writer. designer. misfit.
There’s still a lingering belief that design thinking only applies to designers or product people. Not true!
I confuse these terms very much like I confuse the purpose of the liver, spleen, and kidneys.
The role of the content strategist is to bring together the needs and objectives of technical, marketing and user experience teams under one umbrella business objective. Let's explore the specific activities and interrelated activities associated with different "flavors" of content strategy.
The process of creating is full of pain. Fruitless drafts. Diluted ideas. Self-doubt and worthlessness. Candy wrappers everywhere.
The empty baby book patronized me from the bookshelf. As if there wasn't enough to do keeping this micro-human alive and our sanity in check.
It’s easy to overlook things that are critically important until they start failing. Just like we don’t notice the structure of a house until it’s in question (“Hmm, should I be walking on this?”), a site’s information architecture typically goes unnoticed until it fails to do its job (“Why can’t I find what I need?!”).
Sometimes closing that laptop, turning off the screens and putting away the tablet is the best way to get things done. Here's how I use them for client workshop facilitation, rapid ideation and prototyping.
The terms “strategic” and “tactical” carry different weights within many organizations, and unfortunately one gains more attention or credence (often strategy). But in reality, both need each other. Strategy without execution chops—and execution without strategy—is a rudderless endeavor that leads nowhere.
Look at the shape of a rock. Pick it up and feel it with your fingers. Is it jagged? Round? Smooth enough to skip across a lake?
Most often in life we look to “things” for direction—data, statistics, trusted perspectives, our own experiences—when I wonder if the quiet, the absence of direction, is where we’d find more meaningful answers.
The term "overthinker" is a label nobody wants. But fear not, my fellow overthinkers, there's hope for us yet.
The advice goes something like this: Be honest, be intelligent, be more than a money-grubbing machine.
Overlooking context will get you in a credibility pickle. It’s like inviting a neighbor over for dinner while the cockroach man is spraying your kitchen.
I first saw the short film Dark Side of the Lens years ago, but it keeps coming back to me.