Year One as a Content Design Lead
Imagine if all your blockers were removed and you could just do your job in the way you think is best. I’ve been working my whole career for conditions like that: to be believed and supported as an expert. All of a sudden, I have it, and it is hard in a new way.
I just passed my one-year mark as a content design lead at my company. In my first year, I leaned into what I knew best: jumping into projects, writing standards, defining terms, establishing process, and… tensed up for people to fight me.
Wild, right?
I’m so used to having to “prove” the value of content design that I can’t fully trust when my team believes me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s discussion and I often adjust my work based on feedback, but no one questions my expertise. It’s just a given. And it makes me feel lost.
I feel lost because I don’t know how to do this job without a fight. I’m used to being reactive, given impossible timelines, pulled in too late to make a difference, my opinion being dismissed, simply left out of critical meetings… the list goes on and on, and I thought that was just the reality of tech. Turns out it’s not.
What I’m feeling is not imposter syndrome. I’ve earned my expertise fair and square. Maaaan have I worked hard for it! No, this is more like something big is about to happen, and I have to choose what it is. And because I have been given such an amazing opportunity, I want to make the best choice possible. I want to do right by the team that has done right by me. I guess it’s perfectionism, applied to a whole new level of my career.
What do I do with this amazing opportunity? I don’t totally know yet, but I know I’m going to do something big. I’m going to chronicle that journey, and we’ll find out together. I’m thinking this will be a mix of lookbacks (how I built a strong foundation in year one) and problem solving for what lies ahead. The articles are gonna be thoughtful but casual, so I can practice not being a perfectionist! And hopefully, they’ll add up to a knowledge base that shows what it’s like to build up a practice in a healthy, sustainable way. Thanks for joining me on this journey!
