pair writing: better content, more customer-focused
TRANSCRIPT
Pair writing: better content, more customer-focused
Gerry McGovern, Bjørn Bergslien, Audun Rundberg11 February 2015
Audun@audunru
Bjørn@bbergslien
This is what we look like
Construction companyUniversity
Global fertilizer company Bank
Traditional content creation processes are sort of broken...
We write without getting any critical input from others
Photo: nivekhmng / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
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?
Everyone is publishing their
own stuff - «Silo publishing»
Photo: Astrid Westvang / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
We produce new content instead of improving what we
already have
Photo: Jon S / CC BY 2.0
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
More collaboration
please
Pair writing
Do your user research
...and establishobjectives!
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
Web writing
workshop(ca 1948)
Pair writing!
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
Step #1: Bring people together and pair them up
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
Step #3: Group
feedback
Step #4: Write!
– Can you read that out loud?
– What do you mean by that?
Initial drafts focus on most
important need
Step #5: Present a
draft
Step #6: Switch roles
and continue writing
No cruft, just
needs
Example from City of Oslo
Pair writing1. Bring people together and pair them up2. Decide on a need3. Group feedback4. Write!5. Present a draft6. Continue writing
Where does pair writing fit in your process?Let’s look at 4 examples
Warning!
Example #1
Small-town bank on the windy west coast of Norway
Financial jargon
Product prices hard
to find
Dull and lifeless content
Takes a long time to get to the
point
ssf.no2012
redesign
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
236% increase in mortgage
calculator use
Increased traffic to all
product pages
520% increase in traffic
compared to banners on the front page
Example #2
Gaining leads for construction projects
Add to cart
1
Bridge (18.000 tonnes)
Not going to happen...
Showcase a project
Showcase a project
Contact project
manager
Gain project leads
Oslo
Hammerfest
Paris
1332
km
1342
km
Web manager
East
Web manager
EastNorth
South
West
Example #3
Global fertilizer company with 10.000 employees
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
...and one (SharePoint)
intranet
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
+Word SharePoint
+
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
Example #4
Customer focus at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
5 million pages sounds about right...
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
90 editors gathered in a
room
What’s our objective? What does
the customer need?
Takeaways
Pair writing helps you write to
meet the need
Pair writing is outside some
people’s comfort zone, but the results
are worth it
It teaches you to focus on the need first, then the words
When you practise pair writing, you can't
remember who wrote each sentence. You have
shared ownership.
Pair writing helps you find common
ground
