Leading with…Elaine Short
We asked Elaine Short — senior UX writer for Wellbeing app Dreams — what excites her about the future of content leadership.
What are the biggest challenges you currently face in your organisation?
Remember that little old challenge content designers who consult across teams have about getting into work streams early enough? Yeah, that also happens when you start working vertically to impact work that belongs to C-level and management folks.
As an IC (individual contributor), you simply aren’t as visible when you don’t embed in a team, and the same is true when you aren’t in those higher ranks. It’s not that you aren’t wanted — you just aren’t already in that email thread, or a part of the weekly meeting. I’ve learned from this challenge working across teams, and as usual, the answer is (drum roll please): talk to people. I make a point to share stuff I’m excited about with C-level folks if they have a minute. I go out of my way to make my work relevant, business-focused and high-level enough to share it at company-wide meetings. I want to be the person who is constantly asking “what’s your goal? Because I can help.”
Have you found any great resources to help you so far in your leadership career?
Twitter can be a great place to connect with people who are doing things in their careers that you also want to do. People are nice, and if you’re conscious of their time, you can even get personal advice.
When it comes to leadership in general, I tend to connect and learn from interfacing with people and watching great leadership in practice. Because I have most often in my career been surrounded by non-writing folks, I’ve learned more about leadership from design and product folks than anyone else. I specifically keep in touch with my first design manager, and I talk a lot about leadership with my current manager, our company’s design director. I should note: I really love my manager and those I keep in touch with. So I run toward those people, quiz them a little, pay attention. Leadership isn’t always about content, but it is always about people.
Who do you look up to or admire in content/design leadership?
The amazing thing about content leadership is it’s everywhere in our community. All that free stuff online about content comes from someone who figured out a problem, decided to share their experience, and help the rest of us. That’s leadership.
My short list: Candi Williams, Sara-Wachter-Boettcher, Amy Thibodeau, Rachel McConnell, Mario Ferrer, Michael J. Metts, Andy Welfle, Torrey Podmajersky, Jonathon Colman, and, gosh, so many more. Not to mention people out there who have been advocating for and demonstrating the importance of content for businesses before we had this big focus on SaaS products, like Hilary Marsh, Scott Kubie, Krisitina Halvorson and Sarah Winters.
What made you join the Tempo community?
I have this sense that my career path parallels the timing of SaaS content design as a field, and that both I and the field are seeking maturity now (that’s presumptuous, I know, but don’t we all create internal narratives to make sense of the world?). I’m a little too weathered for the 101 on UX writing or CD, but I want to fill my knowledge gaps and grow. Tempo offers just that, highlighting the challenges folks who manage or must educate vertically in a company to prioritize content design. Plus, everyone is so nice and humble. Tempo is helping me envision where my career could go!
What excites you most about the future of content design?
Two things. For one, I’m super excited to see content design become a player beyond the management ranks. How can content design exist at the director level? The marketing world sees design and writing in the same way at the director level — writers ascend to art director roles just as designers do. I think that’s a nut plenty of people have already cracked in UX, I’m excited about that trend.
The second is more about content strategy. Now that content design is regarded with more value, wouldn’t it be nice to see that thread at the top levels of tech companies in the practice of content strategy? Perhaps that is the content design path upwards as well, where content strategy becomes the content practice at the VP or C level, not focusing solely on content design, but certainly supporting and representing content design in business decisions ICs will likely never be a part of.
What would you tell your younger self knowing what you know now about your career?
Conflicts aren’t battles to be fought and won, they’re just another type of “work.” You have limited time and emotional capacity for this kind of work, so give yourself free passes to walk away from them.
Tempo’s next panel event takes place on 23rd September. Tickets are available now.
