“Content is everything from copy, of course, to text, images, icons, logos, audio, video… absolutely anything that goes into the digital world.”
- Sandi Wassmer, inclusive technologist
If content is “everything,” does that mean a content strategist should “own” a project? Should UX designers, developers, information architects, and user researchers work for the content strategist? Most people will tell you absolutely not. The content strategist is merely another member of the team, the consultant who takes the designs and the IA and creates that editorial calendar for everyone to ignore.
But what if we stop looking at content strategy as a piece of the puzzle? Instead, let’s consider the ramifications of viewing content strategists as strategists, responsible for the bigger picture and longterm strategy of the project.
Project Management and Longterm Strategy
Photo Credit: illuminaut via Compfight cc
As a former project manager, I at one time felt that my purpose was to organize chaos. Herd cats. Keep the creativity scheduled. Take notes for brilliant minds. In short, I acted as an assistant or breathing Siri for the people with the “real ideas.” Or, as Monster.com lists the typical project management job purpose, my job was to “accomplish project objectives by planning and evaluating project activities.”
After two years as a project manager in a UX agency, I had learned enough about UX design that I had some opinions of my own. Much as Mad Men’s Joan learned enough about advertising to be excellent at script review and ad placement, I was now taking notes during design meetings and personally evaluating (and occasionally improving) the longterm viability of our UX recommendations. But whereas Joan lived in the 1960s, when women were generally not considered for job advancement, I had other options.
At roughly the same time, in 2011, 25% of middle management jobs were eliminated. A year later, 3 clients told our agency they didn’t want to pay for “unnecessary” project management. My official title changed accordingly, from “project manager” to “project manager/UX consultant” or sometimes “project manager/content strategist.” I was still responsible for “accomplishing project objectives by planning and evaluating project activities.” So what changed?
Why Eliminate Project Management?
I believe project management lost traction beginning in 2011 as a result of the move from waterfall to agile methodology, and more recently as a result of the shift from pixel perfect to responsive design.
In a traditional waterfall methodology, the project manager maintains the schedule and client communications, while the designers complete rounds of pixel perfect photoshop mockups that represent the functionality and visual design. However, in agile methodology, “lead developers” are responsible for determining the sprint schedules and maintaining the big picture focus, and the role of the project manager becomes redundant. As agile moved into the design world, lead designers or creative directors took on the role of leading scrums, assigning tasks, and keeping the team connected to one another. The only job left to the project manager was “client management.” In large companies, this was a task already managed by “account managers,” and in small companies clients were generally in contact with the “project lead” – a designer or developer who was particularly adept at client communication.
Now, as more teams focus on responsive design, the designers and developers are (by necessity) communicating multiple times per day, as early as the first round of designs – or first prototype. They are far less likely to require a project manager maintaining communications. Instead, the project manager is merely double checking that they have notes of their conversations. In essence, the project manager has become an archivist, valuable in case of a client/developer miscommunication, but otherwise nonessential.
What’s it got to do with Content Strategy?
I mentioned that my title was adapted to “project management/content strategist.” What I didn’t mention was how easy the “switch” was. To begin, there are a number of adaptable skills between project management and content strategy:
- Both project managers and content strategists tend to come from creative backgrounds, but need to have solid organizational skills.
- Both project managers and content strategists will excel with strong communication skills – particularly writing skills.
- Both project managers and content strategists are responsible for maintaining the overall project objectives.
As a project manager, I had strong writing and communication skills. I had experience overseeing all elements of a project, and I had a solid understanding of UX strategy. I had a lot to learn in the content strategy realm, but time and again I was struck by the common sense of content strategy. I learned about governance and data visualization, information architecture and editorial calendars and content creation, and I was able to pick it up quickly because it fit nicely into my PM understanding of a project lifecycle.
Content Strategists as Project Managers
“It’s cyclical. You start with what you want to do, what you’re planning, looking at your content, deciding what you want to do, what you want your strategy to be. And by the time you’re finished and you’ve looked at it, you’ve monitored it, you’ve measured it, you’ve evaluated it, you start again.” -Sandi Wassmer
The most difficult thing for companies new to content strategy to grasp is: where does this fit into my project lifecycle? Content can’t merely fit in at the end, after the Lorem Ipsum has sat in the mockups and prototypes. Content can’t work in a silo, while developers and designers focus on responsive designs. Content strategists have a view of the big picture, and they need to work hand in hand with designers to determine where and how the content lives, and how it will best be communicated to the audience to create a positive, user-centric, brand-faithful experience.
Content strategy is a huge job, and I am loathe to make it even broader. But this may be a matter of calling a spade a spade. Content strategists need to get into projects on the ground floor. We may still need archivists to maintain notes on communications, but our content strategists are every bit as vital as lead designers to connecting small details to the big picture.
So what do you think? Is content strategy the new project management?
Inspired by Sandi Wassmer’s talk on content strategy from a marketing perspective.