A presentation at Sydney Content Strategy Meetup - October 2019 in in Sydney NSW, Australia by Jonathon Colman
Designing a world-class How to build a content design team
Jonathon Colman @jcolman Senior Design Manager, Intercom
Download this deck go.inter.com/ worldclass
2001
Jesse James Garrett The Elements of User Experience
2009
Kristina Halvorson Content Strategy for the Web
2019
§ Overworked § Underpaid § Spread too thin § Little recognition § Lack of influence § Poor credibility § Poorly understood
§ Overworked § Overly reactive § Underpaid § High context shifting § Spread too thin § Low impact § Little recognition § Unfulfilling work § Lack of influence § Hard to advance § Poor credibility § Harder to lead § Poorly understood § Burned out AF
We have unfulfilled potential
WARNING
WARNING STRONG OPINIONS AHEAD
STOP
1 Stop working on more than one product at a time
2 Stop holding “office hours” and other ad hoc support
3 Stop running content-only critique sessions
4 Stop running content-only performance reviews
START
5 Start letting some or more products launch without content design
6 Start using the same job expectations for content and product design
GET THIS AT intercom.design
7 Start empowering content designers to work deeply across all five planes of UX
work, how they are controlled, and the “ “ Design is concerned with how things nature of the interaction between people and technology.
8 Start paying content and product designers the same by level and experience
THEN
9 Incentivize content and product designers to focus on product, not design
TRADEOFFS
1 Product quality decreases without content design support
2 Blurred lines between content and product design
3 It’s much harder to work holistically across everything
4 Content design impact is more closely scrutinized
5 It’s much harder to invest time in content ops
6 Content design team feels more like a design team
7 Content design costs more, which can slow headcount growth
8 It’s harder to recruit/hire content designers who can work like product designers
OUTCOMES
1 When content design is on, it’s REALLY ON
2 Teams with content designers know what they do and why it matters
3 Teams without content designers are incentivized to become advocates
4 Content design impact is recognized—and there’s more of it
5 Content designers feel more fulfilled in their work
6 Content designers feel more included in product
7 Content designers get equal pay for equal work
8 We realize more of our true potential on products
CONCLUSION
1 Work on one product at a time
1 2 Work on one product at a time Hold content and product designers accountable for the same expectations
1 2 3 Work on one product at a time Hold content and product designers accountable for the same expectations Pay both roles the same
Designing a world-class How to build a content design team
Jonathon Colman @jcolman Senior Design Manager Intercom
Download this deck go.inter.com/ worldclass
“Why can’t content strategists work on 12 teams each? They just write the words!”
Content leaders face challenges from others who don’t understand their work, their processes, the impact their team makes, and why their team is so unhappy. This makes it hard to make teams successful, keep them together, and grow them over time.
There’s a better way forward: doing less, better. It helped me grow my team by over 500% and it can help you, too. In this session, you’ll learn proven ways to grow and lead your content team to success in both large and small organizations.
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