Chelsea Larsson, Zendesk

I’m the Sr. Manager of Content Strategy at Zendesk. As the lone content strategist, I tackle both web and product content strategy, aka lots to do. I also draw cartoons about motherhood, breastfeeding, and the garbage fire that is US politics.

How did you get into content strategy?

Like many content strategists, I came to the profession on a windy road with colorful pit stops. I have a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture, had my own editorial writing business, and spent a few years in content marketing before steering my career toward content strategy.

For me, the “ah-ha” moment happened in 2015 at Confab, a content strategy conference hosted by the wonderful Kristina Halvorson. I’d been a content marketing manager at Zendesk for over a year, writing and designing our editorial and marketing content. But something was missing. My architecture brain was constantly butting in and asking questions about how we could improve our content delivery systems: the Zendesk blog, library, and our sub-brand website, relate.zendesk.com. I also wanted more concrete ways to measure the effectiveness of those systems, aka “How can CTA button copy make a difference?”

I wasn’t aware of content strategy tools like information architecture, UX writing, and design thinking. I thought that answering those questions must be someone else’s job. At Confab, I took Kristina’s Content Strategy 101 workshop. She talked about UX/UI content strategy, defining terminology, governance, and revealed the possibilities that content strategy offers. My mind was blown and my mission was clear.

I read every book about content strategy, attended meet ups, took classes, and met people in the community. I also spearheaded web content strategy projects at Zendesk, including the redesign of our company blog. Those projects were successful and I quickly became the de facto content strategist at Zendesk. This led to more opportunities, and finally, the chance to work with our product design team on product content strategy. The whole process took about 2 years.

What does a normal day look like?

Happily, my days are an interesting mix of web and product content strategy. On any day I could be tackling a web redesign project, defining information architecture systems, or meeting with the product design team for our weekly UX critique.

What are the top 3 apps you use?

I use Slack, Google Drive, and InVision. Slack is used for quick conversations about copy strings (and very important meme wars). Google Docs is where I build and store all of my copy and design docs. InVision is where I review product screens and flows.

We’ve recently started experimenting with Dropbox Paper as well.

Where do you go and what do you do for inspiration?

There are so many talented and generous content strategists in the global community. I read Medium daily to gain insights from the brilliant Shopify, Dropbox, and Facebook teams as well as UX Planet. My IRL inspiration comes from attending meet ups and conferences, or meeting content strategists in San Francisco. If you are in the Bay Area, I recommend Kathryn Strauss’ fantastic group, San Francisco UX Writers Meetup.

For general content strategy inspiration, I look at my own experiences with digital and physical products. There are SO MANY badly designed experiences in our lives. Instead of getting frustrated, or maybe after the frustration passes, I challenge myself to mentally solve the problem. Maintaining a strategic design perspective helps me draw inspiration from these crap experiences.

Likewise with well-designed experiences, I break down what’s working and why. I’ve been amazed at how many diverse solutions I’ve pulled inspiration from for my work at Zendesk, from the well-designed lobbies at One Medical to the pleasant fraudulent charge copy flow in my Capital One app. Nora Ephron said, “Everything is copy.” I think that’s true about content strategy too.

Are there any books or blogs you’d recommend?

The Medium resources I mentioned are dependably rich in wisdom. It looks like you also interviewed my buddy Sarah Smart and she gave you a stellar list of books. A few more that I’ll add are, Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose by Kate Kiefer Lee and Nicole Fenton, Design for Real Life by Eric A. Meyer and Sara Wachter-Boettcher, and Conversational Design by Erika Hall.

What have you worked on that you’re most proud of?

Each project has its own successes and lessons. My proudest moments are those when everyone rallies around the content strategy, and we work as one collaborative team instead of a group of subject matter experts vying for authorship. Recently, I led the content strategy for the onboarding flow for a new product, The Zendesk Suite. I worked closely with a talented brand writer, Olivia Kingsley, and we had designers, developers, and writers in Portland, San Francisco, Dublin, London, and Copenhagen. It was a massive global effort. The content strategy docs kept everyone on the same page (literally) and gave everyone a shared place to voice concerns and suggestions. Had we all acted as sole contributors, in siloed reviews or email conversations, the project would never have run as smoothly or been able to incorporate so many diverse perspectives. Reviewing the final onboarding screens, and hearing engineers and designers refer to the content strategy was a great moment.

It also feels like a ray of sunshine when designers and developers thank me for my part in the project. Content strategists can work in the shadows so often, so when someone shines a light on our work I think that’s a success on its own. Recently, I noticed that a designer gave me a “Special thanks and credits” shout out in his portfolio for a mobile menu redesign we worked on together. It made me smile!

How do you approach getting stakeholders on board?

Be friendly. I cannot stress this enough. Get to know stakeholders before they become stakeholders. Go to happy hours, talk to people in the kitchen or elevator, be a conversational person. Try to already be a familiar face when you approach them about work.

On a more pragmatic level, know your worth. For every new project, I like to bring relevant case studies and data to the table. That way, if someone asks “Why do we need content strategy for this project?” I can point to similar projects where content strategy helped the business achieve its goals.

What are the biggest challenges you face as a content strategist?

Most people don’t know the value of content strategy. Instead of getting annoyed, or throwing my computer out the window in resignation, I have an elevator pitch prepared. Create one for your own content strategy practice. Memorize it. Repeat it. When you hear other people repeating it, you’ve done your job of spreading the content strategy gospel.

What’s your biggest content pet peeve?

Really Long Title Case Copy on Buttons

Do you have any advice for aspiring content strategists?

If you want to be a content strategist, be one. Practice any and all elements of content strategy in your current role. That could look like scrappy UX research, defining terminology, reworking a problematic product flow, updating or creating voice and tone standards. Whatever you can do, do it and build from there. It’s a growing profession with lots of opportunity for new folks.

Also, follow Andy Welfie. He knows everyone in content strategy.

Is there anything you want to promote?

Hmmm… I’ll go with world peace.

Where can people find you?

@ChelseaLarsson on Medium and @chelslarss on Instagram.

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Thanks again to Chelsea Larsson for taking the time to answer these questions.