How to establish processes in a content design team and match them with the design team
I start a series of posts about my favorite topic— setting up processes in a designer-writer pair. So many of my pains and victories are connected with it that I couldn't approach it for a long time. But now, I am ripe to disassemble it in detail.
First, let’s define what sick processes look like in a product team.
Processes in the company are bad if:
- Writers are invited on a project when it is already difficult to change something — for example, to rethink the structure of the screen.
In an ideal world, writers and designers work together — thinking about key messages, page content structure, and navigation — before it’s all designed.
But if the writers are overloaded — they don’t have time to fully immerse themselves in the project, they jump from one team to another, get stuck in a routine — then the designers take everything into their own hands (and they can be understood, the work stops while the writer is busy with another project).
By the time the writer is ready to dive into the task, the most important thing has already been done and embodied in the project. It is difficult to remake, so the designer unlocks it in every possible way.
2. Writers aren`t involved in the creation of guides and frameworks.
The larger the design team, the more critical it is to have guides and a design system. All this helps to create a consistent, high-quality design.
But when writers are torn between projects, designers simply do not invite them to participate in such work. And the writers themselves aren`t ready, because they run like squirrels in a wheel and it is difficult for them to focus. As a result, they don`t influence some basic design things at all but only make a routine.
Hence the idea evolves that writers can only rule letters.
This is a critical error. Writers should be responsible for the meanings that the product carries. The writer is the voice of the product.
3. Product designers are considered to be more important team members.
And writers are generally not considered full-fledged partners (sometimes the writers themselves initially underestimate themselves, they are so used to being pushed into the box). That is why all the resources go to design (like new people), and it is increasingly difficult for writers to convince management of the need to allocate a budget for professional development and team growth.
It’s a closed circle:
Writers are attracted at the end, writers cannot significantly influence the meanings, they work as proofreaders.
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The business doesn`t see a significant contribution from content, the content team is not given resources.
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As a result, the team is pumped from one side (design) and weak from the content side (that’s why there is one writer for 10 teams). The company looks like a sort of character with one healthy leg.
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Accordingly, the product is created with a one-sided vision: it is cool in terms of design and falls short in terms of content. Yes, there are talented designers who know how to write perfectly. But they don’t have as much time as a writer to peer into the wording. Yes, and there is no such vision.
4. Writers can’t focus on one product.
Product designers often work full-time on a single product/project. Writers switch from product to product, team to team. In this regard, designers are more immersed in the intricacies of working on a project, they can look at it strategically, and be responsible for the entire result.
With responsibility, both the value for the team and the impact on the product increase. Until writers are given as much time to work on the product as designers, their role will be to work with letters all the time. Well, the benefits of such work are zero, you can even immediately transfer this function to the designer.
I saw how high-class content specialists are attracted to work as a proofreader. It’s like using a computer just like a typewriter.
5. Writers burn out.
This is probably one of the most common complaints I’ve heard. It is difficult to work in a team where you have constantly pushed away or not noticed at all. Writers are forced to constantly prove their worth instead of thoughtfully working on a task.
Thus, companies lose talented employees who could greatly improve the product, and make a significant contribution, if their value was recognized initially and not questioned.
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If you notice any of this in your company, then it’s time to review the processes within the team. Otherwise, it will greatly affect the quality of work and the product as a whole.
I saw all these things from the inside, and I know for sure that in such cases a “compromise” product is often created (it’s good that they did something at all).
It is difficult for businesses to understand why they still look faded against the background of competitors. They put pressure on designers, but they don`t understand what designers don`t like again. Designers can go to researchers more often for insights, digging in that direction.
Though the problem is simply that the team lacks writing competence, and thorough work with meanings. Those who will be responsible for meanings. Those from whom it will be possible to ask not for everything at once, but pointwise — for each wording. Then each wording will become not accidental, but honed to perfection.
In the following posts, I will tell you how you can improve processes in order to work more together, and not in parallel, and develop content expertise in the company, using writing skills to the fullest.
