Court Technology Services 2024-2025 Annual Review
Can you think of a better way to learn about a complex organization you’re new to than crafting its annual review? Now after having done just that I’m positive that’s a great way to take in the scope of what your group/division/department is all about. Granted, there are technical elements way beyond me, but I feel now that I have clarity about what each of our six Court Technology Service divisions are about.
When our CIO set me on this path, we talked about the goal of sharing CTS’ wins and accomplishments, perhaps something in the 40–50-page range. As we talked further the page count grew and ultimately arrived at its 100-page destination.
Discovery & Definition
The topics, technology and team structure were all new to me and so I began with discovery phase of learning about our department and what each division did. Meeting with our DCIO’s (Deputy Chief Information Officer) and our PMO (Project Management Office) gave me a foundation to build on. From there began reviewing the list of projects from the last year and reading through their charters (project brief.) Those went into a spreadsheet and I worked with the team to identify which projects would get a feature page(s) or a short mention. Once we had consensus on that it was time to start building content. This process is based on my years of catalog production where all of the components (copy, data, photography, illustrations, etc.) need to be assembled, organized, and reviewed before and during the production of a catalog.
Text, Visual, Numerical
For each of the project features I wanted to provide content that reached as many types of learners as possible. Something for the reader, something for the see-er, and something for the counter. This approach provided a nice way to build out these project pages and to create illustrations and graphics as needed. While I’m not a writer, I do write – but I’m better editor. Through this content creation process I made use of Chat GPT both in translating heavy technical documents (like the charters) into friendlier and shorter written narratives and for summarizing technology platforms and process’ for my own understanding.
Upwards Alignment
Coinciding with the work I was doing on the content, our CIO and leadership team was finalizing the departments Vision and Strategy document for 2025-2027. That document aligns with the Court’s Mission, Vision, Core Values and Strategic Focus Areas documents which were also freshly updated. I re-visited the content to highlight how each project aligns with the Court’s Core Values and SFAs and incorporated related icons into the project profiles. Having those little visual pops is a nice way to lighten up text-heavy pages.
Wrapped & Recap
While the primary distribution for this book is digital, we did produce a short offset print run and went with a very nice treatment on the cover with a soft-touch finish and spot gloss varnish. It feels very lux, the book has a nice ‘plop’ factor when it lands on a desk, and it smells like printer’s ink.
I’ll begin planning for next year’s annual review sometime in the spring with a kickoff meeting where we’ll discuss improvements and opportunities. This year’s was the first-ever for the department, we learned a lot along the way and we’ll be gathering feedback to make next year’s that much better.
