Activities and exercises for workshops that work (Confab 2019)

This is the enhanced version of my slide deck for my 2019 Confab presentation on some of the activities that you can use in content strategy stakeholder consultation and discovery workshops. This deck includes many many more tips, advice from other professionals in the sector, and more activities than I was able to deliver in my short talk from the Confab stage.

1. ACTIVITIES AND EXERCISES FOR WORKSHOPS THAT WORK
2. HELLO THERE, I’M TRACY Tracy Playle @tracyplayle CEO, Pickle Jar Communications Founder, ContentEd (and she is Scout)
3. PLAN AND DELIVER PLAN
4. THREE Q FRAMEWORK (write it down) WHY WHAT HOW Why are we doing this? What do we need to get out of this? How will we get that?
5. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS (mull on these) Who needs to be there? What will they understand? How long will this take? How much of their time can we get? What weird directions could this go in? How are we going to capture this? Is there another way that we do this?
6. I'm working on an intranet project right now and we're surveying the entire staff (whoever wants to participate) for their feedback. We built a streamlined form and from that, I'll be able to visualize the data and make appropriate recommendations. As a bonus, my client team is offering prizes and drawings for participants to encourage interaction. “ Erin Schroeder, from Content Strategists group chat on Facebook
8. PLAN AND DELIVER DELIVER
9. DELIVERING THE SESSION (take heed) It’s not about you Listen, listen and listen some more They won’t always “get it” Rabbit warrens can be useful Allow more time than you think you need People can and will be difficult Don’t be defensive
10. YOUR ACTIVITIES
11. MAPPING OUT BUSINESS GOALS UNDERSTANDING OUR AUDIENCE CREATIVE CONTENT PLANNING GOVERNANCE AND WORKFLOW
12. MAPPING OUT BUSINESS GOALS (and doing some great stakeholder engagement)
13. Remind people to “start with the why” “ Jack Molisani, from Content Strategists group chat on Facebook
14. STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT Our business goal is… …so we need to reach… …and encourage them to… GOAL AUDIENCE ACTION Make money to keep the shareholders happy (and keep ourselves in a job) Change government policy Potential new customers Policy makers and influencers Buy our stuff Read and understand our evidence, and vote on our recommendation
15. STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT “Err… but these are intranet features, not business goals” “So… why do we need this?”
16. PRIORITISE GOALS (weighting)
17. IMPACT ON THE AUDIENCE Think? Feel? Do? They are so helpful Relieved Self-serve and troubleshoot their problem without calling us That’s a worthy cause that really would benefit from my help Inspired, touched, motivated, generous, altruistic, involved Donate I need that in my life Excited and compelled Buy
18. We need to………………………………. by ……………………………… and so we must reach ……………………… and encourage them to …………………….. by ……………………………………..…. (business goal) (business tactic) (target audience) (audience action) (content or communication goal) DEFINING GOALS (writing our own story)
19. We need to bring an additional $50,000 per year into my team by selling consultancy to private education providers and so we must reach academy trust board members and encourage them to invite us in for a chat which we will do by first sharing our knowledge through blogs and connecting with them through social media DEFINING GOALS (writing our own story)
20. I love the magazine cover exercise: pass out a wireframed magazine cover to each person, then ask them to take 5 mins to individually fill in a few of the key details based on where they see their org being featured in 5-10 years (Which magazine is it— Wired? TIME? Something super niche?; What is the headline written about their org?; What’s the visual focal point—is it a serious, solo pic of the Creative Director or is it a quirky shot of the CEO posing?; What are some of the other topics being talked about in the magazine at that point?) “ Katie Del Angel, from Content Strategists group chat on Facebook
21. SET A VISION(content strategy statement) https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/01/content-on-strategy-templates/ Credit: Meghan Casey
22. SEEING THE WHOLE PICTURE Book recommendation: Designing Connected Content Plan and Model Digital Products for Today and Tomorrow By Mike Atherton and Carrie Hane
23. SEEING THE WHOLE (domain mapping)
24. PRIORITISING POSITIONING (card sorts) • Decide on a few headings • Have them sort them into piles • Then tell them to pick top 3
25. PRIORITISING POSITIONING (card sorts)
26. I facilitate the three-step process through which they build internal clarity on the buzzwords and marketing-speak they use... and I get to be fly on the wall, learning about the historical tensions, alliances, and cultural challenges in phrasing, content, workflow, etc. It all comes out! In their final step, they prioritize their communication goals, so they're learning that not everything is of equal priority - not everything can be on the homepage. “ Margot Bloomstein, from Content Strategists group chat on Facebook
27. POSITIONING (card sorts) Book recommendation: Content Strategy at Work Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project By Margot Bloomstein
28. POSITIONING & TONE (commsometer)
29. “Bring to the workshop images that you think represent the personality of the organisation. They can be as random or abstract as you wish” PERSONALITY
30. UNIQUENESS (what superhero are you?) If your organisation were a superhero… What would their superpowers be? What would their superhero name be? What would their kryptonite be? Draw them…
31. WHO WE ARE (write a collaborative statement) 1. Small groups each write a statement 2.All review each others and annotate 3.Groups revise their statement 4.Voting on favourite statements 5.Pick top 3 6.Create a combined version
32. WHAT MATTERS? (more card sorting) • Create deck of requirements • Create 3 headers: • Highest priority (choose only 3) • Medium priority (order them) • Low priority • Have them sort into the headers • Have them explain their reasoning while they’re sorting the cards • “What does that mean to you?” • “Why do you prioritise that?” • ”Tell me more about…” • “What if…?”
33. WHAT MATTERS? (more card sorting) • Requires no updating or ongoing content maintenance • Requires a small amount of updating or content maintenance • Allows us to regularly add dynamic new content (such as news, events or blogs) • Integrates with a system or database that we use • Helps us comply with a legal requirement • Gets our audience to complete a task within the site (form, contact, register, etc) • Makes our roles more efficient and effective • Provides instructions • Provides information • Provokes an emotional response • Provides advice and guidance • Tells them all about us and our roles • Helps connect people with people • Drives them somewhere else (online or offline) • Curates information and content from multiple sources • Makes us look great • Empowers self-service support • Shares our priorities and current work projects • Links to or connects with other departments or service sections • Improves what we already have online In case you want a list, here’s what I have on my cards:
34. WHAT MATTERS? (more card sorting)
35. UNDERSTANDING OUR AUDIENCE (and stopping assumptions and business goals taking over all of your content decisions)
36. WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW? Facts Assumptions Mysteries List everything that we know about our audience and their content needs as demonstrable facts Keep checking these List the assumptions that we make and base decisions on about our audience and their content needs Test and question these List everything that we don’t know about our audience and their content needs but that we ought to know Research these Use post-it notes as you will want to shift them between columns
37. INSIDE THEIR HEADS (empathy mapping) Thinking Feeling Seeing Doing
38. Ideally, there's a bit of user research to refer to before a big workshop, so providing a short narrative/user group can help. Depending on the stakeholder group, it can be interesting and more eye-opening to let them do it first with their organizational bias and then provide the deeper user research and have them identify/edit the assumptions they made. “ Amy Grace Wells, from Content Strategists group chat on Facebook
39. INSIDE THEIR HEADS (journey mapping)
40. INSIDE THEIR HEADS (journey mapping)
41. INSIDE THEIR HEADS (journey mapping)
42. INSIDE THEIR HEADS (designing a persona) • Provide a template • Combine with an empathy map • Consider having user stories in there • Demographic or motivational? • Let them draw
43. CREATIVE CONTENT PLANNING (access a creative hive mind and make them feel like the great outputs were their ideas)
44. I’ve been lucky to have some really engaged workshop participants who have a million great ideas. But often their engagement drops drastically down the track when they realise that their creative content idea isn’t in the first iteration. No amount of caveats help! So I try to build in a quick ‘orders of magnitude’ exercise at the end. “If you could pick one thing as essential from the list of ideas, now five, now ten” hopefully you’ve done enough work to put the user at the centre that they pick nice user centred things! “ Sarah Stanford, from Content Strategists group chat on Facebook
45. INSIGHTS TO IDEAS (empathy map outputs) THINKING FEELING SEEING DOING Can I actually afford to go to university? Anxious, worried, apprehensive University websites, social media accounts Sitting exams for their current studies ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ TOPIC TONE PLATFORM CONSIDERATIONS Cost calculator and scholarship advice Reassuring, confident, useful Section on “affordability” on website They have little time – make it quick and easy
46. INSIGHTS TO IDEAS (user story outputs)
47. DEFINING CONTENT ELEMENTS • Print off existing content • Mark-up common elements, common modules and content types • Capture them on a table (this will also help your stakeholders start to understand structured content)
48. DEFINING CONTENT ELEMENTS Element Description Example Format Notes e.g. Teaser e.g. Short intro to entice people to read more e.g. You have a unique opportunity to spend a year studying in Europe, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan or the United States as a full part of your degree programme. e.g. Text e.g. Always follows a main title. Should only be one per page. • Element name • Description • Example • Format • Notes
49. DESIGN CONTENT TYPES • Give clear instructions • Have them choose content types • Give them a full elements list • Have them map out the content type by writing the elements they choose on post-it notes
50. UNLEASH THEIR CREATIVITY
51. UNLEASH THEIR CREATIVITY
52. GOVERNANCE AND WORKFLOW (helps to ensure that they identify the problems and then they own the solutions)
53. DISCUSSION STATIONS START STOP The way that we work together MORE LESS • Lay discussion topics around the room – one per sheet • Split into small groups or pairs • 2-3 minutes at each station • Rotate around the room • Use post-its to add their thoughts to each corner • Group discussion at the end to gain consensus or priorities
54. DISCUSSION STATIONS START STOP The way that we work together MORE LESS • The systems that we use • The people we involve • Our strategy and vision • Leadership and management • The content we create • Our approach to measurement • Our audience insights • Content maintenance • Training and development • Our skills and know-how • Our approval processes (example topics)
55. Understanding our content ecosystem CONTENT ECOSYSTEM MAPPING https://kubie.co/content-ecosystems
56. Understanding our content ecosystem CONTENT ECOSYSTEM MAPPING
57. Understanding our content ecosystem CONTENT ECOSYSTEM MAPPING
58. Understanding our content ecosystem CONTENT ECOSYSTEM MAPPING
59. Understanding our content ecosystem CONTENT ECOSYSTEM MAPPING
60. RACI frameworks for designing workflow Understanding our content ecosystem PLANNING WORKFLOW
61. 1. List role types in first column 2.Map workflow stages across header row 3.Complete the RACI framework working across or down R = Responsible A = Accountable C = Consulted I = Informed
62. Understanding our content ecosystem PLANNING TEAMS • Work in pairs, interview each other • Complete a working style form • Offer up labels or pin badges with working style descriptors • Have each “partner” assign strengths to each other • Go around the room and form the perfect team based on the blend of their strengths and the challenge presented
63. Understanding our content ecosystem PLANNING TEAMS • Authoriser • Leader • Planner • Analyst • Creative • Empathiser • Influencer (example descriptors)
64. STATIONERY PORN
65. Understanding our content ecosystem LUSCIOUS LONG PAPER
66. Understanding our content ecosystem SEXY POST-IT NOTES
67. Understanding our content ecosystem SEXY POST-IT NOTES
68. Understanding our content ecosystem SEDUCTIVE TUPPERWARE
69. Understanding our content ecosystem OBSCENE AMOUNTS OF SHARPIES
70. Understanding our content ecosystem “SPECIAL” TOYS
71. Understanding our content ecosystem VOLUPTUOUS VOTING KITS
72. Understanding our content ecosystem A DUNGEON OF DELIGHTS Giant paper A3 printer Tupperware Post-it selection Stickers for voting Sharpies and flip chart pens Labels Camera and audio recorder Lego blocks Blue tack Masking tape Elastic bands Folders Clips Poster tubes Wheelie suitcase
73. Understanding our content ecosystem A SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY https://lnkd.in/emcj-bu In case you want to support…
74. Understanding our content ecosystem A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF GRATITUDE THANK YOU Tracy Playle, Pickle Jar Communications tracy@picklejarcommunications.com @tracyplayle