Brittney Urich

Brittney Urich has been connecting content strategy to UX design from the very start of her career.

As a senior user experience designer at Ogilvy's Denver office, Brittney educates both her clients and her colleagues about how content and design support each other.

Brittney and I talked about:

her background in professional writing, content strategy, and UX

her work at Ogilvy bridging content strategy and UX practice, both internally and with client education

how she ensures that "content is in the room from the get-go"

Ogilvy's Operating System (OS), their holistic service aimed at integrating all of their agency capabilities

their flexibility and adaptability in working with clients

the make-up of their experience design team: researchers, data strategists, designers, UX writers, content strategists

her unique role in spanning content and UX practice, and similar hybrids among her colleagues

how they assemble teams for each client project and the "need for content and design on almost every project"

the importance of integrating research across a project's lifespan

how they balance and allocate internal domain expertise across projects

how their engagement managers and project managers work with clients

how her work as a startup founder first inspired her to connect design and content

how Ogilvy built their experience design practice, having integrated a Denver agency called Effective into their organization

Brittney's Bio

Brittney Urich is a senior experience designer at Ogilvy, where she specializes in helping others understand content strategy and implement it on design projects. She is passionate about crafting digital experiences that solve problems in a human-centered, empathetic way.

As an advocate for the integration of user experience design and content strategy, she regularly speaks and host workshops about how the two disciplines work together. When she's not working, you can find her hiking, exploring national parks, or cheering on Michigan State University’s basketball team.

Video

Here’s the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/VSPVq0i69k0

Podcast Intro Transcript

Over the past several years, content strategists have discovered UX design, and UX designers have discovered content strategy. Brittney Urich has been bridging those disciplines from the very start of her career. Brittney is now a senior user experience designer at Ogilvy, a venerable creative agency that has been around since the mid-1800's. We had a fun conversation about how Brittney works with both her clients and her colleagues to show how content and design support each other.

Interview Transcript

Larry:

Hi everyone. Welcome to episode number 57 of the Content Strategy Insights podcast. I'm really happy today to have with this Brittney Urich. She's a a senior UX designer at Ogilvy's office in Denver, Colorado. Ogilvy is a big agency. We'll talk a little bit more about that later on. But, Brittney, welcome to the show and tell the folks a little bit more about your background and what you do there at Ogilvy.

Brittney:

Yeah. Hi. Thanks for having me. So right now at Ogilvy, like you said, I'm a senior user experience designer, but my unofficial title there is also content strategist, so I get to be a little bit of a hybrid. So my undergraduate degree was in professional writing and that was a pretty heavy emphasis on content strategy, but we also took some design classes, and so I really found that I loved both user experience design and content strategy. So what I do now at Ogilvy is actually teach different people how to integrate content strategy into their design process.

Brittney Urich has been connecting content strategy to UX design from the very start of her career.

As a senior user experience designer at Ogilvy's Denver office, Brittney educates both her clients and her colleagues about how content and design support each other.

https://ellessmedia.com/csi/brittney-urich/

Kylie Hansen

Kylie Hansen is a tireless evangelist for the field of content design and for her team at Microsoft's Cloud + AI Studios.

She shows the managers she works with how content design can improve their products. By demonstrating the ROI of content design, she also earns the budget that lets her continue to build her team.

The end result of Kylie's work is happier customers – and a growing team that is well-positioned to design the conversational and data-driven content of the not-too-distant future.

Kylie and I talked about:

the scope of her role as Director of UX Content Design, Microsoft Cloud (Azure) + AI Studios

the growth of the content designer role at Microsoft - she was the first one in 2013 and there are now more than 30, each embedded in a product team

how content designers are just one of many flavors of designers in their stack of UX talent

the shift at Microsoft from asking content folks to "please fix this without changing it" to fully embedding content designers throughout the design process

her work with other design leaders to articulate the ROI of content design - they have demonstrated that including a content designer on a product-design team:

increases NPS (Net Promoter Score) by 8 points

solves 44% of task failures

boosts usability by 92%

lifts both active users and customer retention

how the ensuing "happier customers and more successful products" show that "$1 invested in design is worth $100 to fix something in development"

their use of "experience analytics," which links OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) with actual data from customer use of their products, to optimize products over time

how her diverse background as a copy editor, copywriter, brand strategist, creative director, and experience-strategy director prepared her for her current role

her take on job titles in the content design and content strategy fields

how approaching content design strategically makes it much easier to do tactical creative work in a more consistent, aligned, and effective way

how they distinguish the different layers of their UX design work at Microsoft:

strategy (user journey, customer research, terminology, etc.)

structure (information architecture, navigation, messaging, hierarchy, wireframe copy, etc.)

surface (producing purposeful, conversational UI text that aligns to voice and style)

the challenges of staffing a UX content design team now that everyone is seeing the ROI and other benefits of including content designers on product teams

how UX design is not so much a deliverable as it is a mission, to take a product from idea to market leadership

how in their recruiting they try to "filter people in rather than filtering them out" - looking for folks who can master the challenges of short-form writing and who embody resilience

how positioning and messaging are embedded in their product experiences, always aiming for "five seconds to sign up and five minutes to wow"

their success in getting out of silos and collaborating - e.g., her close relationship with her counterpart in the cloud and AI brand content studio

the three "circles of impact" that they operate in at Microsoft

the evolution of her approach to selling content design and UX design to engineers

the emerging opportunity for content designers to lead the way as trends like conversational design, mixed reality, and chatbots shift experience design from screens and toward systems, processes, and data and how they interact with each other

Kylie's Bio

Kylie Hansen is Director of UX Content Design, Microsoft Cloud + AI Studios.

Kylie Hansen is a tireless evangelist for the field of UX design. By demonstrating the ROI of content design, she has been able to build a team that is making better products now - and is ready to design the conversational and data-driven content of the not-too-distant future.

https://ellessmedia.com/csi/kylie-hansen/

Ian Lurie is a leading technical SEO expert. But he doesn't recommend spending a lot of time on fancy optimization techniques. Instead, he urges content creators to focus on their users' intent and on quality content.

https://ellessmedia.com/csi/ian-lurie/

Ian Lurie

Ian Lurie is a leading technical SEO expert. But he doesn't recommend spending a lot of time on fancy optimization techniques. Instead, he urges content creators to focus on their users' intent and on quality content.

And then do just enough SEO make sure you aren't hiding your content from Google. Put another way, "Don't let SEO get in the way of your content."

Ian and I talked about:

the importance of taking what Google says with a grain of salt

how a lot of SEO is just staying out of your own way

how crafting good content and addressing user intent should guide your SEO efforts

how to thoughtfully and empathetically contextualize a user's experience on your site when they arrive via less precise terms than you use - e.g., "We don't just make X, we also make Y"

his descent early in his career from the second-least respect profession, law, to the least respected, direct marketing

the need to improve your content efforts across the board, not just writing SEO-focused long-form blog posts, but also great product descriptions and category pages

how to turn run-of-the-mill product-catalog copy into compelling content

how to guide users from your content-marketing content and get them to the real value that your company delivers

the importance of matching the quality of your content-marketing content with equally compelling product-info pages

how his "client therapy" work helps align teams

his approach to client work:

lots of listening, to discover the biggest issues

finding the folks who already talk to each other

using data to measure content effectiveness

applying data insights to guide change

another approach - a deep dive into the customer journey with all players in one room

how he always asks "what's your plan," not "what's your vision"

the fundamentals of his approach to content creation for SEO:

follow old-school copywriting rules

compress your images - Squoosh is a great tool for this

use the img alt attribute (start with "image:" for screen readers)

make sure content is written to searcher intent (shopping vs researching e.g.)

learn about schema - your CMS likely does an OK job with this, but it's a good idea to verify that with Google's structured data testing tool

his assertion that React is definitely an SEO handicap - "This is fact" - Google can render it, but they index it first and render it later

the importance in SEO of doing things in a way that doesn't force Google to do extra work - for example, prerendering pages to display simple HTML with a tool like prerender.io

the concept of "hydration"

how you should use the nofollow attribute only for paid links

Ian's Bio

Ian Lurie is a digital marketer with a twenty-five-year intolerance of trendy concepts and bull-poop. Someone told him not to say bull3h!t, so he’s trying really hard not to.

Ian uses both sides of his brain as a content creator, search engine optimization nerd, and data addict.

He speaks at conferences worldwide, including MozCon, SearchLove, Retail Global, and Learn Inbound. He writes everywhere. Seriously, do a search.

Ian founded Portent, a digital marketing agency, in 1995, and sold it to Clearlink in 2017. He’s now on his own, consulting for brands he loves and speaking at conferences that provide Diet Coke. He’s also trying to become a professional Dungeons & Dragons player, but it hasn’t panned out.

You can find him pedaling his bike up Seattle's ridiculous hills, or send him a note on Twitter or LinkedIn.

He has a TikTok profile, but his kids are embarrassed by it, so we’ll leave that out.

Eric Best

Eric Best helps business leaders look into the future. As a scenario-thinking consultant, he helps you discover insights that let you formulate an actionable strategy in the face of uncertainty.

Scenario thinking gives you tools to explore the differences between your currently planned future and the one that may actually unfold.

Eric and I talked about:

his background in journalism, strategy consulting, and scenario planning

how a couple of inaccuracies in my introduction highlight the power of storytelling

how pondering multiple plausible futures reminds us that there are also multiple plausible histories

how exploring a number of possible scenarios can prepare your mind for different possible futures

the purpose of scenario thinking: to prepare your mind in ways you might not have been prepared for if you hadn't done it

his process for conducting a scenario-thinking exercise:

identifying the relevant uncertainties in your milieu

deciding who will be in the room, who will make up your organization's "distributed brain" to evaluate the scenarios

identifying four equally plausible future worlds and crafting a narrative around them

diving into the narrative in each of the four worlds and gleaning insight

how a 2x2 matrix with axes of your two most important uncertainties can create four possible scenarios to explore - e.g. globalization on one axis and tech development on another in his 1995 analysis of trade and economic trends for Morgan Stanley

how four scenarios are usually adequate, but also how discovering a fifth scenario is not an uncommon result

the "craft and art" of managing and keeping engaged big groups of people in collaborative settings:

preparing by interviewing all of the participants in advance

constraining the scope of the current strategic exploration as you begin

assembling in four groups to address each of the scenarios

asking, "what do you think is a question that would be worth your answering?" - helps discover actual beliefs about what they should be doing

discerning the most important uncertainties within each quadrant

following this process - it has never failed him

the origins of scenario planning at Royal Dutch Shell in the 70s

the importance of giving the scenario-thinking process time, of giving participants a chance to literally sleep on it, which leads to the insight that 2 days is the optimal amount of time for a scenario session

the importance of assembling in person - "I believe that people need to be physically together to really communicate most fully"

the importance of being able to literally embody a feeling of truth, to feel an intellectual decision in your gut

the top-level picture of what's going on with his approach: influencing people's intuition, doing it in a very open, creative, abstract space which gets very concrete as the intuition gels

the importance of listening - because "the most important idea can come from anybody anytime"

a lesson from Navy research on human attention span which validates my attempt to keep these podcast episodes around 30 minutes :)

the importance of planning and having an intention but also "being open to life as it's actually unfolding"

the importance of being equally concerned with the present as you are with your plans for the future, or as his daughter put it, "You know, dad, I don't want to think so much about the future that I miss the present"

Eric's Bio

Eric Best is an author, speaker, strategic scenario consultant, and executive advisor. His most recent clients include a crypto-currency enterprise, a major global reinsurer, Wellesley College,

Eric Best helps business leaders look into the future. As a scenario-thinking consultant, he helps you discover insights that let you formulate an actionable strategy in the face of uncertainty.

In other words, scenario thinking gives you a tool to explore the differences between your currently planned future and the one that may actually unfold.

https://ellessmedia.com/csi/eric-best/

Rob Mills

Rob Mills thinks a lot about content operations. As Head of Content at GatherContent, which provides a content operations platform, he both manages and writes about content ops. So, yes, this episode gets a little meta at times :)

Rob sees the growing multidisciplinary nature of content work as a "fun challenge." He revels in the demands of connecting the many ops worlds that converge in his: content ops, design ops, research ops, and dev ops.

Rob and I talked about:

his background in journalism, data analysis, agency work as a project manager, and audience research at the BBC

how the exact scope of his role as the Head of Content at GatherContent changes daily, even hourly

some of the pioneers in the field of content ops: Deane Barker, Colleen Jones, Rahel Bailie, and Hilary Marsh

the hallmarks of their approach at GatherContent to content operations: repeatability, scalability, systemization

the three pillars of content ops: people, process, and technology

how content ops can help scale operations of any size

the people challenges in implementing a content operation - e.g., helping large numbers of diverse content creators to understand where their efforts fit in a workflow

his efforts to scale up the amount of content they create at GatherContent (and how his 2015 self is hindering the effort)

the challenges of measuring the effectiveness of legacy content

the difference between being data-informed and data-driven - and the importance of trusting your instincts when reviewing content performance

how he incorporates qualitative information, like reader correspondence, in his ongoing evaluation of content

how the evaluation of old content can help you decide where to scale up your new-content efforts

his involvement in the GatherContent product - proofing content, helping with onboarding scripts, etc.

the importance of workflow in content operations

insights from workflow masterclasses he has conducted on how long it takes to produce a "typical" piece of content - 15 hours for a 750-word web page, e.g.

the hazards of underestimating the time and effort it takes to create content, especially when you're scaling operations

how having clearly articulated workflows can help instill accountability and visibility (not blame or finger-pointing) and identify and deal with bottlenecks

how tools like workflows and style guides can make folks' lives easier - by showing them how they fit into the process and clarifying their roles

how the very nature of a workflow can inspire reflection on how to improve it

the growing multidisciplinary nature of content work

how the convergence of content ops, design ops, research ops, and dev ops are creating a "fun challenge" for folks who work with content

Rob's Bio

Robert is Head of Content for GatherContent, the Content Operations Platform. He develops, implements, measures, and refines their content strategy and is editor in chief of the GatherContent blog. He is responsible for organizing, producing, and publishing all GatherContent’s educational webinars, books, and assets.

He’s a journalism graduate, ex-BBC audience researcher, and former studio and project manager.

Robert has written for leading web publications including UX Booth, Content Marketing Institute, Smashing Magazine, and WebTuts. He has spoken at events including Confab, ContentEd, LavaCon Conf, and Content Strategy Forum amongst others. You can find him on Twitter @RobertMills.

Video

Here’s the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/bbCW0YmAXXk

Podcast Intro Transcript

If you publish digital content at any scale, you are running a content operation.

Rob Mills thinks a lot about content operations. As Head of Content at GatherContent, which provides a content operations platform, he both manages and writes about content ops. So, yes, this episode gets a little meta at times :)

https://ellessmedia.com/csi/rob-mills/