Carrie Hane

Carrie Hane sees content strategy as a complex information ecosystem, not a simple stream of publications.

Looking at content strategy as a system helps her give her clients a more complete picture of how content works.

Carrie and I talked about:

her recent decision to describe herself professionally by the activities she does instead of a job title or similar label

her recent insight about the benefits of looking at content strategy as a system

the problem of dealing with short-term thinking when content strategy is a long-term investment

how the systems theory concepts of "stocks" and "flows" can provide a fuller picture of how content fits into an organization

her hope that the idea of looking at content strategy as a system catches on and starts a conversation in the discipline

how thinking about content strategy as a system can improve how agencies work with clients, and maybe even provide opportunities to deliver more and better service

her ongoing efforts to learn about other domains and other disciplines and apply their insights to her work

some of the fields of study that she thinks can make you a more well-rounded content strategist: statistics, psychology, marketing, relational databases, HTML, coding, design theory

how studying a field like systems theory can help content strategists expand their thinking

her frustration with folks who don't comprehend and appreciate the scope of content strategy

how content strategy is more of a practice than a discipline

the differences between the domain model used in her book and other models (systems models, mental models, ontology models, etc.)

how the domain model is a useful tool for capturing the language related to a project and how it helps clients see the broader impact of her work

what matters to her: "making sure people see all the pieces and can connect the dots that matter"

Links to publications and people mentioned in the interview:

Thinking in Systems: A Primer" by Donella Meadows

You're Never Going to Sell Content Strategy blog post

Aaron Bradley's blog on knowledge graphs, linked data, and semantic technologies

taxonomy expert Bob Kasenchak

research paper on content maturity in associations with Hilary Marsh and Dina Lewis

her upcoming talk at OmnichannelX

Carrie's Bio

Carrie Hane is a creative problem solver and connector of people, processes, and technology. For more than 20 years, she's been helping organizations transform to meet the ever-changing needs of the people they serve and take advantage of the latest technology.

She is the co-author of Designing Connected Content: Plan and Model Digital Products for Today and Tomorrow (New Riders, 2018), a handbook for a pioneering approach to sustainable digital publishing. Today, Carrie helps make health communication more accessible and relevant along with her colleagues and clients at Palladian Partners.

She has a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Northern Michigan University and a Master's in International Affairs from The George Washington University. By far the most enlightening education she has received is being the mother of boys for over 17 years.

Follow Carrie:

Twitter

TanzenConsulting.com (blog)

LinkedIn

Video

Here’s the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/Bn98ln5Cj84

Podcast Intro Transcript

The field of content strategy has a lot of moving parts. Some folks try to explain it with simple publishing flow models. Carrie Hane sees content strategy more like an information ecosystem than a stream of publications. By looking at the practice as a complex system she'...