What is the MVP of CS? And how can we help startups?
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Stavros Garzonis
Apr 16, 2015, 9:56:32 AM4/16/15
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Hi all
[Very happy to join my first CS supper last night - thanks for organising Lisa!]
I have a CS-training related question and hoping this group of experts will generate some valuable insights and conversations! Mind you, I'm a UXer and a CS-enthusiast.
Google is doing this thing, called Launchpad, where 15 startups will be mentored for 1 week in the following topics (1 each day): Product, UX, Tech, Marketing and Pitching. Content Strategy is (perhaps unsurprisingly?) not explicitly part of the training/mentoring but of course relevant to each day! I am responsible for planning the UX day and leading the UX mentors to help the startups. My current plan is to practice doing interviews, personas, experience maps, sketching and pilot/guerilla testing, and I'm wondering how I can pepper CS-thinking in there too. One thing I'm going to do is have them creating a content hierarchy for every page/journey before they sketch layouts but is there anything else I could/should include? (mindset/approach is more likely to fit within our busy schedule rather than another exercise).
The whole pulse of the week is around being Minimum and Viable in everything they do. So, what's the MV-CS??
Thanks!
Stavros
p.s. I'm hoping CS will be peppered in the Product proposition and Marketing days but I don't know the people responsible for these
Lisa Moore
Apr 16, 2015, 10:22:48 AM4/16/15
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You're very welcome - thank you for coming along!
And thanks for a great question. I'm sure others will have more to say, but one thing that springs to mind immediately is tone of voice. I don't know how advanced these start-ups will be in terms of thinking about their brand and tone of voice, but that could be something to "pepper" :) You could link that to discussion of the personas - for example, how might they flex their tone for each of their personas?
This is a great article on tone, voice and style - well worth a skim!
Another topic to introduce is governance - once they've launched their site with all that lovely content, who will look after it? Who will be responsible for checking Googla Analytics and feeding those insights back to the team? One person? A team of people? Thinking about those sorts of issues early rather than late can save a lot of headaches and prevent content from become stale and useless.
I'm sure others will have many more tips to add but those were the things that first sprang into my post-margarita-sozzled mind :)
--Lisa
Rick Yagodich
Apr 16, 2015, 10:23:26 AM4/16/15
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Hi Stavros,
Good to see you again yesterday.
Sticking to the mindset side of things, an analogy that might help:
Think about an arrow. The type you fire from a bow. The arrow is made up of three parts: the head, the shaft, and the fletching. (OK, it's really 4, but bringing the nock into it will complicate things too much.)
If asked which is the most important part of an arrow, most people would say it's the head. That's the sharp bit. That's the part that delivers the experience. It is the (end) User Experience. It's designed to make an impact. (So this is a violent analogy. I have no excuse.)
In truth, the most important part of an arrow is not the head; it is the fletching. But first, let's look at the shaft. This is the carrier, the content, the message. We are creating an experience impact with the head, in order to deliver the shaft.
So, to the fletching. This is what guides the arrow in flight. It sets and maintains direction, through drag. It is the strategy - the limitation on our scope that ensures the arrow flies in a particular direction aligned with its shaft, so the head can strike the target first. A badly attached or poorly aligned fletching will send your arrow astray.
The arrow is the whole of the content experience. Yes, we must ensure the head is properly sharpened. But the content payload must be right to support it, and without a strategy in place, we'll never hit anything. That strategy is governance, planning, maintenance, etc (can be illustrated with these words on the individual vanes, if you use a picture).
A couple of images and five minutes should be enough. No exercise needed (though you can always bring it up in the summary of subsequent exercises by asking for the fletching behind their ideas). That should give them a memorable enough image that while they are trained to get the UX right, they can't get around the fact that without the content strategy, they'll never hit a target.
- R
Good to see you again yesterday.
Sticking to the mindset side of things, an analogy that might help:
Think about an arrow. The type you fire from a bow. The arrow is made up of three parts: the head, the shaft, and the fletching. (OK, it's really 4, but bringing the nock into it will complicate things too much.)
If asked which is the most important part of an arrow, most people would say it's the head. That's the sharp bit. That's the part that delivers the experience. It is the (end) User Experience. It's designed to make an impact. (So this is a violent analogy. I have no excuse.)
In truth, the most important part of an arrow is not the head; it is the fletching. But first, let's look at the shaft. This is the carrier, the content, the message. We are creating an experience impact with the head, in order to deliver the shaft.
So, to the fletching. This is what guides the arrow in flight. It sets and maintains direction, through drag. It is the strategy - the limitation on our scope that ensures the arrow flies in a particular direction aligned with its shaft, so the head can strike the target first. A badly attached or poorly aligned fletching will send your arrow astray.
The arrow is the whole of the content experience. Yes, we must ensure the head is properly sharpened. But the content payload must be right to support it, and without a strategy in place, we'll never hit anything. That strategy is governance, planning, maintenance, etc (can be illustrated with these words on the individual vanes, if you use a picture).
A couple of images and five minutes should be enough. No exercise needed (though you can always bring it up in the summary of subsequent exercises by asking for the fletching behind their ideas). That should give them a memorable enough image that while they are trained to get the UX right, they can't get around the fact that without the content strategy, they'll never hit a target.
- R
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silvia calvet
Apr 16, 2015, 3:57:26 PM4/16/15
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What an analogy!
Like it a lot. I think I'll use it in my new corporate environment.
Not sure about the MV... but I can share my experience with Launchpad. We are having now the second edition this week in BArcelona. Here, the startups didn't had the same knowledge or product status (some had interactive prototypes, other perfect products, others had more ideas than a real products. So having just one solution or the same approach for all wouldn't have work.
Anyway, looks like you have a different organisation.
If you wish to know more about our edition, let me know.
Sad for missing the CS suppers!
Cheers
Sílvia Calvet
Do you work for happy users and customers? www.ArchitectingHappiness.org
@silviacalvet
silviacalvet.net
+34 678 188 902
Noz Urbina
Apr 16, 2015, 4:59:09 PM4/16/15
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Nice stuff, Lisa!
Rick, *bullseye*! (Sorry couldn't help myself)
I'm afraid that's all I have time for.
LMM
Apr 16, 2015, 7:03:20 PM4/16/15
to Noz Urbina
Thanks, Noz!
And Rick, I like the analogy, too, but I might tread a bit carefully around phrases such as "deliver the shaft" ;)
Although "porn content strategy" is perhaps an untapped and yet lucrative market we have yet to explore ;) Now there's an idea for the next supper club! Stringfellows, anyone? :)
LMM
Apr 16, 2015, 7:08:09 PM4/16/15
to silvia calvet
Hi Silvia:
We missed you, too :) I was just in Barcelona for the first time - what a great design city!
I think we would all be keen to hear how you integrated content considerations into the various editions of your start-ups. Did content even get discussed? Or were they more focused on just the interactions?
-- Lisa
| From: silvia calvet Sent: Thursday, 16 April 2015 8:56 PM Reply To: content-str...@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [Content Strategy Europe] What is the MVP of CS? And how can we help startups? |
Damien
Apr 16, 2015, 7:32:11 PM4/16/15
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Such a useful analogy Rick. I missed the CS supper, and hope to get to my first one next time.
Keeping with the arrow analogy, delivering minimum value content strategy means having a clear view of product and market fit.
Linking the product to what the market demands by uncovering topics and concepts your market desire will help with planning, scope and estimation..
The fastest tool to sense check market demand and narrow to those topics your market has appetite for is Google Trends.
Once you've identified a trendtastic topic, simple Google searches - where you search for your topic and *not* press enter. Take note of the market demands shown as search suggestions, as these further qualify what content topics you should consider creating.
Of course, Google Adwords Keyword Planner is a great tool to do this in much more depth.
Cheers,
Damien
Keeping with the arrow analogy, delivering minimum value content strategy means having a clear view of product and market fit.
Linking the product to what the market demands by uncovering topics and concepts your market desire will help with planning, scope and estimation..
The fastest tool to sense check market demand and narrow to those topics your market has appetite for is Google Trends.
Once you've identified a trendtastic topic, simple Google searches - where you search for your topic and *not* press enter. Take note of the market demands shown as search suggestions, as these further qualify what content topics you should consider creating.
Of course, Google Adwords Keyword Planner is a great tool to do this in much more depth.
Cheers,
Damien
Stavros Garzonis
Apr 17, 2015, 4:38:51 AM4/17/15
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Thank you all! As expected, great stuff!
I met the other mentors last night and the Marketing guys seem quite switched on so hopefully they will cover a lot of this. They were talking about story telling (on founder, startup, product) and governance around different media channels. They are also grateful we are doing the persona exercise based on user research, something they intend to use/extend when deciding marketing strategy.
Silvia, I think we are on the same boat as the level of development between the startups is going to be different. We are trying to focus on helping them gain the skills so they can adjust and apply them to their specific needs after the Launchpad. I would be really keen to hear what took place in the UX day (if you know) and how CS was represented throughout the week.
Thanks again
Stavros
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