I first saw the short film Dark Side of the Lens years ago, but it keeps coming back to me.

I am not a perfectionist. No, I am the most chill person you will ever meet.

What do a geneticist and war photographer have in common? More than you may think.

A cheat sheet of methods and tools for content strategists

Consensus building, participation, and staying on track

"Some people think I’m demonic and totally insane. Some people get it."

There’s still a lingering belief that design thinking only applies to designers or product people. Not true!

Doubt is a muscle. Flex it.

Constraints. The "necessary evil.” And the plain ole’ necessary.

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.

My sister is alive and healthy.

The process of creating is full of pain. Fruitless drafts. Diluted ideas. Self-doubt and worthlessness. Candy wrappers everywhere.

You know it. I know it. We all know it. The biggest thing standing in our way is us.

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.

So why do we forget?

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?