How to take center stage with your content design career

Written by: Mary Brooks, Janene Franke, Hai-Nhu Tran, and Cara Viktorov

Photo by Matthias Wagner on Unsplash

The career path of a content designer is like many others — it can be winding, with unexpected twists and turns, and it builds upon a diversity of roles and experiences. Human-centered content is the goal of all content creators no matter the channel or type, e.g., digital, user interface (UI) microcopy, product documentation, training, support, or so many others.

We wanted to shine a light on the importance of content design in an optimal and holistic user experience and explain how content designers can navigate a successful and fulfilling career. So, we pulled together our panel of experts in the content design craft — Mary Brooks, Hai-Nhu Tran, and Cara Viktorov, who have a combined 59 years of experience working with content, along with Janene Franke as our moderator — and spoke at the inaugural IBM Spark Design Festival in May 2021 to provide insights into how to craft your own content design career and keep evolving with the changing content landscape.

Even though we all have different experiences that have led us through our successful content career journeys, we’ve followed the same principles, practices, and philosophies in content design.

We covered the following topics, which are discussed in the article below:

• What is content design?
• How can I make an impact as a content designer?
• How can I grow my career as a content designer?
• What does the future of content design look like?

Q. What is content design? What does content design mean to each of you?

Janene: Content guides our clients through discovering and using our products. That’s essential work!

I didn’t have a content background prior to starting this project four years ago, but it didn’t take long to understand how important content is to our clients. I remember hearing a podcast host connect the dots for me by saying:

“… content is the lens by which every product is actually understood.”
— Cruce Sanders, Founder and principal at [A]

Mary: Content design is a practice that impacts all content that we create for our users. The practice of content design is based on:

• User-focused creation principles from design thinking
• The craft of identifying where content needs to exist
• Knowing what form the content needs to take: written, visual, channel, and delivery

Understanding what your users are doing will allow you to understand how best to communicate with them in the proper channel — whether that’s UI content, product documentation, support troubleshooting content, training, marketing, forums, community, social media, or developer-focused content. You can craft a holistic content experience across their entire universal experience by meeting users where they are in context and providing the content that will help them most.

Hai-Nhu: Content design needs to be integrated throughout the design process, not as an afterthought. We need to design the content experience at every stage of the client journey.

The unique responsibility we have as content designers is that our users depend on us to explain what’s going on and what they need to do. If that explanation is clunky, we know the user experience is clunky. We see the whole picture, so we can see when things don’t align, and we can catch problems in the user experience (UX). Ultimately, we advocate for our users by advocating for a better user experience.

Cara: Content design is about keeping content simple, consistent, consumable, and having a purpose. As a content strategist, I question every request and requirement for content. Why is it needed? Who is it for? What’s the intended outcome? Why should it be delivered in that way? And what if we don’t provide the content? It’s important that whatever type of content is being designed and delivered, that solution — whatever it is — will resonate with and engage the user.

Q: How can content designers make an impact and show their value in the entire design process? How do you make an impact as a content designer?

Janene: We hear content designers share concerns about not being seen as a critical part of the design process. Content is often addressed at the end or as an afterthought, and not as a partner who can have a positive impact on the overall user experience if involved earlier in the design process. It’s also easy to assume that anyone can write good content. How do you make an impact as a content designer?

Hai-Nhu: Content designers need to have grit and a growth mindset. Of course, it’s important to have strong skills of the craft. On top of that, I think the most successful content designers are the ones who have a lot of grit and determination.

I’d break that down into five characteristics:

1. They leverage their great communication skills — not just in our product work but between our teams. Through regular scrums, playbacks, and conversations in between, they help to clarify and align all teams on our requirements and goals.
2. They’re flexible and wear different hats — for example, they join or even lead efforts that are not directly related to the content they create, but that does impact the content experience for their product users.
3. They’re comfortable with being uncomfortable — demonstrating a growth mindset and growing their experience as they work on new things.
4. They assert their role and value — sometimes asking for forgiveness, rather than seeking permission. They don’t wait to be invited to the table, they show up and demonstrate what they can do.
5. They question assumptions and existing processes — setting aside existing ideas of what content teams can do and disrupting everyone’s assumptions and expectations.

Mary: I remember a particular time my team focused on users’ needs and used data to find the users’ pain points.

Our content team, consisting of UI content, product documentation, and support, worked together to identify common themes in the support tickets and discovered that our users’ biggest pain point was the installation process. So, the team, along with product management and development, put our heads together to come up with a solution. That solution included:

• Updating the installation wizard
• Updating the product documentation with installation best practices, checklists, and tips
• Adding a support article FAQ to the documentation

The support ticket pain point themes were watched and over time the installation-related tickets moved further and further down the list. The impact that the content made in the user experience was clear.

Q: How can content designers grow their career?

Mary: Content designers are storytellers for our products. The amazing thing about careers, and really about life, is that you make your own story. Spend time finding mentors, being mentors, and learning about content in all realms and channels. Understand how each type of content impacts your clients and find your unique voice. Don’t let circumstances force you to do things because “it has always been done that way.” Take center stage, make your voice heard.

Cara: When I think about my own career growth, three core things stand out to me:

1. Be an advocate for good content and your craft. People embrace content design when they understand the value of the craft. Throughout my career, I’ve had to prove the value I bring as a content expert. Once teams and leaders understand that great content is a critical driver for creating an optimal user experience, they provide support and opportunities. They want to collaborate on improving user experience through content deliverables.
2. Do stretch assignments. Do work that is different from your regular job to grow your scope, skills, and breadth of experience. I’ve done this several times in my career and I’ve grown immensely as a professional and a person from these experiences. Take on projects that are different from what you do day-to-day and will push you out of your comfort zone. Most importantly, when you mess up (and you will, especially when you’re working on something new), own it, course correct, and move forward. These types of assignments are fun, and you’ll learn, grow, and become a more well-rounded professional.
3. Chase experiences. Throughout your career you’re going to be part of projects you love and projects you may not like. It’s important to do both types of projects. You’re gaining experience and skills that you may not realize at the time. You’re also learning more about you — what you’re passionate about, what you’re good at, your areas for growth, and what challenges and drives you.

We’ve talked about how content design isn’t just about writing, it’s about growing the following skills:

• Understanding your users
• Understanding how content is used
• Determining how to deliver content
• Developing a strategy
• Leading with design

These are the experiences you should chase. It’s tempting to chase titles, but growth comes from your scope of experiences and you being willing to continuously learn and take on challenges and risks. Those are the things that will help you find and be offered new opportunities and roles.

Q: What skills are needed for the future of content design?

Hai-Nhu: The field is wide open, and the career and discipline are what you make of it. I’ve had many conversations with Sarah Packowski, my team’s AI ContentOps Architect whose unique role is to infuse AI into what we do as content designers. Her vision and ideas have shaped some ways we’re already evolving into the future of content design:

• The role of AI in our work — for example, chatbots could become the preferred way to get content once they become good enough. We know that no one wants to read a bunch of text; they want to know the answer to their specific question. As content designers, we should understand how chatbots work (and how they don’t), learn about conversational design, and design our content for this kind of interaction.
• AI ethics — particularly for the content designers who work on AI products. As the storytellers of our products, we have a responsibility to ensure that we’re telling stories of using AI for good.

Mary: If I was to identify one role where I see content expanding, it’s for a content data scientist — someone to discover our users’ needs and where they expect to be provided with content based on deep analysis of engagement data.

Summary

In our experience, there are common principles, practices, and philosophies that have helped us succeed in our content design professions:

1. Content design is universal: Content design principles should be applied to all content you create, at the asset and overall user experience levels.
2. Have grit:
   - Content skills with a growth mindset are required.
   - Get involved in the conversations, be flexible, wear different hats, and stay at the table.
   - Be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
3. Make an impact:
   - Prove your value by doing the work.
   - Know your users’ goals and learning preferences.
   - Advocate for what content is needed, where it should go, and in what format.
   - Keep content simple, consistent, consumable, and purposeful.
   - Question assumptions and existing processes.
4. Grow your career:
   - Craft your own career path and shine.
   - Be an advocate for content.
   - Chase experiences and do stretch assignments.
   - Measure your impact.

Mary Brooks is a Senior Program Manager and Enterprise Content Strategist at IBM. Janene Franke is a Strategic Transformation leader at IBM. Hai-Nhu Tran is a Program Director of Content Design in IBM Data and AI. Cara Viktorov is a Digital Content Design Manager at IBM. The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies, or opinions.