Murray CoxActing Head of Content Strategy
How Content Strategy and UX can tackle the content challenge together
Julie Mahoney | Head of Content Strategy, LBi
Once upon a time there was an information architect and a content strategist…
And a long, long time ago, they had less “interesting” problems than they do today.
They got along OK, but never really had many “opportunities” to work on projects together…
But life was still pretty good, until one day an account person brought in a new kind of project. This one was
shiny. And big. Big enough to rule the world really. It was called portal. And it wanted to go global.
Insert brand here
Luckily, both Kurt and Frank took deep breathes and gathered their courage before plunging into those portal
depths…
“Dude. No one knows
what I do…”
“Why does every
website have to be so self-referential
and use click here text!”
And they did three really good things…
Defined their roles early
on
Did a show and tell
Agreed
“what to call things
”
They knew they would wear many hats
“Researcher”
Finder of 3rd party stats and
competitive insights
Defined their roles
early on
“Big concept ” guy
Creator of main categories
“Relationshipmaker”
Creator of relating content types to each
other
Kurt and Frank did a show and tell of deliverables…
Did a “show
and tell”
And when blending their deliverables, they agreed on a methodology first
Did a “show
and tell”
Frank created a visual glossary of content types that he and Kurt refined until they had a universal way of
thinking about content Agreed
“what to call things
”
This made them totally popular and successful when the project was delivered in time and on budget
But our story doesn’t end there. Over the years, Kurt and Frank rose through the digital ranks…working their way from place to place, until they landed in a very nice agency that eventually
launched its own content strategy department…
Funny enough…when Frank first joined the agency, most people had a totally different interpretation of content
strategy
So Frank had to do roadshows (and socialising and chatting), educating people about content strategy
And Frank did three really good things…
Demystified the process
Made the case for content
Showcased examples
of amazing content
Sometimes he showed the content strategy in full…
Sometimes he showed examples of content strategy deliverables and how they helped both businesses and
users
Sometimes he built the case around the commercial value of content
Metrics!
Case Studie
s!
Research!
And sometimes he just got people excited with examples of good content
Meanwhile… a mysterious monster emerged from the deep, dark internets called POE a.k.a Paid, Owned, and
Earned Media
But luckily Kurt was still sharpening his collaboration skills working with more and more content strategists.
And Kurt did three really good things…
Established regular check
points in a project
Encouraged agile
sharing
Encouraged UXers to
think beyond the
sprints
He always used a reconciliation process and routine with creative, user experience, and content strategy all
putting up WIP every Friday
He always encouraged agile sharing from everyone…Frank’s colleague Michael Exon was known to quickly
sketch up his deliverables to show their purpose
He always clarified the purpose of his deliverables, knowing that his sitemap would live on
…dictating content creation and migration…
And eventually user-centered content!
a more beautiful answer goes to he
who asks the more beautiful
question-e.e. cummings
A BEAUTIFUL QUESTION IS ONLY BUILT WITH UX AND CONTENT WORKING
TOGETHER
