Issue 3

Structure

Quick thoughts about how content lives in systems

Content models are the fundamental building blocks in a content management system (CMS).

The biggest mistake that I see teams make with setting up content models is to conflate the content itself and how the content is presented.

For example, many teams may build a content model for a three-column layout and another for a two-column layout. Team members—or systems—won’t easily know anything about the content in that model. It will be really difficult for the team to repurpose the product descriptions that get buried there (and the leadership bios that were put into the CMS using the same content models).

Avoid this by starting your content modeling with modeling, well…content.

If you have to use content models for defining layouts—it’s a pragmatic reality sometimes!—try to separate layout content types very clearly from content content types.

Style

Quick thoughts about how to improve your content

If you’re writing content for a product interface (or really any kind of writing), watch out for long compound nouns such as “user experience designer job description” or maybe worse, “design sprint schedule.”

For an English speaker, a 5-word noun is hard to parse. For someone less comfortable with English (or a translator), it’s even harder to understand.

Line art cartoon image of a man with a portfolio under his arm running toward a calendar. — Design sprint schedule (Created with Dall-E)

Consider “design sprint schedule.” Each word could be a noun or a verb. Imagine if you were unfamiliar with that 3-word noun. How would you know how to break it down to understand it?

Consider rewriting from “design sprint schedule” to “schedule for the design sprint.” For “user experience designer job description,” consider something like “job description for a user experience designer.”

“With the rise of digital, I’m convinced we have entered a new business era: the content era. We’re living in a time in which content is both essential for business survival and a potential business advantage.”

– The Content Advantage: Succeed at Digital Business with Effective Content by Colleen Jones

This passage is from the brand-new third edition by Jones, out in November 2024. Keep your eyes open when you check out the book, because I get a mention in it!

I love the viewpoint expressed in the quotation above, but the real a-ha! moment for me from this book was the idea of a content vision that sits above strategy. Many organizations justifiably need multiple content strategies, and a single overarching “enterprise content strategy” isn’t practical or even helpful.

The content vision is the missing piece.

Strategy

Quick thoughts about the importance of thinking strategically about content

No matter what size business you have, you’re likely churning out all sorts of content: social media posts, advertising, marketing pages, blogs, knowledge base articles, emails, videos, and more.

It’s so common that you might not notice it.

Do you know what your customers or potential customers are seeing? Are they getting a holistic, seamless experience? Are they being bombarded by inconsistent, contradictory messages?

There are people, often referred to as content strategists, who can help you audit and map all this out, then put together a plan for achieving that holistic, seamless–and impactful– experience. If this is new to you and you think you could get more out of your content, let me know if you want to chat.

Scuttlebutt

News from the UX design, content strategy, and content management communities

You might have heard the term “Universal CMS” over the last few months.

Most of the noise has been coming from vendor dotCMS in podcasts, articles, and even a dedicated conference.

The idea is kind of shape-shifty, sometimes referring to how to address the spectrum of user needs from developers to content teams, other times referrring to having a single authoring experience across an enterprise, and still other times meaning “not a headless CMS.”

The underlying idea pokes at some real problems like the mismatch in technical desires for a content system versus the mental model that a content creator has for the system.

However, the universal CMS fails to address the needs of content at scale in an AI-obsessed world. It fails to recognize that different types of authors have different author experience needs. It also fails to address the pragmatic reality that as much as a content purist may want all content to live in one system, the reality is that most enterprises will have content sourced from a number of systems.

Soft skills

A look at the less-tangible characteristics and skills that can expand your influence

With all the distractions of life, from career choices to family matters to notifications popping up on this and that and the other thing, listening can be hard. I mean active listening.

I say this as a reminder to myself as much as anything, but make sure that you’re fully present in the conversation.

For me, sometimes that means straining to paraphrase back what I’m processing or to be ready with a timely, appropriate probing question to drive toward clarity.

And guys, how hard is it to refrain from making value judgments or giving opinions and recommendations?

This weekend and next week, as others initiate interactions, make sure you flip on that active listener switch!

Top of mind

Things that are bouncing around in my head as I synthesize a range of ideas

I believe that humans have an innate need to create.

For some people, that manifests as creating works of art, for others it’s carpentry, for someone else it might be building a website, and for yet others it may be crafting a multi-course meal. The list could go on.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that when I’m most frustrated at work, it’s often when I feel unproductive–not creating. I’ve also become increasingly aware that these are often the times that I come up with a project at home, whether landscaping or building a new bespoke storage system or so on.

I’m convinced that this is that innate desire searching for a way to express itself. I picture the suppressed desire to create like a seed germinating and pushing around pebbles and fallen sticks and leaves to sprout above ground.

Do you ever feel compelled to create? What kind of creating do you do? I’d love to hear about it. Just reply to this email!

John Collins

Thanks for reading!

Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here

If you’re already a subscriber and you found value in something here, tell your friends and colleagues to subscribe!

Model Thinking

The biggest mistake I see teams make in CMS implementations