{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
    "content" : "news",
    "type" : "single",
    "title" : "Strategy Pivot Yields Results: DigitalGov.Gov Six Months Later |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Strategy Pivot Yields Results: DigitalGov.Gov Six Months Later",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/09/12/digitalgov-gov-six-months-later/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Strategy Pivot Yields Results: DigitalGov.Gov Six Months Later","summary" : "Six months ago, we launched this DigitalGov.gov platform to support federal agencies in delivering 21st century digital services and information to the public. It seems a good time to share some of the thinking that went into the development of the platform, and what we’ve learned so far.","date" : "2014-09-12T12:00:02-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"apiazza" : "Alycia Piazza","gwynne-kostin" : "Gwynne Kostin"},"topics" : {
        
            "analytics" : "Analytics",
            "content-strategy" : "Content strategy",
            "mobile" : "Mobile",
            "open-source" : "Open source",
            "product-and-project-management" : "Product and project management",
            "social-media" : "Social media",
            "user-experience" : "User experience"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2014-09-12-digitalgov-gov-six-months-later.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2014/09/2014-09-12-digitalgov-gov-six-months-later.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/09/2014-09-12-digitalgov-gov-six-months-later.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/09/2014-09-12-digitalgov-gov-six-months-later.md","slug" : "digitalgov-gov-six-months-later","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/09/12/digitalgov-gov-six-months-later/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2014/09/600-x-350-Mobile-phone-tablet-pc-notebook-and-computers-Nik_Merkulov-iStock-Thinkstock-478287255.jpg\"\n    alt=\"American flag and global continents on various devices; mobile phone, tablet, desktop computer, notebook\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eSix months ago, we launched this DigitalGov.gov platform to support federal agencies in delivering 21st century digital services and information to the public. It seems a good time to share some of the thinking that went into the development of the platform, and what we’ve learned so far.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLooking back, we knew we had great content for digital innovators. Here at the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/about/\" title=\"About\"\u003eCenter for Digital Government at GSA\u003c/a\u003e, we created the go-to references for federal agencies around Web, mobile, social media, challenges and prizes, and were growing API content. We also had a large, engaged audience ready to share their knowledge with others. So what was the problem?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"the-problems\"\u003eThe Problem(s)\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor some time we recognized that while we had terrific content streaming through our communities via listservs and webinars, we were doing a lousy job capturing it and making it available for people who weren’t “there.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe had developed an “authoritative” Web format that was calcifying into an encyclopedia that was:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ehard to keep up to date,\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003einhospitable to dynamic content, and\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003edifficult for folks to contribute their experiences. Most importantly, we weren’t giving you reasons to come back once you grabbed your fact or guideline.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe had a bunch of websites, blogs and wikis scattered across a bunch of different domains. This state of affairs grew organically over years, but it needed some trimming back. We weren’t helping our users—you—connect the dots in a growing digital landscape.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe fact is today’s practices rapidly evolved from yesterday’s “best” practice. Practices are also modified “in the field” to meet each agency’s mission and resources. So, we had the opportunity to expand our focus away from a single truth/practice to an array of solutions that best match your constantly changing world.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"the-vision\"\u003eThe Vision\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe wanted to build a collaborative platform to deliver timely content, showcase agency efforts and steer visitors to \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/communities/\" title=\"Communities\"\u003eCommunities\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https://digital.gov/services/directory/\"\u003eServices\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/resources/\" title=\"Resources\"\u003eResources\u003c/a\u003e to help agencies deliver that 21st century government. We wanted to give federal digital innovators a platform to broadcast their experiments and experiences and to accelerate the thinking—and the DOING—across government.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"the-roll-out\"\u003eThe Roll-Out\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe gathered a core group of people and broke into teams focusing on content, governance, technology and building the network.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe decided to use \u003ca href=\"https://Sites.USA.gov\" title=\"Sites.USA.gov\"\u003eSites.USA.gov\u003c/a\u003e—an interagency multi-tenant WordPress platform—to build the hub for digital government innovations. We reviewed data across all of our properties to suss out what people were interested in and what content we would come over as articles or posts and what content would be reference. Our goal was to focus on discovering and publishing new content and to spend less time on maintaining and updating older content. In this model, we also have a stronger commitment to keep the pruned “evergreen” resource content exceedingly up-to-date.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen we launched in mid-February, we had a lighter information architecture, daily content updates, better tagging to help you find related content, and the beginnings of new community resources all wrapped up in a modern, flat and responsive design. We also started publishing \u003ca href=\"http://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USHOWTO/subscriber/new\"\u003edaily and weekly digests\u003c/a\u003e to help subscribers keep abreast of new posts, webinars and events.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe turned our attention to mining the listservs, webinars and meetings for story ideas. We tapped innovators in agencies on the shoulder and said, “hey let’s get that in an article so more people can get the info.” We have become adept hunters and distributors of trends, practices, new tools and policies.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"the-data\"\u003eThe Data\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne thing we’ve learned from looking at our data, is that you like lists and data. So, we’ll be customer-focused and share a few things we’ve learned so far:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYou’re coming back for more! We went from 15% returning visitors to 45% returning visitors.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYou don’t mind a reminder (and you read our newsletters). We see a spike in traffic every day around 3:00, when we \u003ca href=\"http://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USHOWTO/subscriber/new\"\u003eemail our newsletter\u003c/a\u003e with the most recent articles and upcoming events.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYou’re engaged with the content. You are coming to read an article and staying to read 2 more, for an average on site time of 6 minutes.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYou especially like articles about \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/topics/analytics/\"\u003emetrics\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/topics/usability/\"\u003euser experience case studies\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/topics/terms-of-service/\"\u003esocial media tools\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/topics/emerging-tech/\"\u003emobile trends\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYou want to join in. Almost two-thirds of the articles on DigitalGov are written by people who don’t work for us but for 46 other agencies, bureaus and divisions of the federal government. (\u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/about/contribute/\" title=\"Join DigitalGov\"\u003eTell us if you have a story idea.\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYou’re landing and navigating to what you need (or maybe just coming for what’s new). Fewer than five percent of our visitors use site search (and it’s not because it’s not awesome). When you do search, you’re looking for information on \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/resources/negotiated-terms-of-service-agreements/\" title=\"Negotiated Terms of Service Agreements\"\u003eTerms of Service\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/topics/accessibility/\"\u003eAccessibility\u003c/a\u003e, and for \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/events/\"\u003eSpecific Events\u003c/a\u003e. Some of you, we think, are looking for the articles you wrote. Good on you. They are something to be proud of!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo far, the data is showing that we are doing what we set out to do. But, we know we have a long way to go and can do so much better.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"next\"\u003eNext\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the next few weeks we’ll be publishing our first roadmap with priorities for the next FY. We plan to be very transparent. Look also for a follow up on some decisions and pivots we’ve made since launch in February—not everything went as expected.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOh, and regarding doing MORE and doing it better? Keep an eye out for \u003cem\u003emore\u003c/em\u003e posts featuring more agencies doing \u003cem\u003emore\u003c/em\u003e innovative work to make a \u003cem\u003emore\u003c/em\u003e responsive 21st century government. And last, \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/about/\" title=\"Contact Us\"\u003ekeep in touch\u003c/a\u003e. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}