Elly Searle is a fierce advocate for UX writing. Like any UX professional, her advocacy starts with the end users of the products she works on. But Elly is probably best known for her work advocating for pay equity for her content teams. Thanks to her efforts, Elly’s writers are treated the same as their […]
Andrea Ames: Content Strategy Leadership – Episode 63
Andrea Ames has been a content leader for more than 35 years. From her early work as a technical writer, she has gone on to guide huge content teams and to become an advisor to other content leaders. Some folks might get jaded after three and a half decades in huge enterprises. Not Andrea. Her […]
Yuval Keshtcher: UX Writing Community Builder – Episode 62
Yuval Keshtcher is building a community around the new field of UX writing. He first discovered the need for UX writing as a product designer. Since then, Yuval has convened product writers in discussion forums and classes. He studies the field constantly and hosts a podcast on Writers in Tech. This fall, he’ll host a UX […]
Forest Gibson: The Power of Purpose – Episode 61
Forest Gibson and his colleagues at Pluto VR have an ambitious purpose: “to help humanity transcend physical location.” Even before they formed their company, Forest and his fellow founders did deep work to align on their purpose. That clarity helps them evaluate their ideas and make better decisions faster. Their work aims to transform how […]
Amy Balliett: Visual Content Strategy – Episode 60
Amy Balliett grounds the power of images in strong narratives. Her visual stories deliver the kind of content that humans are hard-wired to crave. Amy and her team pair word people with picture people. In her office, content strategists work side-by-side with visual-communication experts. This tandem creates strategically driven visual content that addresses the visceral […]
Tamara Adlin: The Power of Personas – Episode 59
Tamara Adlin uses the power of user personas to align teams and help them develop better products. Tamara literally co-wrote the first book on how to develop and use personas. She has subsequently developed several practices that help teams align executives and other stakeholders on how to build genuinely customer-focused products and services. Tamara and […]
Andy Welfle and Michael J. Metts: Writing Is Designing – Episode 58
Andy Welfle and Michael J. Metts are on a mission to empower word people. Specifically the people who craft words as part of product design teams. Their new book, Writing Is Designing: Words and the User Experience, shows UX content creators how to apply design principles to their writing craft. We talked about: their backgrounds […]
Brittney Urich: Connecting Content and Design – Episode 57
Brittney Urich has been connecting content strategy to UX design from the very start of her career. As a senior user experience designer at Ogilvy’s Denver office, Brittney educates both her clients and her colleagues about how content and design support each other. Brittney and I talked about: her background in professional writing, content strategy, […]
Kylie Hansen: Building a Content Design Team at Microsoft – Episode 56
Kylie Hansen is a tireless evangelist for the field of content design and for her team at Microsoft’s Cloud + AI Studios. She shows the managers she works with how content design can improve their products. By demonstrating the ROI of content design, she also earns the budget that lets her continue to build her […]
Ian Lurie: Technical SEO for Content Creators – Episode 55
Ian Lurie is a leading technical SEO expert. But he doesn’t recommend spending a lot of time on fancy optimization techniques. Instead, he urges content creators to focus on their users’ intent and on quality content. And then do just enough SEO make sure you aren’t hiding your content from Google. Put another way, “Don’t let […]
Eric Best: Scenario Thinking – Episode 54
Eric Best helps business leaders look into the future. As a scenario-thinking consultant, he helps you discover insights that let you formulate an actionable strategy in the face of uncertainty. Scenario thinking gives you tools to explore the differences between your currently planned future and the one that may actually unfold. Eric and I talked […]
Rob Mills: Content Operations – Episode 53
Rob Mills thinks a lot about content operations. As Head of Content at GatherContent, which provides a content operations platform, he both manages and writes about content ops. So, yes, this episode gets a little meta at times 🙂 Rob sees the growing multidisciplinary nature of content work as a “fun challenge.” He revels in […]
Emily Triplett Lentz: Inclusive Content – Episode 52
Emily Triplett Lentz is committed to making her content as welcoming as possible to everyone who encounters it. Her inclusive-content work not only ensures that traditionally excluded groups feel included. It also delivers stronger business results and promotes better writing. We talked about: her background as a writer and content strategist their focus at Help […]
Jonathon Colman: Content Champion – Episode 51
Jonathon Colman knows how to build content teams and integrate them into big digital programs. He deftly navigates the challenges that come with creating complex products in fast-growing organizations, always championing the best content practices. Jonathon’s career arc mirrors the growth of content strategy and content design. He started out as a technical writer and […]
The Evergrey: Conversational Journalism – Episode 50
Mónica Guzmán and Caitlin Moran are thoughtful practitioners of a new kind of reporting – conversational journalism. Their team at WhereBy.Us builds community in five U.S. cities with newsletters that engage their readers in ways that old media couldn’t. I invited Monica and Caitlin to the podcast because I was impressed with how they had […]
Tracy Playle: Content Strategy Workshops – Episode 49
Tracy Playle has a super-power: people skills that help her run effective content strategy workshops. Clarify your “why.” Get the right people together. Engage them in focused and creative activities. Great strategy is the result. Tracy and I talked about: her content strategy consulting work in the education sector ContentEd, the conference she organizes how […]
Phillip Hunter: Designing Digital Conversations – Episode 48
Phillip Hunter has been designing digital conversations for 20 years. He started with touch-tone phone applications. More recently, he has worked on Alexa and other voice-based technologies. Phillip and I talked about: how fun it is to “talk about talking” his current work at [24]7 his early work developing touch-tone applications back in the 90s […]
Colleen Jones: The Content Advantage – Episode 47
Colleen Jones is a Jedi Master of content effectiveness. She helps organizations plan, create, and improve operations that produce user-focused content. Colleen and I talked about: her return to consulting after 9 months leading the content team at Mailchimp content effectiveness – how it’s a needed new way of measuring content succcess that fits conceptually […]
Torrey Podmajersky: Strategic Writing for UX – Episode 46
Torrey Podmajersky is a true UX writing pioneer. As a “content developer” for Microsoft’s Xbox she cultivated the skills she now uses as a UX writer at Google. Her new book, “Strategic Writing for UX,” shares the insights she has gleaned over 10 years of UX writing practice. Torrey and I talked about: how her […]
Laura Robertson: In Search of a Content-First CMS – Episode 45
Do you love your CMS? Laura Robertson asked the audience at her Confab 2019 talk whether any of them loved their CMS. In a room of 750 people, only one hand went up. This sad state of affairs has prompted Laura to reflect deeply on content management systems. Laura and I talked about: her content […]