In case you re in the wrong room

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1 In case you re in the wrong room Who or what Is the Crabby Office Lady???

2 The Crabby Office Lady Solid advice with an attitude

3 There will be a QUIZ after the presentation (with prizes for the winners).

4 Crabby Office Lady: Who she Weekly Microsoft humor/help columnist. Column hits in 2005: Live-action video performer. Author: 6 million The Microsoft Crabby Office Lady Tells It Like It is: Secrets to Surviving Life in the Office Real, live Microsoft employee. Daily user of Office at work and at home (as of April 2005, this is the same location). Go-to help oracle for family and friends (& now you). IS

5 Crabby Office Lady: Who she is NOT Not a 25-year-old male Microsoftie posing as a middleaged woman. Not a team of writers. Not a marketing mouthpiece. Not an expert in all things Office an island unto herself.

6 Crabby s mission Be useful. Be relevant. Teach with humor and real-world examples. Put a human face on Microsoft. Be an advocate for our customers. Listen to people Microsoft customers or not.

7 Where Crabby gets her column ideas Customer feedback: Personal and our database called Content Watson (more on this later) Personal experience. Office Online Web site: Working with the Network Programming team. Trade magazines. Office MVPs (Most Valued Professionals). Newsgroups/Communities. Other groups at Microsoft. Coworkers, friends, family, my own bored brain. Eavesdropping Networking with people like YOU!

8 Examples of topics Crabby covers Tips for teachers and parents at back-to-school time. Ideas & tips for multimedia presentations. Demystifying computer & terms. Collaborating with difficult people. Diversity in the workplace. Criteria for effective meetings. Surviving performance reviews. Working it from home (telecommuting). Choosing the best program for the job. Introducing new programs (OneNote, Office Live, Groove).

9 Examples of Crabby s writing style You can adjust one sentence at a time but it's more common to adjust the leading of an entire paragraph so that it's uniform. (Don't you just love a paragraph in uniform?) (Font Facts 101) When you're trying to get help, one unknown term or phrase can give you that deer-in-the-headlights feeling, stymieing you in your jump across the highway of knowledge (Demystify computer terms) Yep, it's that time of year again, the dreaded season when every conversation with your coworkers and your manager is laden with innuendo and suspicion, causing your paranoid tendencies to bubble to the surface... (Surviving performance reviews) Life is full of choices: Paper or plastic? Shower or bath? Stilettos or sandals? Get out of bed and do something with your day, or lay there, paralyzed with fear that yet something else will go wrong in your once-charming 100-year-old house? (And now you know just a little bit more about Crabby's personal life...) (Word versus Publisher)

10 The history of Annik *Jobs/experiences I ve had that lend to my credibility as the Crabby Office Lady B.A. in Creative Writing. (CU-Boulder) M.A. in Journalism. (CU-Boulder) MSFT Office Help writer, article writer, template creator, Web site producer. (Redmond, Wash.) Journalist. (Various freelance; Denver Post intern assignments included JonBenet Ramsey case; Oklahoma City Bombing trials.) Babysitter of drunk people (& their kids) on vacation. (Club Med- Dominican Republic; Copper Mountain; Florida) Personal assistant for unethical furniture dealer. (Florida) Barista and espresso cart owner. (Seattle; Durango, Colo.) Wannabe singer. (Paris; Boulder; Seattle) Pizza delivery girl to frat houses on Sunday mornings. (College) Waitress talk about earning the right to be crabby! (Seattle; Boulder) First job: Ice cream Baskin Robbins (Denver) Mommy to a 4-year old girl. (Vietnam; Seattle; Denver)

11 The history of Crabby From 7/98 to 11/99 I was a contractor for Microsoft and had 3 different jobs, one more boring than the next each paying a ridiculous amount of money. In November 1999, I applied for and accepted the job as Help writer for FrontPage 2002 (XP). In January of 2001, After great boredom, I joined the Web team we programmed the Tools on the Web site, wrote assistance articles, and created templates. In December 2001, I created the Crabby Office Lady (who also sprang from great boredom). The first column went live on the new Office Online Web site in late February For one year, I kept up with my regular Web-team duties, & wrote the column once a month. In the second year, I wrote it twice a month (all the while doing my other duties).

12 My job now In January of 2004, after a bit of corporate wrangling and spec writing, I began writing the column weekly and it became my full time job. As of 9/2006, the number of columns on the Office Online Web site: 140 My book came out on May 17 th, Started a blog (for purely RSS reasons), and since July 2005, it has had more than 2 million hits. I often talk to groups of people, ranging from technical writers and editors to attorneys, judges, and administrative professionals. I do videos

13 Example of a Crabby Office Lady video View the Crabby Office Lady Video Archives

14 Let s back up a bit

15 Internal reactions to the first column I was invited to a little meeting with two of the bigger managers. Other UA writers & managers didn t seem so thrilled with the Crabby concept. And then customer started to pour in

16 Customer reactions (95% nice) to the first column Really, really great. Thanks for adding a little life to the battle-ship gray world of Office. Congratulations for having the common sense to write an article in everyman s language. Miss Crabby, I just found your column and Love it!! Will you marry me? Note: This was the first of many marriage proposals from both men and women I ve read the Crabby Office Lady for the first time today and I found her writing style a very refreshing change to the usual bone-dry user guide lingo. You don t seem that crabby to me. Mostly just on point. I get cockles when I read your informative & witty articles. Just wanted to share that with you I think the Crabby Lady ought to replace, or at least be an option, for the clip, the nerdy professor and the other help assistants that we are all tired of now. Love Crabby Lady! Note: I ve received more than 100 requests to make the Crabby Office Lady an Office Assistant. However, the Office Assistant (all of them) have disappeared fro the new version of Office (2007 Microsoft Office system).

17 The Other 5%... I would have rather seen a crabby office stapler or a crabby office coffee cup than a crabby office lady. Being male and under 20 doesn't automatically make you right, good or even desirable, nor does it entitle you to insult people on the basis of their age and gender. I am writing to say I find the title of this useful help section "Crabby Lady' offensive. It is another putdown of the female gender. This title should be removed and replaced with something more fitting. Microsoft needs some help with its sensitivity level. I am offended by Crabby Office Lady sincerely, I am. Where is Sexist, Beat You Down Office Executive Man? Oh, he must be the person who suggested the column so he is getting all the credit from any success you may think you have from Crabby Office Lady.

18 Defining Success: Content Watson It s our way our database of gathering information about hits, ratings, comments, and feedback (also known as metrics ). We can use it as an Excel spreadsheet or on an internal Web site. You can view info by market, by content type (assistance, training, templates, clip art, etc.). You can create PivotTables to view results in a variety of ways. There is an entire team dedicated to keeping track of Office Online metrics.

19 How I use Content Watson Get a broad idea of what columns and types of columns are popular. I can see the ebb and flow of numbers from one month to the next, one week to the next, even one day to the next. What do people have to say? What are they not finding? What do they want from me, from office Online, from Microsoft in general. How are they rating my content? How does my content compare to other content on the site with regard to hits, ratings, comments, etc.? What percentage of people are taking the time to rate/comment? Which markets (U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada) are viewing which columns?

20 Content Watson: What it looks like* *This is the main page where you can filter by date, type, comments, even a particular piece of content (which we call assets ).

21 Content Watson: How it looks to me On this page, I m mostly interested in hits and ratings.

22 How my readers give feedback via Content Watson At the end of each column, you ll see this: If you click YES, you get this: If you click NO, you get this: If you click I don t know, you get this:

23 We take this information seriously Ratings and comments are looked at on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. A strong level of ownership is undertaken by each writer and editor for that particular column, article, template, training course, quiz, demo, etc. Content is changed to accommodate the customer. Each writer is held accountable for changes in ratings.

24 Why metrics are critical to my success My numbers my hits are what define my success as a columnist. If you re not coming, I m not doing my job. My ratings (which are calculated in percentages) are also a good indicator of how I m doing, although we have found that if people are happy, they just move on to the next task. I can also track where my hits are coming from. If they re from outside sources, I know that Crabby has a broad reach (which they are and she does).

25 How the column is promoted Office Online homepage (newly-designed as of 10/25/2006). Microsoft.com homepage. Microsoft Small Business Center MSN Tech and Gadgets. Office MVP Web sites. Been on Channel 9 news twice. Webcasts (first one in 2004; series starting 4/2007). Windows Live Spaces (formerly MSN Spaces): Blog and RSS feed. Folks personal and professional blogs. Company newsletters, Web sites from all over the world. 195,000 Google results on a search 9/15/2006.

26 The book Microsoft Press came to me to ask if I d be interested. In the spring of 2005, I wrote an outline of 10 chapters. I started writing in 12/2005. The book took 4 months to write. I had a choice: Write it during work hours with no additional $$$, or sign a moonlighting agreement. Gee I signed the moonlighting agreement, meaning the work was done after work hours (8 p.m. 2 or 3 a.m.). Some of the ideas were taken from the column; some were new; some were a combination. My editor and copy editor were in NYC the best editors I ve ever worked with before or since. 8,000 books were sold in 45 days (which is considered pretty good for a tech book).

27 What s next for Annik/Crabby Series of columns introducing 2007 Microsoft Office system (street date: January 2007). Webcasts (starting April 2007). Perhaps another book. Some freelancing (as Annik) on topics not related to software or the Web. Continue on the path of helping with humor.

28 Thank you Ron Arner Kristy Astry Julie Bettis STC Rocky Mountain Chapter

29 The Quiz How many columns are live on the site today? Answer: 140 How many reads of the columns were there in 2006? Answer: 6 million When was the first Crabby column published? Answer: February 2002 How long did it take to write the book? Answer: 4 months Name two jobs Annik has had previously

30 Questions? Remember: Solid advice with an attitude

How to write for. Claire Shaw, Education

How to write for. Claire Shaw, Education How to write for Claire Shaw, Education Editor, @ConversationEDU Is a not-for-profit educational website, sharing evidence-based expertise. We have websites based in Australia, the UK, US, sub-saharan