Workflow Sample: Episode 571: Business Improvement in Website Operation (Part 1)

Operation: Creation of Articles for Website

In some companies where they publicate a Website, it seems they practice "Proofreading on their articles".

It is not limited to commercial based "Curated contents site" such as medical & health sites or fashion sites, as well as in "Owned media" that is for outgoing information related to company's own, efforts for raising reliability on its articles are put.

For us, 'Editors" carry out some sort of "Proofreading and Fact-checking" through the Workflow as the following

"Editor-in-chief" launces projects such as seasonal series, etc.
"Editor" determines the temporary title for each article
"Writers" write the articles according with the title
"Editor" checks them
"Web designer" posts the articles and photos on the website

However, it is not in a system that we can assert that "all the outgoing information is proper".

Challenge: Quality of Primary Draft

Although there were various discussions, I decided to consider "improving the skills of writer" first. In particular, for the writers who are oftenly told to "rework" by the editors, I want to straight them up.

Although there are various ways of improving skills, what I chose is to make a policy that "writers themselves proofread articles written by other writers." It may seems kinda rough, but people say "One man's fault is another's lesson". Anyway, it is a strategy that to have the writer notice the point he or she should reflect on themselves by reading articles written by other writers daily.

I suppose that as the secondary Effects in the medium to long term, the sense of burden of proofreading which "editors" feel will also decrease.

[Article Proofreading]

Solution: Two-stage Reviewing

A Step of checking is a way of thinking that is often used not only in terms of "quality improvement" but also "prevention of human error". And it also leads to "improvement of skill" for those who check.

If you make the checking Step "doubled", you can expect more people to improve their skills even though there is a possibility of losing "sense of speed". Also, in cases where the burden on "editors" tends to concentrate as in Website articles creation, it will be a good opportunity to reconsider "roles" and "how to work".

In this Business Process definition, it is on a rule that to designate "writer" and "primary reviewer" out of writers. In other words, at the time when an "Editor" sets "Temporary title", he or she designates the writer taking a comprehensive look at the gist of the project article, the experience of each writer, and even the workload situation of each writer.

Discussion: Separation of Newly Writing from Correction Writing

In the flow diagram of this Business Process definition, the Step of "2. Write article" and the Step of "2x. Revise article" are prepared respectively.

There is no difference in Data Items that are possible to enter in "2. Write article" (Step of new article writing) and "2x. Revise article" (reworking Step). However, by separately defining both of them, you can clearly distinguish and recognize "returned drafts" and "projects to be written newly" in the writer's task list (My Tasks).

Also, in "Heat Map" which "Editor-in-chief" monitors to confirm status of staying, you can easily see the difference between "newly-written articles" and "revising articles".

[Article Proofreading:"1. Set temp. title" screen]