Project Management for CDC.gov Webpage Rewrites

My role:

Process and Operations Lead

Challenge

CDC.gov was comprised of several microsites governed by the CDC's Centers, Institutes, and Offices (CIOs). Prior user research found that variations in design and content across webpages within these sites caused confusion and frustration for users as they tried to search for information.

In light of these findings, CDC.gov consulted with my organization and team to standardize the design of its sites using a new webpage editor, as well as rewrite content to improve users’ understanding of the content’s main message, improve readability and scannability of each page, and integrate plain language across the sites. The goal was to develop a set of pages to test with end users.

To meet this goal, I developed and managed the process for 5 technical writers, 4 plain language subject matter experts, and 2 content strategists to edit and rewrite content in preparation for user testing.

Key Methods:

Leadership
Time Management
Organization

Solution

To manage and monitor the rewrite process for User Testing, I created a Kanban board of tickets in Jira to track the status of pages as they were being rewritten, reviewed, and prepared for user testing. Each ticket included:

  • a URL link to the original CDC.gov webpage, the name of the assignee tasked to rewrite the page,

  • the name of the peer reviewer, the status of the ticket (all tickets started as "To Do") and

  • a link to additional guidance on best practices for rewriting a page (AC and Testing Steps not shown in the image below).

Using these tickets, we were able to track work to be done, in progress work, and completed work across all writers, subject matter experts, and content strategists.

Methods

Jira Onboarding and Training - 3 Workshops and Training Sessions

Prior to implementing the rewrite process, we held 3 trainings in Mural with the writers to:

  • explain user testing and the rewrite process,

  • discuss the rewrite workflow in Jira, and

  • review the process and assign pages to writers.

Agile Process - Weekly Assignments

Our team initially followed a process where writers would use their own judgement to manage the order and pace of rewriting pages they were assigned. Once they were done rewriting a page, they would pick up another ticket to work.

However, I learned that this process was slower than anticipated and resulted in a bottleneck that prevented pages from being completely on time. After speaking with the team, hearing their concerns, and addressing factors that prevented them from completing work, I created a new process where writers were assigned priority pages to rewrite on a weekly basis. I also instituted a daily check-in with writers where they could discuss their progress and highlight any issues or blockers. This allowed webpages to be rewritten and reviewed quickly to meet our strict weekly user testing schedule.

Communication - Daily Synchronous Check-Ins

During the rewriting process, we initially had 1-2 meetings a week to check-in our writers. I realized we needed a more regular meeting cadence to better track work. Toward the middle of the rewrite process, the team switched to daily, 15-minute syncs where each writer spoke about the work they did the previous day, their work plan for the current day, and if they had any blockers. We were able to gain a better understanding of the work being done and could quickly identify solutions for things blocking writers from completing page rewrites.

To communicate information with writers and reviewers, I also created and used a dedicated Microsoft Teams channel. To communicate with RTI plain language SMEs (subcontractor), I originally used email since that seemed to be the preference by the subcontractor leads. This led to the SMEs being out of sync with the rest of team. To mitigate this, I encouraged them to use the Teams channel. This improved communication greatly and allowed a more collaborative atmosphere between ICF and key SMEs.

Results

150 pages went through the rewrite process:

  • 116 pages went through the full rewrite process (rewrite, peer review, plain language, final review) and were included in final user testing studies:

    • We met our contract deliverable of testing a diverse set (diverse in content topic, content template, etc.) of pages for CDC's three primary audiences (general public, health care providers and public health professionals).

    • This was accomplished within a 5-month timeline (the user testing deliverable was due 2-months before the re-launch of CDC.gov.)

  • 19 pages were excluded from final user testing studies, but went through partial rewrite and review

  • 15 pages were canceled (removed from user testing process due to CDC/CIO/DFE restrictions/constraints)