What are some of the emerging trends and challenges in CMS evaluation and feedback?

Structured content is not a feature. It’s a limitation. Consider what your users want, the best experience. For your internal customer it’s ease of use. Structured content provides none of these. Pick a tool that helps your entire team (marketing and IT) not just one team, give customers the best experience in the quickest time preferably without a deployment.

One notable trend in CMS UX evaluation is the shift toward a mobile-first approach. As mobile device usage for content consumption continues to rise, CMS platforms are prioritizing mobile-friendly design and performance. However, this presents challenges in optimizing content for various screen sizes while maintaining a user-friendly interface. Evaluating how well a CMS caters to mobile users is crucial in providing a positive UX.

When selecting a CMS, consider its UX. Poor UX can negatively impact content creation. Current UX trends include Accessibility, Personalization, and Headless Architecture. Accessibility requires compliance with standards such as WCAG 2.1. Personalization tailors content to different audiences. Headless Architecture separates content management and presentation layers. Report these factors to improve cloud security posture.

Evaluation spending results are commonly confused with model participant financial results. The two sets of results serve distinct purposes and are calculated at different times using different methods. Financial results are payouts from CMS to model providers for their participation, and they represent a cost to CMS of running a model. All models have financial results, but their structure and timing vary by model. They are accounted for in the evaluation spending results for each performance period, which may cover several weeks or up to a year depending on the nature of a model

User Experience (UX) in a CMS is about making it simple and pleasant for people to use. It's like designing a cozy, organized workspace where everything is easy to find and use, ensuring a smooth experience for users.

- Consider CMS solutions, like Optimizely, that incorporate a Content Marketing Platform, enabling your team to manage the entire content lifecycle in one place. - Look for CMS solutions that offer a suite of products that you can expand into over time, even if you don't leverage all of them today.

The reality is that for most organizations content strategy doesn't happen in the CMS. The majority of ideation, collaboration and planning usually takes place across a myriad of other tools like word docs, google docs, excel, Teams and Slack. I call this Barker's Law, after my colleague and CMS expert/writer Deane Barker. Barker's Law states that 85% of content processes happen _before_ content ends up in the destination channel. If you want to create efficiencies and improve alignment across the teams creating and managing content, review the processes that happen before content ends up in the CMS. It's highly probable that you'll be able to make significant improvements without need to wholesale replace your CMS.

A challenge in the industry today is that analysts are pushing vendors to "do one thing well" which means that most CMS systems today will be focused on the content management and distribution, not the strategy. You'll often need to find another tool for the strategy. If content strategy is one of the goals for your team, try to evaluate whether the CMS vendor also has content strategy capabilities available that are either native or integrated as an add-on. Some more traditional DXPs are also available that contain all of it in one.

Security and compliance in a CMS are about keeping your digital space safe and following rules to protect everyone's information. It's like locking your front door and obeying traffic laws to keep your community secure and running smoothly.

- Look for statements around compliance for all of the above and ask your CMS vendor how they are investing in data privacy and simplifying your work to stay compliant. - If your CMS features also support your digital commerce efforts, look for how the tools support your PCI compliance. - When it comes to scalability and reliability, look at how the organization supports your development team in rolling out and rolling back changes, enabling your work to be efficient while also protecting security.

- Many CMS vendors market how easy they will simplify your efforts, are only addressing a fraction of the overall digital experience, and expect you to solve other aspects of the experience with other tools or people. Make this decision with a holistic view. - Take a look at reports, like Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Content Management Platforms, Digital Experience Platforms, Personalization Engines, and for Digital Commerce to understand the viewpoint of an independent third party. - Some CMS platforms are great but require a lot of resources to enable. Consider the size of your team and how you can be the most successful.

One more important capability that is needed for today's CMS is the ability to provide headless functionalities. A headless CMS separates information and presentation layers, this will enable content reuse accross various channels and platforms. Making it more versatile and complete.

As new legal requirements emerge in U.S. states like Connecticut and Colorado, etc. staying compliant with website content regulations is becoming increasingly complex. Implementing robust consent management tools is now more crucial than ever to navigate these challenges effectively and ensure compliance.