Pair writing: better content, more customer-focused
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Transcript of Pair writing: better content, more customer-focused
Pair writing: better content, more customer-focused
Gerry McGovern, Bjørn Bergslien, Audun Rundberg11 February 2015
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?
We publish content because it’s really easy to click that button
in the CMS
Photo: Sean MacEntee / CC BY 2.0
We forget to involve the right
stakeholders early enough in a
website project
Photo: Seattle Municipal Archives / CC BY 2.0
We love content strategy so much that we forget to
work with the actual content
Photo: Ranil Amarasuriya / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
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
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
Inspired by pair
programming
http://bit.ly/acc-prog (PDF)
Pair writing1. Bring people together and pair them up2. Decide on a need3. Group feedback4. Write!5. Present a draft6. Continue writing
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
Pair writing1. Bring people together and pair them up2. Decide on a need3. Group feedback4. Write!5. Present a draft6. Continue writing
Financial jargon
Product prices hard
to find
Dull and lifeless content
Takes a long time to get to the
point
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
Straight to the pointClear call to action
Prices and rates
Try it yourself!
Contact the bank for more info
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
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
2. Cultural and organizational differencesLanguage barriersPeople not feeling it was their task to write
3. Word and SharePoint gave us a hard timeUse Google Docs instead!
Lessons learned1. We should have had more theory togetherHR, IT, Communications, Legal, business segments and moreHalf a day wasn’t enough to get everyone on the same page
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
When you practise pair writing, you can't
remember who wrote each sentence. You have
shared ownership.