How to successfully plan for the Mass.gov migration

We’re making Mass.gov into a website the people of the Commonwealth deserve. We’re cutting through the bureaucracy to focus on constituents and the services they need. And we’re writing at a 6th-grade reading level.
We know change is hard. And we know we’ve set the bar high. We’ve been so pleased by how many organizations have made great progress. They’ve used strong project plans, good communication, and thoughtful editorial processes, to try, test, iterate their way to a better Mass.gov.
We sat down with a few of the most successful organizations to find out what’s worked, and what they’ve learned along the way.
The Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA)
• Rebecca Neal, DUA Web Project Manager
• Marie-Lise Sobande, Chief of Staff
The Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA)
• Lisa Gilgan, Public Information Officer
The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA)
• Mike Orcutt, Project Manager
The Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV)
• Nancy Cox, Communications Team
• Sarah Zaphiris, Chief Administrative Officer
Mass.gov: Who did you choose to work on the migration and why?
Lisa Gilgan (DIA): If you have someone who works on the front lines and deals with everybody, that’s probably your best resource. I was lucky that I work on the front lines so I know who our constituents are. I deal with the public and take phone calls from constituents, employers, and even other state agencies.
Marie-Lise (DUA): Our project manager, Rebecca, assigns, edits, and is in charge of the project. Without her, the project wouldn’t have been successful. She’s not a subject matter expert, but she put everyone in the same room and keeps them focused. It’s important to have a balance between subject matter experts and the project manager, who isn’t an expert on the content, and will be reading content without knowing the acronyms.
“Identify your team early and define everybody’s role — who’s going to author, who’s going to review, who’s going to edit, and then come up with a plan and stick to it.” — Nancy Cox
Mass.gov: What does your organization’s project plan look like?
Mike Orcutt (EEA): I ask each agency to come up with their work plan based on the pages they have and the goals for each month, and I check in on completion on a monthly basis. Every month, I have them report how many completes [they have] and how many pages they’ve drafted. I also include in their monthly target any issues they may have that are preventing them from reaching that target. We would flag them and try to figure out how to address them.
Nancy Cox (RMV): Identify your team early and define everybody’s role — who’s going to author, who’s going to review, who’s going to edit, and then come up with a plan and stick to it. Identify the number of services and pages you need. Set a goal and try to meet it each week.
Mass.gov: What is your editorial process like?
Lisa Gilgan (DIA): I have a “try, test, iterate,” attitude about publishing content and receiving feedback. I like people to share their likes and dislikes. I put together a website feedback group of attorneys and employees. I explain what’s going on with the redesign and direct them to specific pages for feedback. I leave my ask open-ended, especially if they’re not too familiar with workers’ compensation, since that perspective is more helpful. I ask what they like, don’t like. If you can’t find something, how do you go about finding it? How can we make it more helpful for you to find?
Nancy Cox (RMV): We try and edit with a 2-day turnaround. The process became much quicker with practice. Once we found the voice and style of the new website, there were very few edits needed.
Mass.gov: How has having a content plan/map helped you with the migration?
Rebecca Neal (DUA): For us, [the content map] was a really good reality check. It was helpful to see what we can eliminate altogether. We’re continuing to build off it.
Lisa Gilgan (DIA): It helps you figure out where you’re going and think about what you need. I had already unknowingly set up the current site by service pages, so I guess I was ahead of the curve. I was able to take chunks of information and put them under a service grouping where I knew I wanted it to be. You can always change it if it doesn’t make sense.
Nancy Cox (RMV): It’s definitely identified where we’re at in the process, since we just have so much content, whether it’s policies, procedures, transactions, or locations. Use the dashboard and Google Analytics to help break up priorities based on top content. It helped us to identify, what can we get rid of? And then the gaps, what don’t we have that we need?
Sarah Zaphiris (RMV): It was a helpful framework. It pushes you to boil down content and put it in buckets. It makes it more digestible I think. It forces everyone to think critically about what we’re creating and it forces a lot of critical conversations.
“The process should be collaborative, with the goal being to do what’s best for the user and individual.” — Rebecca Neal
Mass.gov: What is your team’s internal communications strategy?
Rebecca Neal (DUA): It’s important to make sure that everyone had the same information. You need to get everyone into a room, and go in with an open mind. Having a small writing team that manages the transition and helps to brainstorm content is what works best for us. The process should be collaborative, with the goal being to do what’s best for the user and individual.
Mike Orcutt (EEA): You need decision makers and a strong project plan. It’s good to have leads distributed throughout the content well so they’re as close to the content authors as possible.
Mass.gov: How much time do you commit to Pilot.mass.gov?
Rebecca Neal (DUA): It varies. On average, I spend maybe 35 percent of my day on pilot, whether I’m prepping for a meeting or revising pages.
Marie-Lise (DUA): A couple meetings a week. Maybe 20 percent of my time.
Lisa Gilgan (DIA): 100 percent. I’m the project manager, communications person, writer, and editor.
Mike Orcutt (EEA): 60 percent of my work hours on average.
Nancy Cox (RMV): 50 percent on the process, including reviewing and editing. We also have 3–4 people who work on various parts of the migration. We anticipate that maintenance will be easier and take less time moving forward. It doesn’t have to take 100 percent of your time.
Sarah Zaphiris (RMV): 10–15 percent of my time. It will ramp up closer to major milestone dates.
“When you put the customer first, it helps your staff too. You’re simplifying your process. Changing the way you talk about it helps change the way you think about it.”
— Sarah Zaphiris
Mass.gov: How has your organization worked to reframe your language to better serve constituents?
Rebecca Neal (DUA): One of the biggest things we learned is that you should write to your audience. Our language talks about the claimant, worker, employer. We try to write as if we’re having a conversation so it’s simpler, more clear, and concise. We want claimants to get what they need without having to read [the page] 3 or 4 times.
Lisa Gilgan (DIA): I always put myself outside the agency — if I were injured, what would I be looking for? What I learned is to make things simpler. I find myself going over what we have on our current site and saying, we could take out this sentence and that sentence. I think learning to cut down on the number of words and seeing if I can come up with a less complicated word instead helps.
Mike Orcutt (EEA): We shortened [the language], used a lot more bullet points, and got rid of a lot of pages that aren’t very useful.
Nancy Cox (RMV): Simplify, simplify, simplify, which takes a couple of iterations, because it’s not so easy to do. We’re hopefully taking that and implementing it in other pieces of the RMV. If you’ve gotten a letter from the RMV, sometimes our letters are very legalese and hard to read, so we’ve taken another look at those and simplified.
Sarah Zaphiris (RMV): When you put the customer first, it helps your staff too. You’re simplifying your process. Changing the way you talk about it helps change the way you think about it. What is my process? Is it too complicated?
Mass.gov: What lessons have you learned throughout the redesign process? What do you wish you knew before you started the project?
Mike Orcutt (EEA): Time can get away from you. I spent so much time trying to figure out what our top content was. You need to jump on things fast.
Nancy Cox (RMV): The process can be overwhelming, so you have to chunk material out. We use office hours for direction and help.
Have more questions about how organizations are planning for the migration or how they’ve tackled rewriting their content? Feel free to reach out to our partner organizations using the contact information below.
DUA
Rebecca Neal: Rebecca.Neal2@MassMail.State.MA.US
DIA
Lisa Gilgan: Lisa.Gilgan@MassMail.State.MA.US
EEA
Mike Orcutt: Michael.W.Orcutt@MassMail.State.MA.US
RMV
Nancy Cox: Nancy.P.Cox@MassMail.State.MA.US
Sarah Zaphiris: Sarah.Zaphiris@MassMail.State.MA.US
