Content Tragedy

Avoid content gluttony

You know how it’s really, really hard to say no to a free donut when someone brings in donuts to the office, even if you just ate a breakfast burrito and you’re stuffed, and you even brought lunch so you know you won’t need it later, either? And even if you didn’t bring lunch, there is no shortage of donuts in the world, in fact there is a donut store one block away and a donut is only a dollar? That’s your asshole brain tricking you into thinking you’re living in a world of scarcity, even when you clearly are not. We suddenly become blind to the broader universe of donuts when presented with a single box of a baker’s dozen.

This fallacy results in acid reflux and clogged arteries, and it happens with content all the time. That video your company spent $50k on three years ago? It’s exactly like that overpriced sushi you decided to box up and take home last week. It’s still in your fridge, sitting there, waiting. You want to eat it simply because you spent money on it, but you know damned well it won’t sit right.

The world is filled to bursting with existing content. This does not mean you are obligated to use it. 

Go too far

It’s easier to end up with something great by toning back something offensively mind-blowing than by being a fucking pussy.

Do it yourself

If you keep thinking someone needs to have a bird’s eye view of the whole content system, that someone is you. Map that shit. 

Thank People

You never know who your co-workers are neglecting at home in order to please you. 

Use Paper

When you find yourself clicking back and forth through the same three documents all day and just staring them, there comes a point where you must say to yourself, “Fuck these documents.” Then, find a blank sheet of paper and make the ugly version of what you were wasting all day not doing.

Be a Tarot Reader

A good tarot reader knows that which cards the client sees don’t matter - what matters is how the client reacts to whichever cards end up showing. To help a project take shape, make your seed cards and use everyone’s reactions to learn what they need to become, not to defend what they started as.

Be Wrong

When you get over the stupid monkey fear of being wrong, you will realize that being wrong can help save you a stupid amount of time. When you’re asked to produce something with vague requirements, for instance, which by the way is EVERYTHING YOU WILL EVER DO IN CONTENT STRATEGY, it goes a lot faster if you just make something that’s probably wrong and then show it as quickly as possible to the people who make decisions. Sit back and watch as all of those ugly vagaries magically transform into beautiful, beautiful specifics in mere minutes.

Part of expertise is learning what to ignore

Only after sifting through vast loads of information many times do you start to see patterns that can speed things up enormously. Do the sifting. Become an expert. 

Design the rules to accomodate user behavior

If you’re pissed off about users disobeying the rules, try redesigning them to accommodate natural user behavior instead. For instance: there is a tea and coffee service in my building lobby. The tea bags were always on one side of the counter, and the trash bin on the other, so people would just leave their empty tea bag packages on the counter instead of throwing them away. Finally the building placed a dish there for the empty packages. Now user behavior hasn’t changed at all, but no one gets pissed off about their neighbors being slobs anymore, which makes a nicer experience all around.

Also, just now I decided that me and my cat would both be happier if I simply gave up on our “no cats on the desk” rule.

Make your user feel confident

When you lack self-confidence, everything becomes extraordinarily hard. And knowing that you’ve never done something before can be an enormous confidence-killer for many users. To help them, try using reassuring language, clear feedback for every interaction, and a safe environment where they know they can easily go back and change anything at any time if they think they made a mistake.