Keynote presentation at Future of Web Design 2014 in NYC Templates, trainings, threats: I’ve tried everything to get content from clients and colleagues sooner—and mobile hasn’t made things easier. Instead of planning pages, now we’re asking stakeholders to prioritize and manage a million bits of modular content. So how do we keep our subject-matter experts from feeling overwhelmed, prevent carousel-obsessed executives from endless homepage arguments, and get the content we need to make design and development decisions? The answer is in using content strategy as a means to orchestrate, not dictate.

1. orchestrating
content
sara wachter-boettcher
@sara_ann_marie
fowd nyc // november 2014
flickr.com/photos/wolfworld/3597078422

2. flickr.com/photos/chrisdlugosz/2910249177/

3. flickr.com/photos/mypubliclands/9406650850
Let’s talk about how I
screwed up instead.

7. #WVpdx | 05.18.2012
@sara_ann_marie

8. #WVpdx | 05.18.2012
@sara_ann_marie

9. #WVpdx | 05.18.2012
@sara_ann_marie

13. So I made content
models.

15. And I made things
modular.

17. CONTENT
GOES HERE

20. flickr.com/photos/familymwr/5115357756

21. ‘‘I don’t see why we need to fill out
those fields. Look, I can just paste
my press release right here.
— OH at CMS training

23. Mobile design
requires content
that works.

24. Web design
requires content
that works.

25. Orchestrating
content

26. Orchestrating
content models

27. Orchestrating
content people

28. Orchestrating
content realities

29. headaches
we can
actually stop 3

30. “My thing matters
1 most!”
www.flickr.com/photos/bevgoodwin/9482142313/

31. ‘‘ Tools like carousels are used as
appeasers to keep everyone from
beating the sh** out of each other.
— Brad Frost, “Carousels”

32. Discord is why we
can’t have nice
things.

33. Cluttered layouts
Bloated navigation
Rogue departments
One-off requests

34. flickr.com/photos/42dreams/485750534
What to do: Unify your
performers.

35. flickr.com/photos/digitalart/2958134354

36. flickr.com/photos/22711505@N05/9328371477

38. Feelings can be
as important as
features.

39. flickr.com/photos/dandelion-tree/4525221446

41. Who are we?
Who is our audience?
What are our goals?
How should we sound?

42. Create simple
reminders.

43. ‘‘ Principle: keep it simple
Students have a lot going on:
courses, clubs, jobs, sports. Make
life easier, not more stressful.

44. Common ground
before content.

45. “Wait, you want ME
2 to do WHAT?!
flickr.com/photos/bevgoodwin/9482142313/

46. ‘‘Publishing is easy! Just choose
a category, fill out these nine
fields, select three related
items, and add at least four
tags from this PDF.
—Every CMS training

48. flickr.com/photos/jiuguangw/6457845587
What to do: Listen and
adjust.

49. Participation
weeds out future
problems.

50. Establish a shared
lens for content.

52. the user’s journey

53. content we have

54. content we need

55. What will it take to
serve that content
at that moment?

56. TITLE / 40 characters
TEASER / 25 words
DESCRIPTION / 100 words
FEATURES / 150 words
RELATED RELATED

57. Draft real-ish content.

58. Vet it against the
current reality.

59. flickr.com/photos/merlin1487/5518280677

60. Success is a design
that’s sustainable.

61. flickr.com/photos/bjmccray/1564988306
“This is more work
3 than we thought!”

62. ‘‘We’re working on our content!
Probably today! We’re totally
going to get it done on time!
—People with good intentions

64. flickr.com/photos/haagsuitburo/7958046990
What to do: Keep the
tempo.

65. Kickstart writing
tasks.

66. before
after

67. Find your team’s
rhythm.

68. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar.
PROJECT
TEAM
Prototyping Prototyping
Backend development
High-level IA
Style tiles Front-end development
Content
modeling Editorial &
CMS guide
Content
principles
Sample content QA

69. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar.
Prototyping Prototyping
Style tiles Front-end development
Content
workshop
Content
batch 1
Internal
review CMS entry
CONTENT
MANAGERS
Batch 1
revisions
Content
batch 2
Internal
review
Batch 2
revisions
QA
Content
batch 3
Internal
review
Batch 3
revisions
PROJECT
TEAM
Backend development
High-level IA
Content
modeling Editorial &
CMS guide
Content
principles
Sample content QA

70. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar.
Prototyping Prototyping
Style tiles Front-end development
Content reqs
check
Pre-CMS
entry check
Content
workshop
Content
batch 1
Internal
review CMS entry
CONTENT
MANAGERS
Batch 1
revisions
Content
batch 2
Internal
review
Batch 2
revisions
QA
Content
batch 3
Internal
review
Batch 3
revisions
PROJECT
TEAM
Backend development
High-level IA
Content
modeling Editorial &
CMS guide
Content
principles
Sample content QA
Design/content
alignment

71. flickr.com/photos/42dreams/485750534
Practice, practice,
practice.

72. flickr.com/photos/cedwardmoran/633158834
Build
things.

73. flickr.com/photos/dingatx/4794442002
Build
confidence.

74. flickr.com/photos/omcoc/9884103583
Build the
future.

75. flickr.com/photos/paulrobinsonuk/6901390006
Thank you!
sarawb.com
@sara_ann_marie
Flickr images used via Creative Commons Attribution license unless otherwise noted.