Content doesn’t just “happen”
Don’t talk about content as though it’s just copy. “Copy” means words. “Content” means audits, analyses, Web readability, plain language, metadata, structure, life cycle, and more. It’s far more complicated and time-consuming than just writing. Make sure the client understands that content doesn’t just “happen.”
Ask who owns the content, and keep asking. The sooner someone steps up and takes responsibility, the more likely tough questions will be asked early in the project cycle.
Once you’ve identified content owners - the people who request, create, approve, publish, and oversee the content - engage them in conversation. You’ll often find that their experience and perspectives can provide much-needed context for (and sometimes even contradict) the viewpoints of your primary project stakeholders.
Semantically, even the phrase “content strategy” has an immediate impact on our perceptions of content (mountains and mountains of junk, a problem so big we can’t possibly begin to solve it). However subtly, “content strategy” begins to shift our take on content as a commodity - something easy to come by, undifferentiated - to a valuable asset worthy of strategic planning. So start saying it. Often.
Read Kristina Halverson’s full article in Interactions Magazine: Intentional Communication: Expanding our Definition of User Experience Design
