At IAC24, Joan Hua gave a very good presentation on how to get yourself oriented in a new domain quickly. As taxonomists and information architects, getting into a domain is so important to the process – it allows us to communicate effectively with SMEs and other stakeholders, and it helps us in making sense of it to the users and customers. Recently I was thinking about her presentation and about the institutional domain knowledge that I’ve picked up at Factor working with one of our clients.
Factor hired me in 2022 to work exclusively with this long-time client. For purposes of following the NDA I signed, I’ll refer to them as Acme*. Acme is a large company, and with a company that size it’s easy to get lost in the number of different departments and business units, the different ways in which they connect to each other, the systems that are potentially affected by changes made in the taxonomy, and the varying amounts of institutional knowledge that stakeholders may possess. Sometimes just finding the right person to talk to about something is an adventure in and of itself.
The way I’ve managed to try and navigate the client’s environment is similar to the way that Joan recommends getting oriented to a domain, it involves asking questions, testing your knowledge and assumptions, and working out new questions to ask as you understand more. With that in mind, I’ve put together some additional advice from the field, specifically about getting oriented to a new domain when the domain in question is an organization that you’re working with and you’re trying to get yourself familiarized and acclimated to coming to a new client.
Tip 1. Use the Reference Section
Do you remember back in school when they first taught us about doing research? The advice I always heard was to start at the Reference section. It’s still good advice; the resources in the reference section can help direct or guide a search for information, especially in the early stages. I’m sure those of you with a library background are currently nodding your heads sagely.
When you’re starting out to learn about an organization, the reference section is still an excellent place to start. In this context, the “reference section” refers to the organization’s information management platforms and document repositories. For example, your client may have some kind of intranet or employee portal which contains a search function. An intranet search can be a good go-to, especially as it will give you some examples of what kind of content is indexed for employee use and search, and how they have that content organized and filtered. It may also inform you about other information sources that are available. For example, Acme has a portal where searches connect to their internal wiki and to SharePoint.
Your client may also have some kind of enterprise wiki platform. Internal wikis might contain documentation such as explanations of how systems work, copies of presentations, diagrams and technical specifications, and even maintenance instructions. Even out of date documentation might give you a person’s name or suggestions of a business unit or team that might have correct and current information.
If your client has a wiki, try searching for the name of your taxonomy management system in it. There may be documentation about how other systems interact with the taxonomy, how the taxonomy is synced to those systems, and individuals who may be a good contact for you to ask questions or learn more.
There are a variety of other possible reference tools. Acme has a dictionary of acronyms which comes in incredibly handy at times. (Seriously, there are so many acronyms). They also have a database that contains the approved legal name for their products and services including trademark use and placement. A good number of these additional tools may also be accessible from the intranet/portal, so it pays off very well to familiarize yourself with it.
Shared document depositories, such as SharePoint or Google Drive, can be a great resource in finding old working documents, information on previous projects, even recorded meetings and transcripts. Besides Acme’s SharePoint that I mentioned earlier, Factor itself has shared drives with templates and artifacts that it has created for its clients.
*this may or may not be the same Acme as in my Taxonomy Boot Camp presentation last year.
Note: This article ended up being a little longer than I intended. I’ll post Part 2 soon.
