Jackie Cooper, Content consultant

Hi – my name is Jackie. I’m a content contractor/consultant, so what I’m called often varies depending on the job. On some jobs I’m a content strategist. On others I’m a UX writer, or a copywriter. Often it’s a bit of all three, including some of the things bundled into content design.

Right now I’m a conversation designer. I’m working on a chatbot job with the Accenture AI team. I was initially contracted to do five weeks of chatbot copy, but I’m sticking around to help with content strategy and governance as well.

How did you get into content?

I started out as a journalist – Australian Multimedia Magazine (MM), The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian. I covered the popular culture side of technology.

​​My first step into digital was with Razorfish. After that I tried a number of content-related roles – communications, PR, scriptwriting – but I always seemed to find my way back to working with digital agencies on either new website builds or re-platforms.

​​I’m always looking to try new things – to upskill. The chatbot answers are 100% based on real user questions (they’re like longtail SEO keywords). It feels good to give the user what they want.

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

​​I’m like a content bowerbird. I scour articles, go to talks and events and interview people – to learn new ways to do content better. I collect and file information into themes, to eventually be reference material for Content Deep Dive articles.

​​I take on some jobs just to learn new things. Last year I did a fun job with a startup called Foxley. We produced coursework and video content around content marketing. I learnt about tripwires and lead magnets. It’s good to know what’s important to other types of content people.

​​Are there any books or blogs you’d recommend?

​​I bought a stack of content books this year to review for Content Deep Dive. Sarah Richards’ Content Design is great. I plan on reading Erika Hall’s Conversational Design next. I’m a big fan of both of their Twitter accounts.

​​I’m a big fan of Medium. The daily newsletter is targeted to my reading habits. I keep coming across great YouTube presentations, thanks to Twitter.

​​What’s the best thing about your job?

There’s a lot of contract/consulting work around at the moment in Australia. It has been good for a number of years now. There’s a lot to pick and choose from. I pick jobs based on leadership, team structure, flexibility and value alignment.

​​I aim to work 3–4 months at a time and then take some time off to work on personal projects. But projects often last 5–6 months – and I often stick around for longer. I go back for the people more than anything else. I’ve worked with some great teams. I’ve had some sensational lady bosses.

​​How do you approach getting stakeholders on board?

​​This is what eats up all our time these days isn’t it! For project work, I find that making sure I have the one internal sign-off/stakeholder works best. They do the tricky stakeholder stuff, such as managing up.

The amount of time spent (wasted?) on stakeholder reviews and sign-offs depends on how much of a gatekeeper role the content team plays. Quality control rules need to be there from the start. It’s hard to put rules in place once stakeholders are used to doing whatever they like with the content.

With the chatbot-build project, I’m putting the rules in place from the start. I like Sarah Richards’ approach to add or change requests. It’s a ‘yes’ to a request, but contingent on ‘what’s the user story attached to this?’. So, as you’d expect, the answer will often end up a ‘no’.

​​What are the biggest challenges you face working in content?

There are many challenges out there, but I’m going to pick just one. Change.

Things are changing around us all the time. There have been times in the past where I‘ve been a bit complacent – where I didn’t keep up with some changes (I’m looking at you, SEO). A client would ask me a question in a workshop and I wouldn’t have the answer. A shitty experience.

My current boss said that the AI/chatbot pundits predict there’ll be no websites in 10 years. It’s a big call, but if it does happen, it’ll mean big changes for the way many digital content people work.

What’s your biggest content pet peeve?

​​Back when I started out, the pet peeve was typos. There are far bigger things to worry about now – SEO, analytics, multi-channel consistency, voice.

​​What really bugs me at the moment is a junky website – ‘junksites’. Those websites with 1,000s of stakeholder-driven pages that nobody reads. They make me sad.

​​So I’m pretty picky about the work I take on these days. It depends on who’s leading the job – if they’re willing to help drive content changes or not. A very absent digital boss behind a recent job was heard calling the website a ‘static thing’. It’s very hard to shift that kind of preconception.

​​What principles do you try to stick to when writing?

A UXer once told me that I’m a lot more sensible than I look. It was a compliment. I think when people first work or even meet me they assume I’m just all big-picture creativity. But I like rules. I like style guides, clear content strategies, consistent copy, realistic deadlines and very practical governance plans. You can tell from the homepage if a website has no sensible rules in place.

Do you have any advice for aspiring content designers?

​​Find a mentor – a champion. If you’re starting out, hang around Twitter until you spot someone who says stuff you like. Go to meetups. Then listen to them. Watch what they do. Be proactive. Reach out to them. Learn as much from them as you can. And with any luck you may be on their mind when they’re looking to hire, or if someone asks them for a hire recommendation.

​​Mentors/champions are important throughout a career. I look for one on every job. At the moment I’m working with Accenture AI’s Mary Sabin. She took me on even though I had no chatbot experience. She has been training me up. Lots to learn…

Is there anything you want to promote?

​​A few months ago I created a Medium publication called Content Deep Dive. The aim is to spend a year (or two) researching and writing about the various changes in the content world over the past 2 to 3 years. Forced learning in a way. I’m really enjoying it. I’ve made a few new content friends.

Where can people find and follow you?

​​I’m a recent Twitter convert – @msjackiecooper. The global content community is very active and supportive on Twitter. I pop in and out to learn, to see what’s going on.

​​And there’s Content Deep Dive. I see the deep dive articles as starting points. Any feedback/tips/suggestions would be great. I’m keen to learn more about what’s going on with content.

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Thanks again to Jackie Cooper for taking the time to answer these questions.