Content Strategy Beyond the Web (and Smurfette)

Howdie.

I wanted to share my lightening round talk in September at the tremendously brilliant and successful CS Forum 11 in London. It’s quick..

smurfette2 226x300 Content Strategy Beyond the Web (and Smurfette)

The talk speaks to how we need to examine where we have been as content professionals in order to evaluate where we will be moving forward.

I also mention Smurfette.

The analogy that I didn’t have time to fully articulate spoke to the tenet that the discipline of Content Strategy is a hussy.Too often, content strategy is thought of an offshoot of Information Architecture and/or fancy copywriting.

To that, my (poorly) reserved baritone says “bullshit”.

Fact is, content strategy is not simply a marketing objective and it’s not an exclusive user experience offshoot. Content affects all areas of a business.

Quite simply, content strategy likes to play the field.

Content Across Your Business

Content Strategy affects the following areas of business:

  • Finance/Legal
    • How are your contracts worded, do they speak or contradict your other services?
    • Where are contracts stored? Are their templates? Can you reuse content from other contracts?
  • Training
    • Where are training materials stored?
    • Do materials adhere to corporate style guides?
    • Can product/service content be reused among other departments?
    • Are their redundancies between technical communications and training?
    • Are training materials shared among teams?
  • Development
    • Is technical communications aware of current marketing objectives?
    • Is marketing, training and tech comm using the same style sheet?
    • Are development documents stored in a different CMS than marketing collateral?
  • Fulfillment/Logistics
    • Do shipping labels, packing instructions and invoices speak to your company’s brand message?
    • Is packing content centrally stored or are they one offs.?
    • Are graphics up to date?
  • Sales
    • Do sales presentations represent the latest figures, messages and branding from Marketing?
    • Are power points proofread before they are show to clients?
    • Do sales reps know the latest product/services messaging?
    • Is sales sharing power point/training slides with Training?

We could go on.

Bottom line, content strategy likes to play the field. The discipline is not relagated to one line of business, nor it is replacing currently existing professions.

Content is a corporate wide issue.

Now that’s smurftastic.

Posted on November 11th, 2011 | Content Strategy, Featured, Uncategorized | No Comments

10 Things That Stunk about Confab

Who doesn’t like a good top 10 list? It appeals to the lowest common denominator. It’s McNews and a serial short story rolled into one.

So while the majority of Confab attendees share their brilliant notes, insights and warm and fuzzy feelings, allow me to cut  to the hard news. I’m about to break the story everyone was feeling, but too afraid to publicly state.

10. Wayfinding

One of the best side shows of any conference is watching attendees furiously stare at their program, then look around with quiet desperation on their face, sweat dripping down their cheek as they search in vain for someone to help them. Frankly, the layout, signage, facility and staff was too logical. Don’t even get me started on the sea of helpful light blue Confab-shirt-clad volunteers willing to help. Deplorable.

9. Shwag

Where the hell was my polychromatic single use conference bag!? I really missed the thrill of stuffing a stiff polyester object into my suitcase, only to move it 15 times around my house before ultimately finding it covered in mold in my basement. Missed opportunity there confabbers.
Instead, I’m saddled with an informative poster from the exceptionally talented Richard Ingram and a  hand signed print from Sean Tubrity? Again, far too useful.

8. Men in Suits

Nothing makes me feel more comfortable than a man in a gray suit, standing up on stage talking at me in a monotone voice with a listless ambivalence to his bulleted slides. Instead, we were saddled with dynamic thinkers and academics who challenged ideas and offered real solutions as colorful and perspective.Way too logical for my liking.

7. Rob, the Hyatt Employee

Let’s talk about Rob. I met Rob at lunch. Rob, looked me in the eye, said “Hello” and had the had the audacity to not offer me a stale cookie with a mysterious jelly center. Instead, he offers me, not one, but three pieces of cake, all while smiling. Unacceptable.

6. Minneapolis

Jiminy Cricket. Where to start. Where was the rudeness? Where were the gypsies, pickpockets and surly cabbies I’ve come to expect in nearly every American urban center. In its stead, we were burdened with smiling courteous folks,  a bustling walking mall, amazing art, charming parks and a British pub within a log roll of the hotel. Now I have to go back to visit all the great sites I wasn’t able to see. That’s all I need is another great American city to adore.

5.  Detracting Back Channel Snark

Any conference worth its salt is crawling with willing attendees using the safe confines of  the back channel to eviscerate conference organizers and presenters. These engaging chaps eschew the humanity of face to face dialog, instead retreating to a cowardly medium to voice their displeasure. Where were these people? Instead, we were presented with thoughtful insights, useful amendments and continued dialogue? Rubbish!

4. Jared Spool

Where was he? Did you see him? I heard he was there, but I never saw him. All I saw was a flash moving from session to session ensuring all presenters moved with graceful AV fluidity. Clearly, that was a stunt double. It’s not like someone as accomplished as Jared Spool would help a first year conference run that smoothly.

3. Gabby

What a snob. She wouldn’t dance with me. That lovable pink twerp resisted no less than 5 offers to slow dance to “You Look Wonderful Tonight.” Something about my severe height. Whatever. It’s not like that hussy enhanced the back channel vibe and provided thoughtful levity and feedback. I’m still bitter.

2. Opening Party

Grass fed beef sliders? Decadent fish, complimented with hand cut fries with mouth watering aoli? Come on. Where were the stiff chicken satay sticks and stuffed mushrooms that could be reused as sink scrubbers? When I attend a conference, I expect to wait over 30 minutes for a watered down drink served with a side of snark. Instead, I was forced to decide between a perfectly balanced bourbon drink or a pile of fresh cupcakes. The nerve!

1.  The Content Strategy Community

For three days I was surrounded with welcoming, smart people who are genuinely concerned with sound content practices. I made professional connections, met amazingly talented people and established deeper connections with true friends. Why didn’t I feel shy and awkward? How come I didn’t retreat to my room?  How come I didn’t have to fake who I was, so that I could look like a professional bad ass?

Oh. Right. Because Confab 2011 – The Content Strategy Conference had the audacity to host the most personally and professionally satisfying conference I have ever attended.

Thank you…I guess.

Posted on May 18th, 2011 | Content Strategy, Featured, Writing | 10 Comments

Thank You Confab 2011

We’ve talked, but we haven’t gathered. We’ve laughed, but we haven’t shaken hands. We’ve connected, but we haven’t shared a meal. That all changes May 9th, 2011.

confab attending 300x250 Thank You Confab 2011

Thank you Confab 2011. Thank you for allowing us to congregate together – getting away from our keyboards and shiny phones. For two unprecedented days we gather as one for the first time.

This conference represents all the hard work – the articles, blogs, workshops, pitches, sales calls, books, meetups, deliverables and overall commitment we have to creating sound content practices that save companies money and exceed user’s needs.

Some have called content strategists, or those passionate about content strategy, vociferous, if not obnoxious. I respect those opinions, but wholeheartedly disagree. What makes the emergence of Content Strategy a legitimate discipline unique, is our access to social media tools. These tools give voice to our excitement in ways that other emerging fields, 5, 10, 15 years ago could not.

We’re excited about what we do. I don’t think this is a bad thing for the industry, or for the people and organizations we help.

Before the badges are shelled out and the immense knowledge and energy is unloaded, I wanted to offer a quick thank you. Like many in this profession, I have struggled to find a voice among the people and companies I work so closely with. I have felt the content I work so closely with is marginalized or not clearly understood. This community has shown me I’m not alone, and we can do better.

The work being done by the amazing group gathering shortly has given hope to many maligned content practices plaguing websites and corporate workflows.  Just as important, it has also raised the spirits of hundreds, if not thousands of professionals who thought they were alone in their passion and diligence for creating sound content practices.

Thank you. Thank you Confab2011 and all who have helped bring this conference together.

So let’s go eat some cake, drop some knowledge and enjoy every last bit of being in the same room together.

Bring it.

Posted on May 5th, 2011 | Content Strategy, Writing | 1 Comment

Healthcare Experience Design – Closing Thoughts

For an inaugural event, The 2011 Healthcare Experience Design conference flowed flawlessly and left the audience begging for more.

Unlike many conferences, you could see the passion, frustration and hope among presenters and participants coupled with the unabashed edge that a room full of designers creates. The group assembled at the Fairmont Copley are committed to improving healthcare technology for users. At lunch I spoke with a woman who ran a school for children with learning abilities. She shared her abject frustration of the administrative process that slows and compromises quality care that children so desperately need. Lisa Nugent’s brilliant presentation focused on the lack of attention paid to teenagers and the lingering questions they have about their conditions and the way their are perceived and identified. Conversely, Jaime Heywood of PatientsLikeMe demonstrated the power of aggregated, user-generated information to spot trends and build a community for those suffering and/or thriving with known illnesses.

Healthcare and the technology that surrounds it affects insurance providers, doctors, families and patients of all ages. The balance of incorporating user-centered design is paramount to changing preconceived notions that technology can impede quality care. One notion that has stuck with me is Jerilyn Maclaren-Hall’s assertion that we all have a Healthcare Strategist. Someone or something dedicated to giving us impartial care and knowledge about the treatment and prevention we seek. I don’t know if a silver bullet exists, but if we shift our focus to the patient-centric model, how could this NOT help patients.

The day of knowledge sharing was packed with a tremendous range of healthcare technology issues and solutions. I left craving more specifics. I left wanting next year’s conference to focus on tracks dedicated to improving doctor’s process, patient’s use and the administrative angle as well. There is so much work being done to use technology to improve our healthcare, but there is still SO MUCH left to do. It can be daunting, but if heed BJ Fogg’s second step of behavioral change – Baby Steps – the process and the work ahead seems less scary and more exciting.

Editor’s note: Check out my running diary of notes during the conference.

Posted on April 12th, 2011 | Experience Design, Featured, Healthcare | No Comments

Healthcare Experience Design – Afternoon

We’re back from an excellent lunch.

Diving right in here with John Bahl.

Engagement Solutions: Empathy Opens the Door – John Bahl

  • Everyone is a designer and everyone is a writer, certainly not the case, but more a reality of business.
  • Nice graphic on enhancing the user and making it more prevalent.
  • Ask Ann – reduced calls by 20% – that is how you measure how help saves you money.
  • Using personas to help depression – amazing -  online coaching – gets about 30k hits a year.
  • Digital ID cards need to happen.

General Question: How can we measure how HIPAA has impeded patient healthcare?

Teen Engagement with Mobile – Lisa Nugent

  • Teens are under served in the healthcare industry
  • (observation) is there an industry more frustrating and rewarding than healthcare?
  • Teenagers do not identify themselves through their disease.
  • Teenagers want to know more about their diseases.
  • teenagers writing their own health record is staggering.
  • Teenagers measure the quality of their life through their moods and their friends.
  • proves that we aren’t measuring teens’ illness impact successfully.
  • (observation) I want more. I want a second day. It isn’t fair this conf is only 1 day.
  • texting – depression – don’t take their meds: is texting an emotional gateway drug?(observation)
  • teens willing to share photos, phone numbers, but NOT text messages with parents
  • this data visualization of how teens text is amazing.
  • what is meaningful for teens is the same for adults, they just have a different way of expressing it.

Designing for the First Step – Trapper  Markelz

  • me you health
  • how do you solve the engagement problem in healthcare
  • healthcare products are perceived as unrealistic, misaligned – not a part of their day, inconvenience – too many forms, disingenuous – whether they are or not.
  • you can’t have your immediate engagement be negative.
  • Building brands can help us create trusted healthcare experience
  • We try to make health a process, but it’s really a game
  • build a product to support fuzzy goals.
  • We need to carry over the same principles from gamification to healthcare

Virtue + Vice  in Social Health Design: Where are Our  Victory Gardens? – Jen S Mccabe

  • When it comes to your health care, you need to self motivate
  • need to disseminate between the me and the you.
  • designing without baggage.
  • individual context to which you (blah! need to find her to complete this thought)

Closing Thoughts: Lie, Cheat & Steal – Art Swanson

  • meaningful change in this space needs to come from big companies.
  • we lie and bribe our kids to get through the process. We do the same with healthcare services
  • kids couldn’t understand the context because they don’t have the experience
  • need to give our users more experience
  • You have to say what they want to hear, they don’t want to hear the difficult.
  • UX in hc needs to be more of a grassroots effort
  • sometimes you have to do the little thing, design the posters or make the coffee.

Closing Keynote: The Power is in Your Hands – Jaime Heywood

  • Most healthcare don’t know who Peter Drucker
  • As an American it is very hard to be a rational customer
  • Patientslikeme
  • (too humbled by the data in Patientslikeme to form rational thoughts)
  • some of the most transformative emails are some of his most proudest moments
  • “medicine” is not one problem”
  • the challenge has been designing something better than the doctors.
  • how does the data not affect our emotions and how do we mitigate that?
Posted on April 11th, 2011 | Experience Design, Healthcare | No Comments