Status: 

Stuff we're still figuring out

• Should we speak to people by topic or by subject?
  • Usually by topic. when that won't work we can assess it as we go. 
• How many people would we like to speak to at once? 
  • Start with one-to-one chats. 
• What should we ask them to do or prepare before the meeting? 
• What homework should we give them afterwards? 
  • mapping stuff
• Should we talk about people and stories separately or as we talk about other areas of the page?
  • To start, ask at the end for people to follow up on finding stories to illustrate the key points. Or just all their stories?
• What will our preferred checking and review process be? 
  • HOS (or most senior person that we work with) responsible. We want feedback in a one-on-one meeting. 

Who we'd like to speak to

• Head of the relevant school
• And... Deputy HOS, Associate Dean, senior or leading academic staff, outreach staff
• Someone with vision and some authority - ideally someone who understands the students, marketing and the subject
• Maybe students.

What we should tell them about

• the project (and CSP in particular)
• their grouping
• why groupings/top[ics?
• WHAT'S CHANGING? 
• user research
• our overall goals for topics: simplicity, undergrad focus, user needs, lively, not dry...

• the sections of a topic page: About (general), Subjects (by subject), Careers (by subject), people and stories (mixed?)

• Anne Nelson (Unlicensed) wireframe screenschots
  

Pre-interview or post-interview homework

Identify stand-out or award winning projects that students have been involved with.  Ideally these would already be profiled online somewhere on the Victoria site (eg. in a news item).

Identify existing media or profiles? 

Check programme mapping

Check related topic mapping (would need full list of topics)

Interview questions

Brain dump ATM, filtering. 

As with our research with students, this can be much more conversational than it appears here. 

About (general)

What is special about studying <X> at Victoria?

Standford stuff

Follow up prompts if necessary. We should aim to hear about 2-4 points of difference. How about...

• the learning environment/location
• opportunities students will have to work with potential employers(real projects, networking, internship programmes, placements...)
• staff - anyone particularly awesome? 
• special events (eg. trips, competitions, exhibitions, productions) 
• accreditation or affiliations
• Wellington angle

What are some of the great comments you're always hearing from students about studying <X>? 

Tell us about your students - what are they like? How do they behave? How does studying <X> change them? 

(Sam Motion (Unlicensed) expand from Anne's notes)

About (subject)

Tell us a bit about this subject at Victoria. 

• What will students learn? 
• What will they be qualified or prepared to do at the end of it? 

What's it like to study <X> at Victoria?

What kind of person might be interested in <X>? Eg. personality traits, school subjects, learning style, hobbies they enjoy...

Are there any big misconceptions about this subject? 

Note: try to avoid getting into discussions of dry, non-marketable content such as graduate attributes.

Anne Nelson (Unlicensed) to improve

Careers and employment 

• General conversation, see how engaged they are.

What are the career opportunities like? Main roles people going into at the moment

Can you tell us about any alumni who have ended up in interesting careers? 

What do employers generally think of your graduates?

What sorts of postgraduate study opportunities are their for students and how could those impact their careers?

Note: try to avoid getting into discussions of dry, non-marketable content such as how students will learn teamwork skills. 

People and stories

If we hear any good suggestions in other parts of the interview, ask "can you think of any student/alumni/staff profiles that would help illustrate this?"

Related: 

Topic page: Content strategy

Writing for Victoria's international audiences

In OneDrive

The topic pages are set up in a shared OneDrive area. There is a template document there (called Template) that you should review as it has helpful notes about writing the page, and some relevant content examples that you can re-use or modify.

Many topics have the Careers - and sometimes the subjects - pre-written from existing publications and other resources. Various people around the place have done this work to give us a head start - it helps a lot. You may need to modify this content a little after the interview - the interview is the authoritative version.

Setting up the interview

We are writing new content. To create this, we're carrying out one-to-one interviews with the main subject-matter expert (SME) in the relevant school.

Notify the comms advisor for the faculty that you will be carrying out interviews and make sure they know what the project is about. They will guide you on how to go about approaching people - they may advise you to ask the faculty or school manager for names of interviewees. Also let the comms advisor know that after the interview, you might get them to help with sourcing media or writing lecturer profiles.

Make sure you interview a senior academic person - programme director, senior lecturer or head of school - someone who has the authority to review and sign off the content later. (For complex topics, you may need to interview several people.) Don't interview a faculty or school administrator, such as a faculty or school manager - we need subject-matter experts. 

What you need from the SME:

• • Interview (book 1 hour).
  • Review the draft and provide feedback.
  • Approve the final version. 

Send the email below to the SME - then call them if there is no response. Book out a time in their calendar - you can usually meet in their office.

At the start of the interview

Spend a few minutes giving them an overview of the project, but don’t go into it in depth - that communication is happening alongside the interview process by Jane and Paul.

This is what I say: Thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I’m part of a project that is writing much better content for the Victoria website, for prospective undergraduate students who are thinking of studying here. [Show them current subject pages - three paras at the top - “we want to give you more space to market and explain what you teach”.] Show them the new Explore page and explain mega topics and topic groupings. Tell them the links will go to the new topic pages. Describe how a topic page works - describe each of the four tabs/pages and what it’s for.

Introduce the personas - Mattie and Henry. Stand one or both of them up on the desk - I tend to use Mattie. Throughout the interview, say to the academic: “Tell Mattie - talk to him” “How would you explain to Mattie what xxx is” (etc).

If you strike someone who is resistant or negative in some way, take time to explain the project and get them on board - you can always come back and do the interview another time. If that doesn’t work, politely leave, then inform Jane.

Ask if you can record the interview. Explain that you won’t be quoting them - it’s just so you don’t have to write notes. I use a laptop (the MS record feature) as my main method, and I use a dictaphone as a backup. Plug in the laptop when you first arrive and set it up while you chat about the project - otherwise you’ll be waiting for it to fire up.

Let them know that the draft will come to them for review. 

During the interview

Use the interview questions (below). Make sure you cover all areas, but don’t let the interview go on for too long. Think about what you need, to write the page.

Be positive and interested. 

Remind them to talk to Mattie (or Henry).

After the interview

Save the recording.

Thank them.

Transcribe the interview as soon as possible. I recommend putting the transcript in a separate document and saving that to the Topic page folder in OneDrive.

Use a copy of the transcript to write the page. Draw on the content from our publications if you need to - but the interview is the authoritative source.

Gathering media 

The comms advisor will be able to help you find student work examples and other media. They might be happy to interview a lecturer and create a lecturer profile.

• If they're creating a lecturer profile, don't forget to ask for a photo to go with it. 
• If they're providing student work examples, ask them to also provide an outline of the project, a caption for each image, and signed permission forms from the students.

Contacts:

Review and sign off

Flowchart showing the review process

Review email and checklist for SME:

Sign off email and checklist for SME: