Here are the two simple questions that users ask before they search for a digital asset in your DAM:

• Can I find the assets I need?
• Can I use the assets I find?

Seems straightforward, right? 

But in the day-to-day rush of activity to support our DAM, we often lose sight of these concerns.  And they are the existential reasons for having a DAM.

Can I find the assets I need?

The first question is “Can I find the asset I need?” There are two reasons why the user can’t find the asset they need, and the first reason is clearly an issue: the asset is NOT in the DAM.  Why?  Well, there could be several reasons: the asset belongs to some other user or company, or perhaps the asset has not been ingested into the DAM.  You follow up with the user to provide more information: can they provide a screenshot of the asset. Where did they find it?

Occasionally, the asset resides on another digital property owned by your organization.  Perhaps the user found it on your social media site, or on a company website located in a different country.  If this happens repeatedly, we recommend an Asset Audit.  This is an audit of assets on all the digital properties owned by the company. Often, other departments or other regions don’t realize they need to store their assets in a DAM.  See our blog about Conducting Asset Audits.

If the assets ARE in the DAM, but the user can’t find them, it’s likely your DAM metadata needs a “tune-up”.  Interview the user doing the search.  Find out what terms they are using for their search and update the metadata accordingly. 

Can I use the assets I find?

Once the user has found the asset, are they confident that they can use the asset for their intended purpose?  In my experience, this has been the toughest nut to crack, especially when asset ingesting is distributed, which means that the creator of the asset is uploading to the DAM versus a centralized admin support team doing the job. 

In this case, the admin team should design a comprehensive set of mandatory metadata fields that document usage and talent rights on ingest. (See our blog about Designing Asset Rights Metadata). The supporting fields might include photographer’s rights, talent rights, rights expiry dates, global or specific country usage, and channel (broadcast, web, social, etc.) usage.  A user should feel confident that the asset that they have located in the DAM can be used for their specific purpose.

It’s worthwhile stepping back on occasion to address these two basic questions, particularly if you continue to encounter the issues described above.  Company management wants to ensure that your DAM provides value; if it can’t answer these questions, it’s time for a re-evaluation.

Below is a simple flow chart describing this process.