{"id":27,"date":"2015-05-21T20:32:32","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T20:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/?p=27"},"modified":"2015-05-21T20:32:32","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T20:32:32","slug":"margo-stern-make-the-string-shorter-designing-killer-content-for-product","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/margo-stern-make-the-string-shorter-designing-killer-content-for-product\/","title":{"rendered":"Margo Stern: Make the String Shorter &#8211; Designing Killer Content for Product"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wordstern\" target=\"_blank\">Margo Stern<\/a>, Content Strategy Lead, Shopping at Google, gets into how to design product content, OR\u00a0&#8220;going from concept to launch with a little less pain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You and your team members are special snowflakes. You all have special talents and skills to bring to the table.<\/li>\n<li>From idea to launch, things can get lost in translation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Strategies for Seeing Content Through<\/h2>\n<h3>Evangelize<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>At Google, they have 3 minute cross-functional meetings to present what\u00a0they&#8217;re working on.<\/li>\n<li>Laser. Focused. Editing.\n<ul>\n<li>Rescue codes in payments app\n<ul>\n<li>Everything we know vs. what the user needs to know\n<ul>\n<li>We often know more (and want to say more) than what the user needs\/wants<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The solution:\n<ul>\n<li>Keep it quick<\/li>\n<li>Prioritize the rescue code<\/li>\n<li>Go from problem to solution in less than a tweet<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Strategize<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Set a strategy and stick to it.<\/li>\n<li>If you send around some content without context, it&#8217;s anyone&#8217;s game.<\/li>\n<li>Ground your content in some strategy, any strategy, so the argument is made before it&#8217;s even raised.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Listen<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t stop paying attention after you hear the words &#8220;the team has some feedback&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>You don&#8217;t have to respond right away\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t say &#8220;yes&#8221; or &#8220;no&#8221; &#8211; don&#8217;t be reactive in moment<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Let me take a look and I&#8217;ll get back to you&#8221;\n<ul>\n<li>Take time to step back, consider research, think of alternatives, or\u00a0show\u00a0how\/why initial rec works<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Dig Deep<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Directive feedback can be a drag, but your copy doesn&#8217;t have to take a hit.<\/li>\n<li>Question to ask:\n<ul>\n<li>Can you tell me more about the problem you&#8217;re trying to solve?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Get Perspectives<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>You&#8217;re\u00a0the expert in what you do. Colleagues are the experts in what they do. Respect that. They can bring different, and valuable, POV to the table.<\/li>\n<li>Other people can make your work better.<\/li>\n<li>Product = sum of all parts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Revise Thoughtfully<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Be wary of death by a thousand cuts. Try and gather all feedback (as best you can) before you pick up the pen a second time.<\/li>\n<li>Explain the why behind decisions. Continue to evangelize for the content experience you&#8217;ve envisioned.<\/li>\n<li>See also: dig deep.\u00a0Get to root cause of feedback.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Manipulate Stakeholders<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Rank stakeholders (in secret)\n<ul>\n<li>Some stakeholders are more important than others.\n<ul>\n<li>This is\u00a0the audience for your strategy, more than anyone.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Anticipate Churn<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Churn ahead? Track decisions.\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Picture this. You&#8217;re a couple of revisions in and suddenly people are forgetting their own decisions.<\/li>\n<li>Start tracking decisions: who\/what\/why\/notes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Let It Go<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>You&#8217;ve ushered your work to a very good place and sometimes you have to set it free.<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;ve set the strategy, laid the groundwork, collaborated, and sold it through.<\/li>\n<li>Even if you don&#8217;t see if through the last 15% of the way, know it came from a very good home.<\/li>\n<li>Fly free, little words. Fly free.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Margo Stern, Content Strategy Lead, Shopping at Google, gets into how to design product content, OR\u00a0&#8220;going from concept to launch with a little less pain.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confabmn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}