When and how to engage a content designer.

I wrote a couple pieces about content-product designer collaboration^{1 2} but one reader has since asked a question that remains unanswered: When and how does one engage a content designer³?

The short answer: It depends.

When–and how–to engage with a content designer depends on a few factors. What I’m sharing here is based on my experiences working on a small content design team at an enterprise SaaS company. I’ve been both a dedicated and consulting content designer for product teams, so adopt and adapt the information as fits your needs.

The ideal scenario

Product designers: How many times have you waited until the last moment to consult with your content designer, thinking the design was a slam dank and ready for hand-off, only to spend another two weeks on changes?

Content designers: How many times have you been brought into the project towards the end only to be told there’s no more time or the text can be fixed later?

Every content designer will likely tell you to include them from the beginning. This is something I tell my design colleagues and yes, it’s the ideal scenario. When you include content designers at the beginning of a project, you’re reducing the potential of larger problems later in the design process.

I have often been left out of initial conversations because the primary product designer assumed these conversations were irrelevant to me, they assumed I was too busy and didn’t want to add a meeting on my calendar, or they didn’t think I needed to be there because there’s no content work being done at that moment. These are valid suppositions. Maybe. But I can say that nearly every time I’ve been left out of the beginning, we ended up spending more time catching me up on scope, business needs, and stakeholder arguments. You can see how this becomes unsustainable and cumbersome over time.

Content designers may not have any immediate tasks early in a project but that’s not to say they can’t participate in early discovery work, brainstorming, or design sessions to support the trajectory of a project. Content designers aren’t just there to make the words flow prettily. Don’t assume anything about your content designer, their time, or what might be relevant to them. Communication is key and this goes for any content designer, regardless of whether they’re the sole content designer in the organization or one of a handful.

The reality

While the ideal situation is to bring us in early–and often–the reality won’t be as clear cut.

If you have a dedicated content designer whose focus is just on your product area alone, there’s absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t be included from the beginning. You have a shared focus and by including your content designer often, from the beginning, you’d enrich your collaboration and output.

When I was a dedicated content designer it was much easier to engage with my design peers. We were working on the same problem areas. Scheduling ad-hoc design sessions were relatively easy. We were able to attend standing meetings and stay up-to-date really well. If we didn’t have a meeting, we communicated async on Slack which allowed us to have a continuous cycle of feedback.

More recently, however, my time has been split between multiple teams and a variety of projects requiring different levels of effort, focus, and involvement. It’s tricky but doable.

Communicate

Let’s get this out of the way because this is the foundation for everything that will follow.

It’s better to over-communicate than under-communicate. This can be especially important if you don’t have a dedicated content designer whose attention is split across multiple teams and projects. By over-communicating you’re mitigating the potential for miscommunication and you’re reducing potential information gaps.

Don’t make assumptions about your content designer’s time, workload, or availability

Whenever I work with a new team, I always tell them to ask me about my availability before assuming I’m too busy. I say this because they don’t know my day-to-day and they don’t know how I structure my time. Only I know this.

When my colleagues ask me about joining a meeting or about reviewing content or anything else, it allows me to assess my own schedule and figure out what to move around to support their projects. I also think my colleagues appreciate it when I tell them to just reach out to discuss my availability because it reduces the pressure on them to figure out my time. They know I’m split across multiple projects and if they assume I’m busy, then I’ll always be busy and they’ll never engage with me on projects.

Add your content designer to the damn meeting invite

It’s better to include your content designer as optional, particularly for recurring meetings, than not include them at all. I always ask to be included as optional so that I have the meetings on my calendar and can make the decision to attend as needed.

If you need your content designer to attend a meeting, clearly communicate that! There’s nothing wrong with asking them to attend or if they’re available, especially if you know you’ll need their perspective on something.

It really does depend

These are just a handful of ways that teams can engage with their content designer. “It depends” is never a satisfactory answer but when and how you collaborate with your content designer does depend on your structure and whether they’re dedicated to your project area or if they’re working across multiple teams.

The one constant though is communication.

Product designers, reach out to your content designers. Explain what’s going on and ask them to be part of the conversation.

Content designers, reach out to your product designers. Ask what’s going on. Ask for that information and decide if you have to be at every meeting or if there are ways you can follow the project and collaborate async.

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^{This post is syndicated on Bootcamp}