Pair writing: better content, more customer-focused
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On February 11th, Bjørn Bergslien and I held a webinar together with Gerry McGovern. The topic was how pair writing helps subject matter experts and content experts work together to create content that meets user needs.
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Pair writing: better content, more customer-focused
- 1. Pair writing: better content, more customer- focused Gerry McGovern, Bjørn Bergslien, Audun Rundberg 11 February 2015
- 2. Audun @audunru Bjørn @bbergslien This is what we look like
- 4. Traditional content creation processes are sort of broken...
- 5. We write without getting any critical input from others Photo: nivekhmng / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
- 6. Who’s asking... • Why are we creating this content? • What is the purpose of this content? • How does this content support our business goals? • Who will be reading this content? • And why will they read it? • Could this be a video or an illustration instead of text?
- 7. Everyone is publishing their own stuff - «Silo publishing» Photo: Astrid Westvang / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
- 8. We produce new content instead of improving what we already have Photo: Jon S / CC BY 2.0
- 9. We publish content because it’s really easy to click that button in the CMS Photo: Sean MacEntee / CC BY 2.0
- 10. We forget to involve the right stakeholders early enough in a website project Photo: Seattle Municipal Archives / CC BY 2.0
- 11. We love content strategy so much that we forget to work with the actual content Photo: Ranil Amarasuriya / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
- 12. Challenges • Writing without getting any input from others • Working separately on our own - «silo publishing» • Producing new content instead of improving existing content • Publishing content no one else has looked at • Not involving the right stakeholders early in the process • Only working on the strategy, not the nitty gritty details
- 14. Pair writing
- 17. Why pair writing? • The team thinks before publishing • It forces authors to stay focused • It helps colleagues form a mutual understanding of their content • It results in a more uniform tone • It allows authors to share best practices in regards to writing for the web
- 19. Pair writing!
- 21. Pair writing 1. Bring people together and pair them up 2. Decide on a need 3. Group feedback 4. Write! 5. Present a draft 6. Continue writing
- 22. Step #1: Bring people together and pair them up
- 23. Before writing, each pair has to answer these questions. • Which objective will this page help us achieve? • What are the user needs? Step #2: Decide on a need
- 25. Step #4: Write! – Can you read that out loud? – What do you mean by that?
- 26. Initial drafts focus on most important need
- 28. Step #6: Switch roles and continue writing
- 29. No cruft, just needs Example from City of Oslo
- 30. Pair writing 1. Bring people together and pair them up 2. Decide on a need 3. Group feedback 4. Write! 5. Present a draft 6. Continue writing
- 31. Where does pair writing fit in your process? Let’s look at 4 examples
- 32. Warning!
- 33. Example #1 Small-town bank on the windy west coast of Norway
- 34. Financial jargon Product prices hard to find Dull and lifeless content Takes a long time to get to the point
- 36. Pair writing at SSF • 2 pair writing workshops • 10-12 people in total • Pairing communications people and product specialists • Finding a common tone of voice • Getting rid of financial jargon • Using Google Docs
- 37. Straight to the point Clear call to action Prices and rates Try it yourself! Contact the bank for more info
- 39. Increased traffic to all product pages
- 40. 520% increase in traffic compared to banners on the front page
- 41. Example #2 Gaining leads for construction projects
- 42. Add to cart 1 Bridge (18.000 tonnes) Not going to happen...
- 49. Example #3 Global fertilizer company with 10.000 employees
- 50. Decentralized publishing practices People speaking different languages 50 different locations worldwide Photo: Alexander Kaiser / CC BY 2.0 More than 60 intranet editors and contributors
- 52. So this is what we did... • 60 people from all over the world in the same room • Half day web writing theory course to get a common understanding of quality content • Two and a half days pair writing workshops in smaller groups
- 54. 2. Cultural and organizational differences Language barriers People not feeling it was their task to write 3. Word and SharePoint gave us a hard time Use Google Docs instead! Lessons learned 1. We should have had more theory together HR, IT, Communications, Legal, business segments and more Half a day wasn’t enough to get everyone on the same page
- 55. Example #4 Customer focus at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
- 56. 5 million pages sounds about right...
- 57. NTNU’s «web school» 90 participants, 1 semester, 6 gatherings: • Digital strategy • Customer-centric content, usability and user testing • Text, images and video best practices • Social media • Search, search engine optimization and accessibility • Content strategy and pair writing
- 58. 90 editors gathered in a room
- 59. What’s our objective? What does the customer need?
- 60. Takeaways
- 61. Pair writing helps you write to meet the need
- 62. Pair writing is outside some people’s comfort zone, but the results are worth it
- 63. It teaches you to focus on the need first, then the words
- 64. When you practise pair writing, you can't remember who wrote each sentence. You have shared ownership.
- 65. Pair writing helps you find common ground