This year, along with Dominic Hurst of Valtech, I was very fortunate to have presented at the Sitecore Symposium in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both Dominic and I have worked on a variety of Sitecore installations and over the years have noted some mutual industry observations:

• The role of the Content Author in modern CMS solutions has evolved into a multi-dimensional job. Too often these every-day heroes have to fight inflexible and uninspiring solutions to overcome the even smallest tasks
• Many organizations spend the lion’s share of their budgets on CMS implementation, yet pay little attention to the efficiency of the operational processes that enable it
• Poor authoring experiences can lead to UX erosion over time. Bad AX → Bad UX → Bad CX
• Content authors are rarely empowered to aid in design, personalization, and performance analysis

Together at the Symposium we decided to address these observations and present our top 10 tips for organizations to empower their content authors to deliver real value on a daily basis. Many they can enact right away. Below are links to 10 blogs posts that cover each of these points in greater detail. We hope you enjoy these posts and, of course, please reach out to either of us to continue the conversation. Dan – @sitecorelations; Dominic – @dh_analytics)

1. Provide access to non-explicit fields in Experience Editor
2. Simplify rich text embeds
3. Make it easy to do the “right” thing
4. Optimize data template architecture for greater usability
5. Dynamically nest local components with pages
6. Use branch templates to create structured content models
7. Get your content authors involved in the design process
8. Be a custodian for chang(ing content)
9. Embrace governance, add guard rails not gates
10. Combine the authoring experience with analytics

Special thanks to Nicolai Winch Kristensen of Sitecore for coordinating and moderating our Sitecore Symposium presentation. May the force be with you!

• Author Experience
• Sitecore Hacks
• Sitecore Symposium
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