Prioritizing projects and communicating with non-tech journalists

We're going to take some time to talk about the other side of coding in and around newsrooms — the process side. Technologists of all kinds are becoming an asset to newsrooms, but it can be a challenge for these new departments to cohesively fit into the process. How do we set timelines? How do we communicate about our needs and ideas with people who still actively use IE9?

We'll focus on how to pick the best projects to work on and how doing that correctly can lead to better processes and brainstorming. How do you say no to good ideas, while keeping those good ideas flowing? How do you tell senior editors that you don’t have the resources when they want Snowfall? How do you determine which of the good ideas has the most value journalistically, and/or most potential for audience, social sharing or revenue? Doing this poorly leads to missed opportunities, time wasted on projects with no legs or shelf life, journalistic flaws, poor execution because of overbooking your time or unrealistic expectations — and burnout from long hours, nights and weekends. Doing it well strengthens our journalism, builds audience and reputation, opens new revenue opportunities and leads to even more good ideas. Successes build on themselves; failures devalue our potential.

We’ll also discuss best practices for getting it all done: prioritizing your own time, ways to make it easier, balancing admin work with coding and strategies to keep learning.

The conversation will be led by the Sun Sentinel's interactive editor, Rachel Schallom, but we want this night to be highly participatory. Come ready to share issues and ideas!