" - no training required
cognog Principal, Phil Thompson, helped design this software to ensure that no training would be required, while still providing "point-of-need" access to detailed documentation for those who really want to know. (See below.)
Each one is EXTREMELY important - especially in an interface, and in conversation with those that develop software and the customers who use it.
In fact, an entire succinct vocuabulary was created for this application to eliminate developer terms and "interchangeable" terms that confuse people.
Imagine these terms - then create the connective grammar that describes their relationships, such as "A 'permission' is 'granted'". Now write interconnected knowledge base articles for people who really want to delve into a topic area.
site, person, group, asset, library, search
document, post, custom page, upload
tags, ratings, comments, most popular, subscribe, smart lists, recent updates, permissions, profile, preferences
user manager, group manager, asset owner, personal page, personal workspace, publish, retire, delete, enable, disable, mass editor, change owner, publish date.
site library, group library, personal library, view libraries, publish libraries, library manager, library sharing, library gatekeeping
Now create step-by step instructions and video tutorials to walk the serious user through all these processes. Allow users to publish their own "tips and tricks" to the knowledge base to share with their co-workers.
That's what we did...
don't make me think
online professional development
SAVO
The SAVO Group is a venture-funded start-up with a hosted "sales enablement" application (SaaS – Software as a Service) enabling companies to manage, access, and customize their sales / marketing materials online.
After creating a multi-channel training curriculum for SAVO's original solution, SAM, Phil Thompson, now principal at cognog, joined the product development team to help design this new, more collaborative web 2.0 version of the software. His role ensured that software was designed in a way that would require no training.