In this session, you’ll learn about the challenges and victories as we worked to build a unified product content practice at an enterprise software company. We took a help documentation team, and from there grew the content practice to influence, drive, and unify content throughout the entire product ecosystem. Many times, it can be hard to know where to start. We’ll share the steps we took and the lessons learned as we reimagined our content practice. In this session, attendee’s will learn: Creating a product content style guide Connecting content through the product ecosystem Refining your product creation process Influencing and content decisions across the organization Working in an agile environment with few resources

1. Building a Unified Product Content Strategy
Quentin Dietrich
11:00 am PST

2. Building a Unified Product
Content Strategy
Quentin Dietrich @qdietrich
Senior UX Writer #LavaCon
Workiva

3. I'm Quentin and I'm a UX Writer.
I spend my days contemplating and creating content for products.
Hi.

4. Put simply, Workiva helps accounting and financial
professionals connect data and reports.

5. It all started

6. Content is a crucial part of your product. Content strategists
have become an important part of web-focused UX teams – so
why are so many product companies still missing out?

8. How might we build a
unified product
content strategy?

9. Imagine if content were like

10. House

11. And you have a
pink house from
the 80s.

12. And you want it
to be like this.

13. it could be like
Two ways

14. ● Sizeable budget
● Entertaining
● Short timeframe
● Before / After
● Others do the work
Copyright © 2019 Discovery, Inc.

15. House Plan Issue Reveal
A typical HGTV show

16. Before After

17. Or, more like

18. ● Little budget
● Educational
● Extended timeframe
● Process / Outcome
● You do the work
© 2019 YouTube

19. Area Goal Work Outcome
House
Area Goal Work Outcome

20. Before Next Next Next

21. Our House

22. Before After
Mostly worked on help articles
Outdated help site
Reactive to product changes
Work thrown over the wall
Largely unknown to to product teams
Basic editorial guidelines

23. Before After
Mostly worked on help articles Content across the product ecosystem
Outdated help site Updated help site
Reactive to product changes Active in product development
Work thrown over the wall Work collaboratively with designers
Largely unknown to to product teams Relied on by product teams
Basic editorial guidelines Robust content guidelines and principles

24. Before After

26. What did we do?

27. Start small, then don’t stop
Show, do, tell
Create frameworks as you go
Find and join people

28. Find and join people

29. “In this world, Elwood,
you must be oh so smart,
or oh so pleasant.
I recommend pleasant.
You may quote me.”
Elwood P. Dowd
Harvey

30. Be both.

31. Find people
● Find designers, product managers, developers, and become friends
● Work to understand their pains and challenges
● Learn about what they are trying to solve
● Ask how you can help

32. Join them
● Show up at design critiques and product reviews
● Learn design and product language
● Find ways to help or add value
● Ask questions

33. Good ideas don't
know what discipline
they come from.

34. Start small, then don’t stop

35. Feature Names
Tours
Error Messages
Help
Articles
Tips
Guides
Emails
Release
Notes
Policy Notices
Product
Communications
Troubleshooting
Tutorials
Empty States

36. ?

37. At some point, everything's gonna go
south on you and you're going to say, this
is it. This is how I end. Now you can either
accept that, or you can get to work. That's
all it is.
You just begin. You do the math. You
solve one problem and you solve the
next one, and then the next.
And If you solve enough problems, you get
to come home.
Image courtesy of: https://the-martian.fandom.com/wiki/The_Martian/Film

38. Before
Mostly worked on help articles
Outdated help site
Reactive to product changes
Work thrown over the wall
Largely unknown to to product teams
Basic editorial guidelines

39. Don’t break big things
into big plans.
Break big things into small
things with small plans
Jeff Patton

40. usable
feasible
desirable

41. Area Goal Work Outcome
House
Area Goal Work Outcome

42. Use the skills you have
today to solve a small
problem that lets you build
skills for tomorrow to solve
the next problem.
Then, keep going.

43. BuildingPRESENT PROGRESSIVE

44. Show, do, tell

45. Show

46. CONTENT DESIGN

47. is the
rendering of
intent.
Jared M. Spool
UIE

48. rendering intent
visual verbal
design

49. 49
For products made of
words and pixels,
words are at least 50
percent of the ship.
Elizabeth McGuane
https://blog.intercom.com/how-words-build-a-product/

50. Where are words?
● tooltips
● confirmation messages
● error messages
● labels
● buttons
● empty states
● feature names
● confirmation screens
● transactional emails
● in-app user assistance
● release notes
● … and on and on.

51. With Words

52. Without Words

53. With Words

54. Without Words

55. With Words

56. Without Words

57. Without Design

58. Do

59. A typical project, before
Product Manager
UX Designer
Developer
Content
~~-
-- [ ] ~~-
-- [ ]

60. A typical project, after
Product Manager
UX Designer
Developer
UX Writer
~~-
-- [ ]

61. 1. Consider words early and often
2. Have a conversation, then write
3. Focus on verbs and nouns
4. Make every word earn its place
5. Throw away work
6. Prototype and test words
Designing with Words
Low Fidelity
Medium Fidelity
High Fidelity

62. Write bad so you
can write good.

63. Tell

64. Tell people
● Find designers, product managers, developers, and talk to them
● Show people your work and challenges
● Tell people what you’re doing
● Ask for help

65. Create frameworks as you go

66. Content Guidelines
● Start with a basic foundation
● Add to it as you go
● Get feedback
● Share it

69. Create spaces

70. Wait a minute.

71. Our current challenges
● Our team is the same size it was when we started
● We have more content to create and manage
● Empower and educate others
● The struggle is real

72. Start small, and then don’t stop
Show, do, tell
Create frameworks as you go
Find and join people

73. Thanks for listening
:)
Quentin Dietrich @qdietrich
Senior UX Writer #LavaCon
Workiva

74. Resources
1. How the words you use build your product - Elizabeth McGuane
2. Words and the design process - Biz Sanford
3. Writing thoughtful product content at scale - Biz Sanford
4. How to design words - John Saito
5. 10 things UX writers hate to hear - John Saito
6. Why your design team should hire a writer - John Saito
7. Bring out your inner UX writer - Rachael Mullins
8. Software Complexity: The Art of Naming - Alexandre Oliveira
9. Revenge of nerdview - Ryan Bigge
10. Hide all text JS