1. Changing ‘Hide and Seek’ to ‘Index and Find’
Sam Mefford
Enterprise Search Practice Lead
Avalon Consulting, LLC.

2. Changing ‘Hide and Seek’ to ‘Index and Find’
Successful Search is Simple
Connect Users -> Information
How to Implement
Education is key
I won’t focus on new features, except as examples
Much of this is common sense
Like a great search experience, my goal is to cut through the noise and get to what really matters

3. Successful Search is Simple
Industry messaging too complex
Users want Information
How do we connect Users -> Information?
Focus on the User needs
Focus on the Information
Focus on the UI!
OSFA is bad for the user
Constant innovation distracting
Google is a bad & a good example
Search Engines are not the solution, they are a part of the solution
Industry: Driven by customer demand, supposed imitation of Google, vendor distractions: One Search Fits All, Technology, “Enterprise Search”
OSFA: customers should focus on their application
Google solution: many targeted apps, each enhancing unified experience
Transition: Front-end should drive back-end, so let’s start with UI
Search Features UI

4. Focus on UI! Faceted Navigation
What do Monster, Amazon, and Kayak have in common?
Faceted Navigation
Targeted Search Applications
User-Experience Driven
Data from many sources well integrated
Faceted Navigation
Faceted Navigation
Why don’t we think of these as search?: As soon as an application is great at connecting users->information it isn’t considered “search”, it’s thought of in terms of the information and how the application empowers users to act on that info
Faceted Navigation
Faceted Navigation
Faceted Navigation

5. Focus on Information
Organize index on user needs, not available sources
Mashups / Virtual Documents
Increase the Signal (more right information)
Make it easier to add info—consider self-service
Audit—percent information searchable?
Overcome the Noise (less wrong information)
Structured data powers faceted navigation
Extract structured data
Focused search applications
Custom relevancy
Virtual Docs: Kayak, Hennepin Board Mtgs
Structure: more than just keyword search
Extract: Entities, Meta-data (format, source, size, date), categories, sentiment

6. Focus on User Needs Search Engine = Application platform
Search Engine != complete solution
Give users the customized UIs they need
Give users the information they need
Give users the speed they need
Give users the feedback loop they need
Information
- narrow for some apps (avoid noise)
- comprehensive for some apps (overcome silos)
- custom relevancy helps
Speed
-quick response time
-quick to learn
-unified searches where helpful
Feedback
- search #1 problem, but don’t what and why with specific examples
- regular satisfaction surveys

7. How to Implement? Educate Search Decision Makers Conduct Interviews
Present realistic plan
Set expectations of ongoing improvement

8. How to Implement? Educate Search Decision Makers Conduct Interviews
Present realistic plan
Set expectations of ongoing improvement

9. Educate Search Decision Makers
Search is not a black box
Evangelize great UI features like facets
Explain indexing, query, results, security
Use important initiatives to frame search capabilities
Institutionalize search experience feedback loop

10. How to Implement? Educate Search Decision Makers Conduct Interviews
Present realistic plan
Set expectations of ongoing improvement

11. Typical Interview What search terms? What expected results?
“payroll calendar”
Received most recent calendar for another division
Solution: sort by date, boost by user’s division
“hedis access to care report”
No meaningful results
Solution: index reports, apply security

12. Typical Interview, cont.
“EBT”
No useful results
Solution: update synonyms from posted list
“performance evaluation forms”
want it to prompt “Did you mean: performance agreement form”
Solution: custom key match (outside search engine)

13. How to Implement? Educate Search Decision Makers Conduct Interviews
Present realistic plan
Set expectations of ongoing improvement

14. Present a Realistic Plan
Take time to match user needs to available features
Start with search applications, not Enterprise Search
Plan for IA, L&F, UI Toolkits, SSO, SEO, CM, UAT
IHC example
Contact Directory
Facility Search
Doctor Search
Knowledge Base Search
Enterprise Search

15. How to Implement? Educate Search Decision Makers Conduct Interviews
Present realistic plan
Set expectations of ongoing improvement

16. Set Expectations of Ongoing Improvement
Benchmarking & measurement
Include feedback forms & user surveys
Search Center of Excellence
Bandwidth to focus
Experience
Ongoing evangelism & education
Governance Committee(s)
JH example
-many departments using outside providers
-”Enterprise Services” team didn’t have anyone focused on search, mostly doing password resets
-had feedback form & surveys, outside consultant identified search as #1 thing to improve, yet they didn’t know where to seek budget for staff & software

17. Enterprise Search Practice Lead
Conclusion
Search is Simple
Connect Users -> Information = UI
Search Engine is a part of the solution
Education is key
Search nirvana is available NOW
Contact Info: Sam Mefford
Enterprise Search Practice Lead