A little advice for a new content designer
Someone who’d been on a content design class I taught got in touch the other day. She’s just landed her first job as a content designer and wondered if I had any advice.
I honestly didn’t know where to start. There’s a lot to think about in any new job and I didn’t want to overwhelm her with detailed technical tips. (Disclosure: I’m the kind of person who can be too quick to pick up a pen and start editing — shoot first and ask questions later.)
So I took a breath, and then I took to Twitter. I asked:
What advice would you give a brand-new content designer when they start a new job? Things to do or think about in their first few weeks.
I was bowled over by the generous response. It seems a shame to let the replies get lost in my timeline, so I’ve pulled them together here.
There were a few common themes.
Take your time
Resist the urge to ‘pick up a pen’ and dive into the detail straight away. You need to understand the lie of the land first. No doubt there’s a lot for you to learn and plenty already waiting for you to do. As Rachel says: “Don’t be in a rush to write. Chances are, when you join a new team, you’ll be inundated with content to ‘fix’. It’s hard to find breathing space.”
Give yourself time to understand and articulate problems, to find out what’s achievable in your organisation and then build on that. (Lucy and Persis)
Try to carve out thinking time as a visible, ongoing part of your role. Content design isn’t just typing. You need space to reflect, not just at the start but as you continue to develop the role.
Get to know people
The best way to learn about the team, the work, your audience… well, everything really, is to talk to people. Especially those you’ll be working with day by day.
“Talk to everyone in your team. What do they think of the service and where’s it going? You can’t solve everyone’s frustrations, but at least you’ll have the context.” (Mike)
It sounds obvious, right? But it’s not just about happy working relationships (though that’s always a bonus). You’re going to find that almost everyone has an opinion about content — what they like (or not), what it should be about (or not), or the best way to say something, right down to individual words.
Sometimes that opinion might simply be that content doesn’t really matter. Or that anyone can do it. Or that your carefully crafted best practice is, for them, an annoying blocker.
So you need to “take the time to understand the objectives and challenges of teams and people around you — it’ll make it much easier to build relationships and ‘sell’ the importance of content design if you can frame it in a way that will get them excited.” (Carrie)
Lynn points out that you shouldn’t “assume everyone understands your role (and that includes your team).” You and they will be working it out together. This is good. You get a chance to say what you are there for and what you do. But you might have to battle some assumptions too.
And don’t forget to “respect previous work — everyone did their best with what they knew at the time.” (Gavin)
Stakeholders are people too
Avoid the trap of thinking about your team and your stakeholders as us and them.
“Build good rapport with your stakeholders. All of them. Relationship skills can make or break implementation of content strategy.” (Tash)
Gwendolen suggests: “when you speak to stakeholders, record the outcomes and show in your communications how you’re solving their problems. Communicate proactively in multiple ways and expect people to still request clarification.”
You’ll carry them with you if you help them meet their own needs.
Learn about your users
While you’re getting to know your team and your stakeholders, make sure they help you learn who your users are and what matters to them. They are the ones who’ll use your content, so you need to work hardest at understanding them.
John P says: “book some time to go and spend with customer service centres. Listen to calls. Read emails they get. And find the forums your users use.”
“Find the user researchers.” (Lizzie)
Find them, follow them around, be their best friend, possibly even move in with them. Not only will they help you answer your questions, they will help you understand what questions you need to answer in the first place.
Don’t try to do everything yourself
When you need to figure out how to do something, chances are someone else has already done it.
Maybe you don’t have a style guide. But lots of other organisations do, so what can you learn from them? If you’re not sure about accessibility standards, for instance, look for guidance. Error messages? There’s probably a blog post out there.
Copy, adapt, learn, improve.
If there’s already guidance on your house style or tone of voice, pay careful attention to it. Kate says: “find out what the route to publishing is now — is there a defined fact check process for example? Understand how it works now because chances are there’s room for improvement when you’ve settled into the role.”
It’s OK to make mistakes. That might sound scary but it’s a big part of how we learn. Rob wants you to “make lots of mistakes. Don’t hide them”. While Jack wants to remind you that “if you’re worried about doing something badly, try doing a first draft that you’ll probably scrap”.
If there are other content people where you work, get together with them. Share ideas, 2i (review) one another’s work, hold content crits, or just drink tea together.
You need to learn to love constructive criticism and never take it personally. That’s John T’s advice, and he also says “My first attempts at GOV.UK were forensically taken apart by the 2i-ers. I learnt a lot very quickly from that.” Trust me, it’s a good thing.
Be confident and be yourself
When you’re the newbie, it can feel like everybody else knows so much more than you. Remember you got there on your merits. They hired you because they know that you’re going to bring value to the team. Ignore imposter syndrome if it taps you on the shoulder.
“Try not to compare yourself to more established colleagues” (Lucy), and “find a lovely person to show you the ropes.” (Rachel)
Sarah says: “Don’t be overwhelmed. We are all just working it out. Ask why. You are in a great position to expose some stupid stuff we got into the habit of doing and don’t see any more.”
New people bring a valuable gift to the team. They get to see the website or service with an outsider’s eye and without any of the received wisdom that’s built up over time. You can help the team reassess what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.
“There are no bad questions! Don’t shy away from asking ‘why’ even if you feel silly.” (Veronica)
Buy the book?
Amongst the advice there was one shameless book plug. (Yeah, if you’re reading this, you know who you are 😊)
But it’s a good point — read. Read books and blog posts. Don’t confine yourself to content design but look at user-centred design as a whole. Read stuff that helps you see what makes people tick. You’ll make better content if you understand how it works in context.
Find other content designers
As I hope this collection of quotes tells you, there are so many generous and supportive content people out there. Go find them.
Go to meet-ups, explore webinars or join in discussions (lurk for a while if you can’t summon the nerve to speak up straightaway).
Expand your professional social media network if that’s your thing. And definitely follow all the lovely people I’ve quoted in this post. You won’t regret it.
(Apologies to anyone I didn’t manage to quote here — you can find them all as replies to my original tweet.)
And finally…
Enjoy your new job. And welcome to the content community.
