Taxonomy Strategies LLC
Getting Started with Business
Taxonomy Design
Joseph A. Busch, Principal, Taxonomy Strategies LLC
Lisa Butcher, Principal, Project Performance Corp.
November 5, 2007
Copyright 2007 Taxonomy Strategies LLC and Project Performance Corporation. All rights reserved.
Who we are: Joseph Busch
 Over 25 years in the business of organized information.
 Founder, Taxonomy Strategies LLC
 Director, Solutions Architecture, Interwoven
 VP, Infoware, Metacode Technologies
– (acquired by Interwoven, November 2000)
 Program Manager, Getty Foundation
 Manager, Pricewaterhouse
 Metadata and taxonomies community leadership.
 President, American Society for Information Science & Technology
 Director, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
 Adviser, National Research Council Computer Science and
Telecommunications Board
 Reviewer, National Science Foundation Division of Information and
Intelligent Systems
 Founder, Networked Knowledge Organization Systems/Services
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Who we are: Lisa Butcher
 Over 18 years in the field delivering high impact KM solutions.
 Principal, Project Performance Corporation KM Practice
 Director, ePortal/Knowledge Management, March of Dimes
 Director, Intranet Development, March of Dimes
 Regional Director, IT Operations, March of Dimes
 About Project Performance Corporation…
 Internationally recognized KM practice has led the design, development,
and evolution of taxonomies and knowledge directories for over 160
different organizations.
 Customized taxonomy design workshop methodology for “quick-start”
successes.
 Key clients include; Rockwell Automation, Columbia University,
Government of Bermuda, Department of Defense DFAS, Society for
Human Resource Management and many other Fortune 1000,
government agencies, foundations and associations.
 PPC’s iterative methodology focuses on defining real value for the end
user with smart and simple solutions.
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
What we do
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
What we do
Organize Stuff
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Who are you? What sectors do you work in?
Your Role
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Industrial Sector
Content Manager
Editor
Information Architect
Usability Expert
Librarian
Records Manager
Knowledge Engineer
Ontologist
Chief Information Officer
Communications
Administration
 Financial Services
 Banking & Insurance
 High Tech
 Computers, Software &
Telecommunications
 Heavy Manufacturing
 Steel, Automobiles, Aircraft, etc.
 Government
 Federal, State or local
 Manufacturing
 Consumer Products, etc.
 Medical & Health Care
 Mining & Refining
 Petrochemicals, Oil & Gas
 Pharmaceuticals
 Drugs, Biotech
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
How do you organize your sock drawer
Like this?
Or, like this?
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Agenda
 Defining business taxonomy
 Planning a taxonomy project
 How to Get Started
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Defining business taxonomy: Agenda

Defining business taxonomy
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Taxonomy and metadata definitions
Examples of taxonomy used to populate metadata fields
Explaining traditional taxonomies
Defining the business taxonomy
Characteristics of the business taxonomy
Traditional v. business taxonomy
Example of business taxonomy
How business taxonomy translates into front-end interface
Justification for business taxonomy
Easier management – Greater consistency
Flexibility to respond to changing needs
Foundation for findability and usability
Common categorization schemes
Planning a taxonomy project
How to Get Started
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Taxonomy and metadata definitions
 Primary tools to provide
structure to unstructured
information
 Depending on system design
and use, may be front-end or
back-end functionality
 Taxonomy (categorization) is
often actualized by applying
metadata to documents
 Enable Findability
Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information
Metadata
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Taxonomy and metadata definitions
Metadata
 Data about data.
Taxonomy
 The classification of organisms in an ordered system that
indicates natural relationships.
 The science, laws, or principles of classification;
systematics.
 Division into ordered groups, categories, or hierarchies.
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Examples of taxonomy used to populate metadata
fields
Metadata Values (As Taxonomy)
Audience
Metadata
Title
Internal
Executives
Managers
External
Suppliers
Customers
Partners
Author
Department
Audience
Topic
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Topics
Employee Services
Compensation
Retirement
Insurance
Further Education
Finance and Budget
Products and Services
Support Services
Infrastructure
Supplies
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Explaining traditional taxonomies
Biological/Medical/Library
Science Taxonomies
“Instantive” Categorization
Approach
 An overall organizational
 Defined by “is a” relationships—
system with many branches or
sub-branches that organizes
their world of information.
 Extremely rigid approach
each child category is an
instance of the parent category.
 “Pure” taxonomic approach.

Purely subject-oriented.
 Consistent and methodical.
 Every item has one and only
one correct categorization.
Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information
Kingdom  Animalia
Phylum  Chordata
Class
 Reptilia
Order
 Squamata
Family
 Colubridae
Genus
 Pituophis
Species  Catenifer
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Defining the business taxonomy
 Categorization structure designed by and for business
users
 Business users as primary taggers/content contributors
 Business users (or their constituents) as primary consumers
 Used for both (or either) primary or secondary
categorization:
 Primary: Navigation, Management
 Secondary: Search, Tagging
“ When we talk about a taxonomy, we are not only talking about a
website navigation scheme. Websites change frequently, we are
looking at a more durable way to deal with content so that different
navigation schemes can be used over time.”
– R. Daniel “Taxonomy FAQs”
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Characteristics of Business Taxonomies
 Tend to be less rigid and
constrained.
 Influenced by usability concerns

Minimize number of “clicks”
 Often content-driven

Ensure balanced content
distribution.
 Allow flexibility, redundancy

Items may be organized into
multiple categories.
 May support multiple
taxonomies for disparate
audiences.
 May use one or more different
categorization approaches.
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Traditional v. business taxonomy: Side-by-side
comparison
Traditional Taxonomy
Business Taxonomy
 Back-end Visibility
 Front-end Visibility/Navigation
 Integration & Classification
Structure
 Navigation &
Integration/Classification
 Increased Usability
 Simplicity
 Absolute Granularity
 Ultimate Classification
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Example of business taxonomy
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Business taxonomy problem: How to pick from >
5,000 faucets?
Refine search by:
 Category
 Price
 Brand
 Color/Finish
 # Handles
 Series Name
 Water Filter?
 Faucet Spray
 Handle Shape
 Soap Dispenser?
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How business taxonomy translates into front-end
interface
Metadata Field: Size
Taxonomy Values:
4.5
5.5
6
6.5
7
8
…
Metadata Field: Type
Taxonomy Values:
Athletic Inspired
Boots
Loafers and Slip-ons
Oxfords and More
Sandals
Metadata Field: Color
Taxonomy Values:
Black
Blue
Brown
Green
Grey
Ivory
…
Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information
Metadata Field: Brand
Taxonomy Values:
Antonio Maurizi
Bacco Bucci
Ben Sherman
Bruno Magli
…
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How business taxonomy translates into front-end
interface…for YOUR BUSINESS
Metadata Field: Topic
Metadata Field: Locale
Taxonomy Values:
Manufacturing
Benefits
Infrastructure
Quality
Safety
…
Taxonomy Values:
North America
Europe
Asia
South America
…
Metadata Field:
Document Type
?
Taxonomy Values:
Forms
Policies
Procedures
Reports
News
…
Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information
Metadata Field:
Department
Taxonomy Values:
HR
Sales and Marketing
Communications
Shipping
…
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Justification for business taxonomy
 Easier information management
 Flexibility to respond to changing needs
 Foundation for findability and usability
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Effectiveness of business taxonomies
 Categorize in multiple,
Main
Ingredients
independent, categories.
 Allow combinations of
categories to narrow the choice
of items.
 4 independent categories of 10
nodes each have the same
discriminatory power as one
hierarchy of 10,000 nodes (104)
•
•
•
•
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•
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Easier to maintain
 Easier to reusue existing
material
 Can be easier to navigate, if
software supports it
Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information
Chocolate
Dairy
Fruits
Grains
Meat &
Seafood
Nuts
Olives
Pasta
Spices &
Seasonings
Vegetables
Meal Type
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Breakfast
Brunch
Lunch
Supper
Dinner
Snack
Cooking
Methods
Cuisines
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•
•
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•
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African
American
Asian
Caribbean
Continental
Eclectic/
Fusion/
International
Jewish
Latin American
Mediterranean
Middle Eastern
Vegetarian
•
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Advanced
Bake
Broil
Fry
Grill
Marinade
Microwave
No Cooking
Poach
Quick
Roast
Sauté
Slow
Cooking
• Steam
• Stir-fry
42 values to maintain (10+6+11+15)
9900 combinations (10x6x11x15)
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Easier management – Greater consistency:
Overall enterprise taxonomy goals for the EPA
 Provide a single methodology for categorizing information
across offices, programs, and regions.
 Reduce the time it takes to successfully target and find
cross-Program/Region information
 Enable and enforce content linking across the agency
 Build common agency-wide terminology resources
 Eliminate multiple, ambiguous taxonomies
 Eliminate multiple glossaries, abbreviations and acronyms
 Group things differently depending on the context
 e.g., ground water with drinking water, or ground water with water
quality
 Get the right content to the right people in the right format
at the right time.
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Flexibility to respond to changing needs
Steve
 Respond to innovation
 New product or service launch
Michae
l
 Respond to disruption
 The boss wants something done now
 Target / personalize content
 RSS feeds
 Tailored portals
 Assemble new site quickly
 Unfunded mandates
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Foundation for findability and usability
 For a product catalog, e.g., HomeDepot.com
 Conversion rate increases
– 20% increase. Petersen
 Lift in average order size.
– 20% increase. Petersen
 For knowledge workers, e.g., call center support staff
 Time saved
– 36% faster than search. Chen & Dumais.
 For knowledge workers, e.g., analysts
 Increase in productivity
– 25% productivity increase from not re-creating content . Taylor.
– Estimated productivity loss exceeded $10M per year—about $500 per
employee per year. Nielsen.
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Common categorization schemes – Strive for topical
taxonomy
Method
Definition
Examples
Hardest
Easiest
Facet-based
Information categorized into
multiple taxonomies or
“stackonomies” based on
unique but pervasive
characteristics including
topic, function, etc.
Wines by region
France > Alsace
Wines by type
White >
Chardonnay
Wines by price
Subjectoriented
Information categorized by
subject or topic.
 Instantive - each child
category is an instance of the
parent category
 Partitive - each child
category is a part of the
parent category
water pollution, soil
pollution,
air pollution…
Functional
Information categorized by
the process to which it
relates
employment, staffing,
training
Organizational
Information categorized by
corporate departments or
business entities.
Human Resources,
Marketing, Accounting,
Research…
Document
Type
Information categorized by
the type of document
presentations, expense
reports, press releases …
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Planning a taxonomy project: Agenda
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Defining business taxonomy
Planning a taxonomy project
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Top down v. bottom up approach
Primary risks and challenges
Lack of understanding
Complexity
Compliance
Resistance to change
Delay and avoidance
What do you need to get started?
Understand your audience
Understand your publishers
Understand your platform
Understand your content
Understand your content
Understand your limitations
Define your use cases
Project best practices
Common roles and responsibilities
Iterative design plan
Communications, education and marketing
Governance plan: The four keys to governance
End user focus
Leverage existing metrics: Passive and active
How to Get Started
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Top down v. bottom up approach – we’re focusing
on top down
Top down approach
 Keep it broad and shallow
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6-12 top-level categories.
2-3 levels deep.
 Focus mainly on the primary, top-
level concepts
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Keep it simple (elegant)
 Be inspired by schemes that
already exist and are being used
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Industry standards.
Local practices.
Bottom up approach
 Essentially boiling the ocean
 Identify frequently occurring noun
phrases in text—thousands and
thousands of them.
 Identify every possible category,
and then try to sort them into
meaningful groups.
 Obsess over the naming of each
taxonomy node.
 When appropriate, use universally
applicable divisions

Business activities.
 Focus on the names of people,
places, organizations and things—
Save the true topics for last.
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Primary risks and challenges
 Lack of understanding
 Complexity
 Compliance
 Resistance to change
 Delay and avoidance
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Lack of understanding
 Why are we building this taxonomy
 What is the business problem that we are trying to solve
 Who are the end users
 Are they being involved in building the taxonomy
 Observe what end users do and how they are do it
– Review query logs and web analytics
– Sales conversion and order size statistics
 Business not consumer (or end user) perspective
 Org chart thinking
 Combining apples with oranges
– Confusing Document types and Department names with Topics
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Complexity
 Perception that complexity validates your worth
(knowledge)
 The tendency is to make the taxonomy more complex
than it needs to be
 Every possible category is described instead of just the ones
needed today.
 Adding categories, but not removing any.
 Focus on categories that relate to what the most important content
is about, or the most common user tasks.
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Compliance
 Compliance is a key driver for taxonomy projects
 eDiscovery – records management.
 SOX / FDIC – transparency in corporate decision-making.
 HIPPA – medical records security (and communication)
 Avoiding penalties for breaching regulations
 EPA-regulated industries.
 FDA-regulated products (food and drugs)
 USDA-approved labels.
 CMS quality improvements.
 Following required procedures.
 Insurance claims.
 Telecommunication service rates.
 Customer support and complaints.
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Resistance to change
Lack of:
Awareness
Reinforcement
Desire
Ability
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Knowledge
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Delay and avoidance
! Not invented here – We’ve been working on our
taxonomy for the past 5 years.
\ Inertia – We’ve always done it this way.
$ Unfunded mandate – We don’t have the resources to do
this.
X Insubordination – I don’t want to do this.
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What do you need to get started?
 Audience
 Publishers/Content
Managers
 Technology
 Content
 Scope/Resources
Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information
Taxonomy design projects
seldom do (and never
should) exist in a vacuum.
Unless the project managers
and designers recognize and
adapt to the project
constraints, the project is
doomed to failure or
obscurity.
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Understand your audience
 End users drive the language and complexity of the structure.

Who are they?
 Who is the lowest common denominator?
 Define the “spectrum of experience:
New Employee
Tenured Employee
Technophobe
Technophile
Young
Old
Native Speaker
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Foreign Language
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Understand your publishers
 Publisher determine the reasonable complexity of a
taxonomy/metadata strategy:

Acceptable amount of time per document
 Number of metadata fields
 Complexity of taxonomy
Business Users
Information Professional
Part-time (Volunteer)
Dedicated Position
Few Publishers
Many Publishers
Diverse Publisher
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Homogenous Publishers
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Understand your platform: CM, DM, RM, Portal,
Enterprise
 Taxonomy design seldom works outside the context of a business
mission, typically tied to a technology:
Web
Content Management
Portal
Document Management
Records Management
Looser
Less Complex
Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information
Tighter
More Complex
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Understand your content: How much?
 More content typically equals more time to re-tag with
new taxonomy and metadata design
 Explore iterative approaches to re-tagging
 Take advantage of effort to clean out old or obsolete
content
 Consider alternatives:
 Auto-categorization tools
 Tagging services
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Understand your content: How is it tagged?
 Typically, content does not have “salvageable” metadata
 Metadata mappings often don’t work.
 But working with existing metadata can provide quick wins.
 Be willing to reduce fields to improve quality.
 Use business rules to automate content tagging.
 Tag top-level content first
– Tag landing pages for major sections
– Lower-level pages inherit tags from top-level pages
 If content originated in this department, then tag it with pre-
defined values.
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Understand your limitations
 Many, if not most
taxonomy project fit within
the context of a large
project and are driven by
artificial limitations:

Schedule
 Budget
 Personnel
Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information
Relax: you’re not alone.
Few taxonomy design
project are perfectly
resources and funded. The
most important thing is to
START the process.
Recognize you can make
due with given resources as
long as you begin the
process correctly and build
from there.
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Define your use cases
 Understand how/why you will be using taxonomy and
metadata.
 Define who your content managers are in order to
understand their capabilities:
 Willingness to manually enter fields.
 Ability to properly tag content.
 Define your audience to understand their needs:
 Sorting needs.
 Communicate benefits to all users
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Key components to a successful taxonomy project:
Project best practices
 Incremental, extensible process that identifies and
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
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


enables users, and engages stakeholders.
Keep your audience in mind.
Strive for subject-based categorization.
Be consistent.
Control depth and breadth.
Make a long-term investment.
A means to an end, and not the end in itself .
Not perfect, but it does the job it is supposed to do—such
as improving search and navigation.
Improved over time, and maintained.
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Common roles and responsibilities: Committees
 Governance Board – Review overall strategy of taxonomy and define
the type of appropriate content
 Taxonomy Team – Approve requests for new folders and ensure the
value of content placement and metadata
 Content Managers – Approve and edit content
 Content Owners – Publish content and apply metadata
Group
Publish
Content
Edit/Move
Content
Approve
Content
Request
Content or
Folders
●
Taxonomy Team
Content Managers
●
Content Owners
●
Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information
Create/Edit
Folders
●
●
●
●
●
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Iterative design plan
Identify
business
case
Planning
Maintain
& evolve
Discovery
Form
taxonomy
team
Tag
content
Testing &
review
Build
taxonomy
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Form
focus
group
Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Communications, education and marketing
 Give users the ability to learn about the
taxonomy by a range of means:

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
One-on-one meetings
Live presentations/ Workshops
Documentation
Animated Tutorials
Context Sensitive Help
White Papers
 Create two-way communications and prove it
means something



Document decisions and archive all input
Make all feedback available to end users
Provide means of communication via the
system
 Market the value of the taxonomy and effective
metadata use – mandates will not be sufficient
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Define governance
 Apply the core governance principles to your taxonomy
and metadata strategy:
 Roles and Responsibilities –
– Managers
– Reviewers
 Policies –
– For naming
– Required Fields
 Procedures –
– For reviewing and approving metadata placement
– For acting on poor metadata application
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End user focus
 Recognize that users may think about and look for
information in different ways
 Understand your business practices and use the most
appropriate categorization method(s)
 Consider multiple taxonomies for disparate audiences
 Use familiar vocabulary and organizational schemas to
ensure a logical browsing experience.
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Leverage existing metrics: Passive and active
 Active (Survey/Interviews)
 Perform online and in-person interviews
 Provide feedback mechanisms on every screen
 Conduct pre- and post-rollout surveys
 Passive (Usage Monitoring)
 Identify components that are not being used in order to address




improvements
Alert administrators to empty folders, too many documents, or a
proliferation of other components
Identify most popular components in order to learn from them
Identify the terms users are searching for and the folders in which
they are browsing to provide similar content
Identify inactive users to address their issues
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How to get started: Agenda
 Defining business taxonomy
 Planning a taxonomy project
 How to Get Started
 The workshop concept
 Recommended workshop configuration
 Primary goals
 Sample agenda
 Exercise 1: Define value statement
 Exercise 2a: Define audience types
 Exercise 2b: Define audience differentiators
 Exercise 3: Define verbs
 Exercise 4: Define nouns/topics
 Find commonalities
 Identify non-topical terms
 Rinse and repeat
 Review of total methodology
 The 9 steps to successful taxonomy design
 Success stories
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The workshop concept
 A working session that includes
 Problem-solving, and
 Hands-on activities
To involve participants in a accomplishing practical task.
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Recommended workshop configuration:
FDA Taxonomy Committee Selection Criteria
 Represent internal business functional areas
 IT (CIO, Web Operations, Systems Administration, Application
Development, etc.)
 Communications and Public Affairs.
 Administration (HR, Financial Management, etc.)
 Represent program areas
 Biologics, Devices, Radiological Health, Drugs, Food Safety, Nutrition,
Veterinary Medicine and Toxicology.
 Regional offices, Regulatory Affairs and Office of the Commissioner.
 Have information management responsibility related to any or many
phases of the content lifecycle





Planning.
Creation.
Management.
Publication.
Archiving.
 Be of a manageable size – a minimum of 6 and maximum of 12
members.
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Primary goals
 Surface business value of taxonomy.
 Involve taxonomy stakeholders and end users.
 Discover high-level taxonomy that can be modified and
extended over time.
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Sample agenda
9:00-10:00 Introductions and project overview.
10:00-11:15 Exercise 1: Information seeking use case exercise and
discussion.
11:15-11:30 Break
11:30-12:45 Exercise 2: Identify and agree on intranet audiences.
12:45-1:30 Lunch
1:30-2:45 Exercise 3: identify and group tasks (what you do and
what other people want to do on the intranet)
2:45-3:00 Break
3:45-4:30 Exercise 4: Identify and group topics.
4:30-5:00 Summarize and discuss next steps.
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Exercise 1: Define value statement
EPA Success measures – Usage metrics
 Reduce FOIA requests/costs.
 Expand use to include different types of people (new
audiences)
 Improve customer satisfaction survey results
 Score higher on American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)
government-wide survey.
 Improve OMB Performance and Accountability Reports
(PARS)
 Show cause and effect especially between regulation & measured
outcome, e.g, arsenic removed from water and health.
 Provide more visibility for research pages.
 Reduce cost per unique user (UU)
 Increase Webstats (page hits)
 Increase number of successful website searches.
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Exercise 2: Define audience types and
differentiators
 “I should get the official stance
Audiences
of the organization on an issue
… not a bunch of items dated
from around the same time.”
 Our 1.3 million realtor members
are not technically savvy.
 [On current website, it's] “hard
for the user to really get a grasp
of what's going on.”

Association Executives
Policy Makers
Consumers
Lawyers & Legal Counsel
Media
NAR Members
NAR Staff
NAR Leadership
e.g., Joe Realtor trying to
find information about
diversity.
Differentiators
Geographic Areas
 Aggregation (2d level pages)
mostly reflect the org chart.
Property Types
Business Activities
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Exercise 2: Define audience types and
differentiators
Audiences
Differentiators
 Audience Situation: Audience
Multiple Audiences
Patients
Family & Friends
Press & Public
Clinicians & Providers
Worried Well
situation(s) to whom the
conference is relevant.
 Perspective: Overall tone of the
content – emotional, clinical or
practical.
 Clinical Characteristics: Specific
cancer type(s) or other clinical
characteristics discussed during
the conference, or relevant to
the conference.
Differentiators
Situation
Perspective
Clinical Characteristics
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Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Exercise 3: Define verbs – What people want to do
NASA Taxonomy use case domains
 Project Manager
 “I’d like to see all documents at a certain level in the WBS.” E.g., All
planning docs relating to project management.
 Scientist
 “I’d like to see what types of data were returned on earlier missions using
a particular instrument to help with the Science Definition Goals of my
new proposal.”
 Cognizant Engineer
 “I’d like to see all problem failure reports on a sub-system I designed and
flew 5 years ago so I can incorporate the lessons learned into my current
mission.”
 Project Information Management Engineer
 “I’d like to see the status of all Phase B documents that I need to prep for
an upcoming CDR gate review so I know we’re ready.”
 Operations Engineer
 “The space craft is experiencing some behavior anomalies. I’d like to look
at all quality control records and test results relating to the specific subsystem that’s producing errors, so we can figure out how to fix the system
and continue the mission.”
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Exercise 4: Define nouns/topics
Absolute Auctions • ADA • Advocacy • Agency Disclosure • Americans with Disabilities Act •
Appraisal • Auctions • Benefits • Benefits • Blackberry • Branding • Brokerage Management •
Brownfields • Business Activity • Business Issues • Business Lifecycle • Buying • Closing •
Commercial Finance • Commercial Green Buildings • Commercial Real estate • Commercial
Research • Compliance • Computer Software • Computers • Consumer Surveys • Conventional
Residential Lending • Customer Follow-Up • Development Impact Fees • Digital Cameras • Digital
Photography • Diversity • Downzoning • Economic Forecasts • Economic Indicators • Environment •
Environmental Issues • Errors & Omissions Insurance • Ethics • Fair Housing • Farm Land •
Governance • Government Affairs • Green Roofs • Ground Leases • Ground Leases • Growth
Management • Health • Hiring • History • Hotel / Motel Properties • Housing Statistics • Human
Resources • Human Resources • Inclusionary Zoning • Industry Surveys • Insurance • Insurance
Availability • International Real Estate • International Research • Issues • Keeping Customers • Land
• Lead-Based Paint • Leadership • Legal • Legislative Affairs • Liability • License Laws • Listing •
Lobbying • Low-Income Housing Tax Credits • Luxury Homes • Marketing a Brokerage •
Membership • Military Base Closings • Minimum Bid Auctions • Mold & Health Issues • Multi-Family
Properties • NAR Membership • Negotiating • Networking Computers • New Homes • Office
Properties • Offices • Online Auctions • PDA • Personal Marketing • Property Marketing • Property
Types • Property Values • Prospecting • Real Estate Transfer Taxes • Recruitment • Remote Access
• Representation • Research & Analysis • Reserve Auctions • Residential Real Estate • Resorts •
Retail Properties • Retaining Customers • Retaining Top Personnel • Retention • Risk Management •
Sales Meetings • Second Homes • Selling • Smart Growth • Smart Growth • Stigmatized Homes •
Tax Issues • Taxes • Technology • Underground Storage Tanks • Water Rights • Website
Development • Wireless Access • Workplace Trends • Zoning • Zoning Laws • Zoning Ordinances
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Find commonalities

Advocacy & Lobby
 Business Issues • Commercial Finance • Conventional Residential Lending • Diversity •
Environmental Issues • Fair Housing • License Laws • Smart Growth • Tax Issues

Brokerage Management
 Human Resources & Benefits • Leadership • Marketing a Brokerage • Offices & Facilities •
Recruitment & Hiring • Retaining Top Personnel • Risk Management • Sales Meetings •
Workplace Trends

Business Activity & Lifecycle
 Appraisal & Property Values • Auctions • Buying • Representation • Selling

Legal & Liability Topics
 Agency Disclosure • Compliance • Health & Environment • Insurance • Taxes • Zoning & Land

NAR & Membership
 Branding • Ethics • Governance • History • Membership

Property Types
 Commercial • International • Land • Residential • Resorts & Second Homes

Research & Analysis
 Commercial Research • Consumer Surveys • Economic Indicators & Forecasts • Housing
Statistics • Industry Surveys • International Research

Technology
 Website Development • Computer & Networking Hardware • Computer Software • Cameras &
Photography • Wireless & Remote Access
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Identify non-topical terms for additional
metadata fields
 Content types
 Listserv • Magazine • News Service Report • Newsletter •
Research Publication • Statistics
 Organizations
 Affiliates • Association Executives • Board • Business Specialties •
Committees • Communications Division • Executive Offices •
Government Affairs Division • Legal Affairs Division • Marketing &
Business Development Division • Research Division
 Geographic Areas
 Countries • NAR Regions • SMSAs • States
 Audiences
 Association Executives • Policy Makers • Consumers • Lawyers &
Legal Staff • Media • NAR Members • NAR Staff • NAR Leaders
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Rinse and repeat
 The taxonomy should be built in an iterative fashion, with
more content and broader review for each iteration.
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Exercise: About Us…
 Dunder Mifflin Inc. (stock symbol DMI) is a micro-cap regional paper
and office supply distributor with an emphasis on servicing smallbusiness clients. With a corporate office in New York City, Dunder
Mifflin has branches in Buffalo, Albany, Utica, Scranton, Akron,
Camden, Nashua and Yonkers.
 Dunder Mifflin Inc. provides its customers quality office and
information technology products, furniture, printing values and the
expertise required for making informed buying choices. We provide
our products and services with a dedication to the highest degree of
integrity and quality of customer satisfaction, developing long-term
professional relationships with employees that develop pride, creating
a stable working environment and company spirit.
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Exercise: Our products…
What is Dunder Mifflin
Infinity?
 Dunder Mifflin Infinity (DMI) is
the new online division of
Dunder Mifflin, Inc. Paper
Company. DMI was designed to
reinvent the business of selling
paper.
Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information
Our Products…











64
Binders
Calculators & Office Machines
Calendars & Planners
Cardstock
Envelopes & Forms
Filing Supplies
Labels
Office Furniture & Accessories
Paper
Storage and Organizers
Writing Utensils
Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Exercise: Identify topics for Infinity taxonomy
1. Brainstorm nouns/topics (10 minutes)
2. Identify commonalities category groups (5 minutes)
 Form groups of no more than10
 Appoint a recorder. Appoint a reporter
 Brainstorm topics (use Post Its)
 Group topics into categories
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Review of total methodology
 Know the ROI case – what is the benefit you want and
what can you afford in the way of tagging, software, and
other expenses.
 Know the content to be categorized and the people who
will use it. Have an idea of the UI they will use to access
the content.
 Get the team together.
 Go through the process, in an iterative manner.
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The 9 steps to successful taxonomy design
Identify
business
case
Planning
Maintain
& evolve
Discovery
Form
taxonomy
team
Tag
content
Testing &
review
Build
taxonomy
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Form
focus
group
Project Performance Corporation Simplifying the complex
Success story: International Monetary Fund
country-related terminology
 Impact on research and editorial activities: $2.6M/year
 Speed up processing by higher level staff
 Enable self-service by everyday users.
 Improve accuracy of documents and publications.
 Impact on IT Operations: $1.25M/year
 Save time maintaining applications that require updating by using
single source.
 Save time merging data from multiple applications using ETL
processing, etc.
 Save time developing new applications.
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Taxonomy Strategies LLC
Questions?
Joseph A. Busch, + 415-377-7912, jbusch@taxonomystrategies.com
http://www.taxonomystrategies.com
Lisa Butcher, +413-893-9099, lbutcher@ppc.com
www.businesstaxonomy.com; www.ppc.com
November 5, 2007
Copyright 2007 Taxonomy Strategies LLC and Project Performance Corporation. All rights reserved.