The Web Project Guide: Plan for Hosting | Select an Integration Partner
February 12, 2020
Two new chapter releases focused on understanding how hosting affects your web project, as well as how to choose and engage with an integration partner.
Category: Client Partners
The Web Project Guide: Form Your Team | Create a Project Plan
June 4, 2019
Two more chapters are going up, and this time we focus on better understanding who your web team is – who is going to help make these decisions for the larger project – and what that plan will look like as your ideas take shape.
The Web Project Guide: Know the Scope of the Project | Set Your Expectations
May 7, 2019
The Web Project Guide is here! To start, read our Introduction. From there, you can check out the first two chapters, which are dedicated to those very early and formative stages at the start of a web project.
“Small CS: A Shoestring Approach to Content Strategy” – Now What? Conference 2015
September 9, 2015
The discussion around content strategy is framed by large examples, but it’s also the work of regional organizations, small universities, and mom and pop stores. How do we adapt the big concepts of content strategy to work within the constraints of a small organization? This transcript of my talk from Now What? Conference 2015 in Sioux Falls (April 30, 2015) explains more.
A Too Serious Post on ROI
December 25, 2013
Society saves seven dollars for each dollar spent on early education, or so the United Way has told us for years. Stats like this are important. But they also bum me out. They focus on doing things becuase they are efficient, not because they are the right thing to do.
We’re at a point in our industry when some clients can’t be convinced, or require a level of convincing that goes beyond what the project requires. Some small businesses require an extra level of attention, but others are continually suspicious and are more work than they’re worth.
The New Smashing Book: Now with More ME!
November 26, 2013
I’m excited to officially announce the my inclusion in The Smashing Book #4: New Perspectives on Web Design. SURPRISE – I wrote about content strategy. The chapter, which focuses on both sides of the content strategy landscape – both user needs and editor needs – serves as a capstone to all of this empathy stuff that’s I’ve been writing and talking about over the past year and a half. So go buy it.
No Time for Love, Dr. Jones: Prioritizing Content Strategy for the Small Business
May 30, 2013
We spend a lot of time worrying about where content will come from and what form it will take. Where we often stumble is aligning those decisions with our existing resources. Because while structured content and editorial calendars are fantastic, they take time – time a small business or non-profit may not have. So let’s talk a bit about how we can prioritize tasks and goals, all while taking our clients’ existing pool of time into consideration.
Clarifying our Vocabulary: The Words We Use
January 31, 2013
The chasm of understanding between consultant and client – or between content person and marketing team, or whatever your situation might be – is a dangerous hurdle. Our job as content experts is to understand that, despite the promises and assurances we make in terms of a client’s content, our own explanations and processes are tangled, weirdly worded and sometimes impossible to decipher.
“Empathy: Content Strategy’s Hidden Deliverable” – CS Forum 2012
October 26, 2012
The slides for this talk – which, naturally make little sense on their own – are here for your viewing pleasure.
This talk is based on interviews with several people and research, which was compiled into an article on this here blog, “Empathy and Content Strategy: Teaching, Listening and Affecting Change”.
Empathy and Content Strategy: on Teaching, Listening and Affecting Change
October 11, 2012
Content strategy practitioners – and, really, the entire UX umbrella – serve a unique role in the life of a web property, in that we act as an advocate for people we may never know. But there’s another element of this process that can often be overlooked, and it’s the audience we know and understand and work with on a daily basis: the client.