Articles for Optimizely

I was a press release for (then) Episerver back in late summer 2019.

I’ve written quite a few articles for Optimizely’s resources section.

Surface Tension and Culture Change
March 19, 2020

Changing times will cause dramatically changed consumer and business behavior.

Fly the Plane
March 23, 2010

When crisis hits, you need to concentrate on flying the plane.

The Evolving Role of a CMS in Content Creation
March 26, 2020

A CMS should be a content collaboration platform, not just a way to cross the last-mile of publishing.

What is the Ultimate Content Metric?
April 1, 2020

What people want might not be what they tell you they want. We are what we consume.

Reframing Headless CMS
July 27, 2020

Headless isn’t nearly as revolutionary as it once was.

Episerver Content Has Always Been Headless
August 6, 2020

Episerver has been doing “pure” content for over a decade, despite attempts to pigeonhole it as a “web” CMS.

Building a more flexible CMS for everyone
October 12, 2020

This was an interview with Episerver’s CMO about headless. It covers some CMS history too, which I love.

Archival and Retention in Episerver Content Cloud
November 16, 2020

A review of all the tools in Episerver to keep your content safe and comply with your regulatory environment.

Headless, SaaS, and Why Those Aren’t Necessarily a Package Deal
December 6, 2020

A discussion about hosting models and delivery architectures and how people keep getting them confused.

Pure Headless is Not the Answer for the Web Channel
February 21, 2021

A fairly combative email about how making a website using some headless architecture is probably best-served by a traditional web CMS.

Here’s the One Simple Trick to Agile CMS
March 2, 2021

An admittedly clickbait-y title about what makes a CMS really flexible and adaptable.

The Power of Incrementalism
March 9, 2021

For whatever reason, we love tearing things down and rebuilding them, rather than slowly improving over time.

How to set content production goals that REALLY drive results
June 24, 2022

A discussion of “goals” vs “actions,” borrowed from “The Four Disciplines of Execution.” (I did not write the title to this.)

Why the first 85% of content production is a must
June 30, 2022

Most of what we do to produce content happens outside our CMS. This is a follow-up/re-statement to this blog post from 2006. (I did not write the title to this.)

Book Chapters

Episerver published a few chapters of my 25 Lessons book as blog posts

How to calculate ROI for your CMS project – and know if it’s even possible

Sometimes, you can’t come up with an ROI number, and that’s okay.

Is an out of the box CMS a viable option for your business?

People say they want everything “out-of-the-box.” But they don’t, really.

How to evaluate RFP responses for your CMS project

Content management RFP responses can be multi-headed, and therefore confusing.

Technology Record Articles

I wrote some “viewpoint” articles for Microsoft’s print magazine “Technology Record.” They come out in print, then are added to the website later. I link to both where available.

A wider perspective of content management
Summer 2022

(This is not on the web version as of July 2022, so I link to the print version. I’ll add the website link when I see it.)

Realising rapid improvements with Microsoft .NET 5
March 12, 2022

Here is the print version. Also, no idea why they used the British spelling of “realizing” in the title.

Optimizely continues to invest in the Content Cloud CMS system
November 3, 2021

For some reason, this has a different title in the print version: “Long live Content Cloud.” I don’t remember what title I submitted it under.