I am not a Wordsmith.

TL;DR Consider the full scope of someone’s work, try not to use terms that minimize the work you don’t see. Also please stop saying “wordsmith”.

Part 1: Please stop saying wordsmith

I’ve always said that one of the hardest parts of being a writer is that at some point in their lives, everyone has written a sentence. People use words everyday, so the impact and importance of having the right content for a situation is often overlooked. It’s just words, how hard could it be?

I feel like I shouldn’t have to say this, but working with content is different than writing — although that’s part of it. Personally, I hesitate to even call myself a writer. Yes, that’s often the output of my job function, but I’m not the type of person who “feels the words” or “has to write to get the words out”. I don’t write in my free time. I don’t just make things sound pretty. I’m not a wordsmith.

I think more accurate — albeit more verbose — titles would be “Customer empathizer” or “Flow clarifier” or “Contextual information presenter”. Just like any other part of product design, I’m recognizing both the customer’s goals and our own goals, empathizing with the current state of the customer, understanding our technical constraints, and creating an output that guides the customer in a way that they can easily understand. Oh, and don’t forget taking into account character count limitations, localization best practices, tone and voice guidelines, accessibility considerations, and tight deadlines.

So when the term “wordsmith” gets used (even endearingly so), it focuses only on the words. Saying something needs “wordsmithing” or asking a Content Designer to “wordsmith this” is similar to telling our Product Designers or UX Designers to “make it pretty”. Or telling an Engineer to “just code this real quick”. Or telling a Product Manager to “schedule some meetings”. There’s so much more that goes into every one of those job functions. To use the very tired iceberg metaphor, the words are what you see, but there’s much more under the water.

Part 2: All the things you cannot see

If you made it through part 1, thanks. I needed to get that off my chest. It’s something I’ve heard time and again since I started my career a very long time ago. Honestly, I just wanted to end this post there, but I feel like I’d be missing a chance to make a point in the larger context. So…

Consider the work you don’t see.

For my role, the words that end up on screen are the result of reading research, understanding our customers, understanding our technical limitations, considering the design flow, following our guidelines, and more. At the very end of all that, the words happen. Similarly, with every role, there is so much work done outside of the things we see. It’s easy to think of outputs as the work, but when you think of planning, research, drafting, modeling, etc… The output becomes an important — but relatively small portion of the overall process.

Something I started recognizing early in my career is who isn’t invited to certain meetings. I’ve been told I was left off meetings because the conversation was “more strategic”. I often see Support or Localization left out of early meetings since those things “aren’t affected” until much later in the process. Sometimes Engineering is left out of design decision meetings. Then later, we find out that Support doesn’t have the capacity to handle a new feature launch (but they could’ve with proper planning), or translations will take weeks, or designs aren’t actually possible based on existing code structure.

When you begin considering the full scope of work that needs to happen for the output to be effective, you start to recognize that even though a meeting may look “expensive”, the context it provides contributes to an overall better product.

Part 3: What’s next

I think many companies do a fantastic job at learning about their customers. The research I’ve read, the customer interviews I’ve watched, and usability sessions I’ve participated in — it’s all great. However, putting that research and insight into action becomes less effective if we don’t efficiently work together. Part of doing what’s best for the customer includes working in a way that sets us up to produce the best results. We have a responsibility to the business, the customer, and to each other to understand how each role fits into the larger picture. Just because a role is performed a certain way at other companies, doesn’t mean it works the same way here.

So, in an effort to put a period at the end of this very long sentence, I want to make a recommendation:

Take the time to learn what your coworkers’ roles actually do in the context of your company, and on the flipside, if you’re feeling misunderstood, be bold and educate others about what you do.