It’s about the people, not methods and rules
I’ve been a content designer in government for a while now and I feel I’ve come full circle.
I’ve gone from being in an organisation with 50-odd content designers, a user-centred design community, to 3 content designers and hardly no UCD community in a transformation programme. But that’s OK.
I believe developing great relationships within an organisation is where change happens, cultures shift and new ways of working are developed. You have to speak the same language. After all, no service is built or maintained on its own.
Wedded to methodologies and principles
Sometimes I feel like you can be so wedded to a methodology or ways of working that it makes you stop listening to others.
I’ve had to compromise on a lot of things I’ve been taught for the sake of the bigger picture. You have to get personal and really get to know everything that impacts the work you’re trying to do, and work it out with those people, together.
I’ve learnt that it’s about the people you work with and really understanding them and working with empathy. It’s not about throwing the agile handbook at an organisation and expecting them to follow the same path. It’s also not about lecturing teams and policy people about what content design or agile is, they shouldn’t need to know.
I’ve been in many organisations that focus on creating guidance on how to do things in an ‘agile’ way, but they haven’t actually talked to the people on the same level about it, or worked it out with them. In the end, you’re left with a snazzy looking ‘manual’ or a document that no one will read or know how to use. Don’t preach, do — show how it’s done in real life situations.
Be empathetic not just to external users, but to your organisation
As a designer in an organisation that’s starting its transformation journey, you have to be empathetic and leave your ego at the door. You will need to compromise on things and do things that you probably don’t fully agree with — but slowly but surely, you’re changing things.
Don’t get me wrong, methodologies and processes are needed to create consistency and standards, but I believe these are created by working it out amongst teams in an open way that’s adaptable to different needs. Every team, individual, piece of content or user has a different story behind it, and you may have to adapt your approach to these factors.
Show the benefits you bring, don’t tell
I’ve found that showing the benefits of engaging a content designer early really helps in context of a situation.
Often enough, people are worried about how this will impact their work or how this new way will be received by their users. You need to hear those concerns, take them onboard and collaborate on it with them to show the benefits. It’s not about sending them a link to the accessibility regulations or conducting a ‘show and tell’ about what content design is, they don’t need to know. If you approach things in a way that is open and with empathy for others, you don’t need to explain yourself.
Try out different methods that suit your organisation
The team I’m in recently started drop-in sessions where we asked the organisation to submit questions around a theme, with the most recent one being about creating accessible content.
We only invited people who are involved in creating content and had submitted a question to us. I find sometimes people come to these things as a ‘corporate objective’ or because their manager told them to, I wanted everyone to be there for the right reason. It proved really successful, engaging and worthwhile to everyone who attended.
I’m very wary (and often feel really uncomfortable) of going into places and just telling them how things should be done, instead we wanted to start conversations and hear about what they’re trying to achieve one-on-one. This has resulted in people contacting the team to talk about their issues and involving the content team earlier on in their work and figuring out how we can work together in the future.
