Director, Knowledge & Support

The Director of Knowledge & Support will govern the strategy and execution of field-facing knowledge and 1st-level support, empowering field employees to accomplish their sales mission by reducing the cognitive load surrounding physical and digital tools. This individual will support the integration of new technologies and services in the knowledge and ITSM spaces in collaboration with ETG partners.

This individual will direct overarching strategy of the following teams: Content Development, Multimedia Development, and Store Computer Operations (SCO) Helpdesk. This role will lead Content and Multimedia in the development, integration, and presentation of fingertip knowledge bases and support of business efforts in creating effective communications, documentation, graphics, and videos to support IT and business initiatives. This role will lead SCO's 1st level operational and technical support services for stores, modernizing and automating processes while maintaining above industry standard levels in satisfaction and service metrics to preserve store up-time and sales productivity.

This is not a remote/hybrid position and will report to our downtown Cleveland, OH HQ.

Job duties include contact with other employees and access confidential and proprietary information and/or other items of value, and such access may be supervised or unsupervised. The Company therefore has determined that a review of criminal history is necessary to protect the business and its operations and reputation and is necessary to protect the safety of the Company's staff, employees, and business relationships

Strategy & Planning

• Partner with leaders across the organization to understand content and support needs.
• Build and strengthen partnerships "across the aisle" with ETG. Facilitate open collaboration to integrate shared solutioning and minimize tech debt.
• Evangelize content and support services and the benefits of in-house resources.
• Work with POS/PMO leadership to ensure that Content & Support workstreams are accurately positioned in the software development lifecycle (SDLC). When workflow issues arise, advocate for the teams.
• Research tools and platforms for content management and support, modernizing when appropriate. Explore and leverage under-utilized and newly introduced functionality in existing software, including WalkMe, ServiceNow, and MadCap.
• Develop and support lifecycle management of knowledge assets.
• Set meaningful goals to improve service metrics with the goal of decreasing support time and downtime in stores, including defining service level agreements (SLAs) for both internal and second level support and key performance indicators (KPIs) for the SCO Help Desk.
• Driver modernization of support modalities and standards across Content Development and SCO Helpdesk. Integrate methods of self-service, introduce deflection methods, and partner with 2nd level support and Dev Ops to drive development of observability and self-reporting / self-healing processes within systems to drive down overall call volume to the SCO Helpdesk by providing automated / fingertip answers and resolutions.
• Transition SCO Helpdesk from call resolution to problem resolution. Develop the roles, reporting, and processes to execute support at a higher level of solving problems rather than resolving incidents.
• Coalesce the needs of all PSG technical groups and represent PSG to the Digital Technology organization in defining our ITSM needs and requirements in asset management, problem management, incident management, knowledge base management, request fulfillment, and reporting.
• Partner with Audit to execute an annual review and update of the audit scorecard.
• Direct the strategy for the creation, maintenance, and archival of videos, infographics, logos/branding, one-sheeters, and stand-alone websites to support technical and operational initiatives. Set standards so workflows are repeatable and efficient and so content is discoverable for legal.
• Partner with Change Management to develop and advise on integration strategies and needs.
• Partner with enterprise to research AI tools and explore opportunities to integrate into knowledge and support experiences.
• Create a strategy for the introduction and long-term management of AI tools.
• Pursue continual elevation of support services through automation or reduction of time spent resolving issues. Develop plans to expand the self-service model, reducing touchpoints.
• Analyze incident volume and ensure staffing plans reflect the bandwidth required to provide white-glove customer service.

Development & Deployment

• Act as a contributing member of steering committees, leadership councils, etc. to contribute to strategies and visions and advocate for stores' experience of enterprise initiatives.
• Socialize annual audit scorecard updates to field leadership (Controller VPs) before disseminating to the field.
• Gather and motivate leaders in PM, IT, and QA to enforce and update SDLC, where necessary.
• Engage with stakeholders on a frequent basis to ensure that knowledge and support services and deliverables exceed expectations.
• Seek to either join or develop collaborative roundtables and pods of diverse expertise which can be leveraged efficiently to quickly imagine creative, strong solutions.
• Provide guidance on technical bulletins and workarounds. Socialize those bulletins to the appropriate teams.
• Drive for the integration of alternate communication methods and channels to preserve ability to inform and direct stores and field leadership in situations where standard communications are inoperable.
• Identify and report out on incident and problem trends through Problem Management, working with 2nd-level and technical leadership to ensure rapid resolution of high impact issues. Escalate and drive urgency, when appropriate.
• Drive root cause analysis and trending issue mitigation, as appropriate. Collaborate with vested partners and continuous improvement. Oversee the development and presentation of improvement plans.
• Drive continuous innovation in content development with development of graphical modalities such as infographics and video, and enhanced search functionality.
• Drive the development of sustainable translations for store knowledge bases, system text translations, and other assets ensuring consistency across assets.
• Ensure all methods of French-language translation are accepted by QC leadership and drive technical and business partners to comply with OQLF regulations and exceptions.
• Guide ways of working, both internally and for engagements with IT and business partners.
• Build bandwidth into organization and staffing to allow for a permanent backlog churn and constant progression through project phases.
• Work with other business leaders to determine if and how jurisdictional compliance can be achieved. Collaborate with leaders in legal, product stewardship, etc. on systemic and policy implementation of jurisdictional legislation including production of policy, recommendations for system modifications, signage, and public-facing statements of policy and compliance.
• Review and adjust SLAs and KPIs for support as new modalities of support decrease quick FCR calls and transition to longer-tailed issues.

Operational Management & Optimization

• Monitor incident communication channels (including in ServiceNow and Teams-and especially Hypercare chats-to ensure the appropriate follow-up is occurring in regards to technical bulletins, leadership awareness, etc.).
  • Partner with legal to provide any archived resources needed for counsel.
  • Partner with Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence to quantify cost-savings related to Root Cause Analysis and Problem Management initiatives.
  • Provide guidance and expert advice to business and technical stakeholders across the enterprise to simplify and strengthen stores' technology foundation.
  • Always advocate for the end user by championing solutions that empower field employees to accomplish their business-critical mission.
  • Establish strategy for maintenance and enforcement of style guides and technical means of publication of all in-house user-facing material.
  • Evolve technical and operational strategy to ensure existing knowledge is routinely reviewed by the business.
  • Periodically review Authoring Management Systems, virtual support tools, and other software used in-house to ensure they continue to support industry standards and exceed user expectations.
  • Collaborate with support group (SCO, GSD) management to identify methods of communication and collaboration between groups and to support knowledge transfer and end-user problem resolution.
  • Partner with legal on systemic and policy implementation of jurisdictional legislation including production of policy, recommendations for system modifications, signage, and public-facing statements of policy and compliance.
  • Provide transparent communication and decision-support to all stakeholders and leadership.
  • Personally follow up with end-users and business stakeholders to ensure positive reception and successful adoption of initiatives.

  • Frequently review staffing, performance, and resource management to align for the best collaboration and strategic direction of the team.

    Support & Outreach

• Drive synergies between knowledge and support teams to leverage best knowledge and skillsets to drive solutions.
  • Support legal in any archival or discovery initiatives.
  • Direct efforts between SCO, GSD, and 2nd-level support regarding joint initiatives affecting stores and sales reps.
  • Direct efforts between PSG and Internal Communications regarding mass electronic communication to stores and sales reps.
  • Direct the utilization of analytics to push in-demand content.
  • Affect the business to partner with the content team to migrate extempore manuals and documentation into the AMS and knowledge base to provide greater usability and access to business information.
  • Provide guidance and expert advice regarding content creation and engagement.
  • Provide guidance and expert advice to business stakeholders and IT development regarding end user support and hypercare for new initiatives, software, and hardware.
  • Support internal audit in issue support and resolution through data discovery and policy clarification.
  • Support legal in internal and external matters requiring audit history reporting and policy / documentation discovery.
  • Direct, delegate, empower, and motivate staff to successfully accomplish objectives, meet responsibilities, and complete tasks.
  • Facilitate resolution of functional and personnel issues.
  • Develop diverse, adaptive, high-performing team culture.
  • Set employee objectives. Monitor and evaluate performance and provide feedback and mentoring.
  • Create and maintain development plans for each direct report, including training, skills assessment, career planning, and goal planning.

POSITION REQUIREMENTS

Required:

• Bachelor's Degree

• 10+ years IT and/or Business experience.
• Experience managing a team and / or prioritizing and directing work efforts.
• Understanding of essential store operations.
• Understanding of essential business functions of an organization.
• Demonstrated use of logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
• Experience in overseeing the direction, development, and implementation of hardware, operation, and service solutions.
• Skillful and concise writing skills that demonstrate an understanding of semantics, grammar, spelling, and the rules of composition.
• Proven ability to take complex, technical information and translate it for colleagues and users who have nontechnical backgrounds.
• Experience in developing and growing strong, diverse teams.
• Demonstrated proficiency in rallying teams to collaboration and achievement of collective goals. Strong presentation and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Proficiency in digital workplace tools.
• Familiarity with the SDLC and general software development.

Preferred:

• SW stores / stores support experience.
• Customer service or help desk service experience.
• Project Management Skills.
• Videography and post-production experience.
• Web design experience.
• ServiceNow / ITSM experience.
• Photoshop.
• Madcap AMS Professional Suite.
• MS365 familiarity.
• CSS Frameworks - Foundation for Sites a plus.
• HTML / HTML5 / XML.
• JavaScript / jQuery.
• AMS / CMS configuration.
• Basic Adobe Creative Suite knowledge.
• Knowledge of usability heuristics for UI and website design.
• Technical writing / software documentation experience.
• Fundamental understanding of web publishing and web servers.
• Hands-on experience developing and executing test cases and test plans.
• Knowledge of InfoMapping methodology.