{"id":17461,"date":"2009-06-22T13:19:40","date_gmt":"2009-06-22T12:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/blog\/?p=17461"},"modified":"2020-07-20T13:57:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T12:57:15","slug":"great-question-difficult-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Question. Difficult Answers."},"content":{"rendered":"


<\/p>\n

\"snow-1\"<\/a><\/div>\n

The question:\u00a0 “Is your website SNOWED?”<\/p>\n

The question comes from a post by Jeremiah Owyang<\/a>–and the acronym stands for “S<\/strong>takeholders’ N<\/strong>eeds O<\/strong>verwhelm W<\/strong>eb E<\/strong>xperience D<\/strong>esign.”\u00a0 For an example of this condition, the post point to this case study:<\/p>\n

Take for example the American Airlines website, which was so frustrating to users that designer Dustin Curtis decided to mock up an improvement<\/a> and write this open letter. One of the designers from AA responded, saying there were over 200 stakeholders involved in the final output of the product, resulting in the jumbled mess of a corporate webpage.<\/p>\n

The AA designer’s lengthy response offers a glimpse of conditions that prevail at many large companies, and definitely worth reading.\u00a0 Though the web team understands the requirements of user experience design, their judgments are often over-ruled by pressure from various stakeholders who want prominent page space for this or that message or function.\u00a0 And the letter points out that in large companies, a clean, complete redesign is generally considered impossible.\u00a0 Changes must be made “organically, as the site evolves.”\u00a0 (Which is hardly the best way to replace a bad site with a good one . . . )<\/p>\n

Owyang’s suggested solution is “have an empowered Web Strategist” to balance the needs of the user community, the business stakeholders, and the technology conditions.\u00a0 Which sounds like an excellent idea–but not easy to implement at most companies.<\/p>\n

The SNOWED problem can be a bit different in terms of the Careers area.\u00a0 For one thing, there may be just one dominant stakeholder (often HR) and there may be a separate web team, or even a separate domain for Careers, and that could provide more design freedom.\u00a0 But on the other hand, the functional demands of content management (job posting, for example) and applicant tracking offer added complication.<\/p>\n

The balancing act for Careers could be combining (a) the machinery needed to fill specific jobs with (b) the demands of employer branding and (c) the need to offer focused messaging on certain job types, career paths, benefits, etc.\u00a0 The Careers team may need to create multiple paths to reach multiple audiences in a time-critical way-which can be quite a challenge.<\/p>\n

Two approaches gaining increased attention are landing pages and micro-sites.\u00a0 More on each topic in future posts, but in the meantime, here are two quick views from StandoutJobs:\u00a0 Coming in for a Landing<\/a> and Micro-site Strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Thanks to John Holm<\/a> for the gorgeous snow scene.)<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The question:\u00a0 “Is your website SNOWED?” The question comes from a post by Jeremiah Owyang–and the acronym stands for “Stakeholders’ Needs Overwhelm Web Experience Design.”\u00a0 For an example of this condition, the post point to this case study: Take for example the American Airlines website, which was so frustrating to users that designer Dustin Curtis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,25],"tags":[41,3881,3871,1285,3891],"class_list":{"0":"post-17461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-best-practices","7":"category-careers","8":"tag-corporate-website","9":"tag-landing-pages","10":"tag-micro-sites","11":"tag-recruiting","12":"tag-web-strategy","13":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nGreat Question. Difficult Answers. - Corporate Eye<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Great Question. Difficult Answers. - Corporate Eye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The question:\u00a0 “Is your website SNOWED?” The question comes from a post by Jeremiah Owyang–and the acronym stands for “Stakeholders’ Needs Overwhelm Web Experience Design.”\u00a0 For an example of this condition, the post point to this case study: Take for example the American Airlines website, which was so frustrating to users that designer Dustin Curtis […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Corporate Eye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-22T12:19:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-20T12:57:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/snow-1-271x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cynthia Giles\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cynthia Giles\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cynthia Giles\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1\"},\"headline\":\"Great Question. Difficult Answers.\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-22T12:19:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-20T12:57:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/\"},\"wordCount\":407,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/snow-1-271x300.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"corporate website\",\"landing pages\",\"micro-sites\",\"recruiting\",\"web strategy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Best Practices\",\"Careers\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/\",\"name\":\"Great Question. Difficult Answers. - Corporate Eye\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/snow-1-271x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-22T12:19:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-20T12:57:15+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/snow-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/snow-1.jpg\",\"width\":453,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Great Question. Difficult Answers.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\",\"name\":\"Corporate Eye\",\"description\":\"...compare, compete, excel\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Corporate Eye\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png\",\"width\":283,\"height\":42,\"caption\":\"Corporate Eye\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/lucynixon\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1\",\"name\":\"Cynthia Giles\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cynthia Giles\"},\"description\":\"Cynthia Giles has followed a serpentine career path from academia to publishing to marketing and design to information technology and corporate communications. There\u2019s plenty of detail about this journey at www.cynthiagiles.com, but briefly--the common theme has been ideas, and how to present them effectively. Along the way, she became an accidental expert on data warehousing and business intelligence, and for the past ten years she has combined corporate contracting with an independent consulting practice that focuses on marketing strategy for smaller businesses and non-profits. Having spent quite a bit of time looking for work, and anywhere from two weeks to two years inside a wide variety of American companies\u2014she has given much thought to what works (and what doesn\u2019t) when it comes to creating a great employment fit.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.cynthiagiles.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/author\/cynthia\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Great Question. Difficult Answers. - Corporate Eye","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Great Question. Difficult Answers. - Corporate Eye","og_description":"The question:\u00a0 “Is your website SNOWED?” The question comes from a post by Jeremiah Owyang–and the acronym stands for “Stakeholders’ Needs Overwhelm Web Experience Design.”\u00a0 For an example of this condition, the post point to this case study: Take for example the American Airlines website, which was so frustrating to users that designer Dustin Curtis […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/","og_site_name":"Corporate Eye","article_published_time":"2009-06-22T12:19:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-07-20T12:57:15+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/snow-1-271x300.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Cynthia Giles","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@lucynixon","twitter_site":"@lucynixon","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cynthia Giles","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/"},"author":{"name":"Cynthia Giles","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1"},"headline":"Great Question. Difficult Answers.","datePublished":"2009-06-22T12:19:40+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-20T12:57:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/"},"wordCount":407,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/snow-1-271x300.jpg","keywords":["corporate website","landing pages","micro-sites","recruiting","web strategy"],"articleSection":["Best Practices","Careers"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/","name":"Great Question. Difficult Answers. - Corporate Eye","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/snow-1-271x300.jpg","datePublished":"2009-06-22T12:19:40+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-20T12:57:15+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/snow-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/snow-1.jpg","width":453,"height":500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/great-question-difficult-answers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Great Question. Difficult Answers."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/","name":"Corporate Eye","description":"...compare, compete, excel","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization","name":"Corporate Eye","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png","width":283,"height":42,"caption":"Corporate Eye"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/lucynixon"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1","name":"Cynthia Giles","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Cynthia Giles"},"description":"Cynthia Giles has followed a serpentine career path from academia to publishing to marketing and design to information technology and corporate communications. There\u2019s plenty of detail about this journey at www.cynthiagiles.com, but briefly--the common theme has been ideas, and how to present them effectively. Along the way, she became an accidental expert on data warehousing and business intelligence, and for the past ten years she has combined corporate contracting with an independent consulting practice that focuses on marketing strategy for smaller businesses and non-profits. Having spent quite a bit of time looking for work, and anywhere from two weeks to two years inside a wide variety of American companies\u2014she has given much thought to what works (and what doesn\u2019t) when it comes to creating a great employment fit.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.cynthiagiles.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/author\/cynthia\/"}]}},"modified_by":"Cynthia Giles","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17461"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51174,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17461\/revisions\/51174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}