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Kate Saul & Andre Francisco: The 18F Content Guide – Episode 32
Kate Saul
Kate Saul and Andre Francisco work at 18F, an internal government agency that helps other federal agencies improve their digital services, including web content.
Soon after the agency's founding they discovered that they would benefit from having a reference guide - the 18F Content Guide - for both their organization and their clients.
Andre Francisco
We talked about:
Andre and Kate's backgrounds
the origins in 2015 of the 18F Content Guide - driven by their need for a standardized resource for their team
how their content guide serves as a "ready-to-go" resource for their clients, as a template for their clients' guides
how clients adapt and customize the manual for their needs
the content guide's adoption beyond federal government websites
the composition of their team at 18F, and the group of them who created the content guide
the "Content Guild," an internal working group that offers content guidance to the rest of the organization and maintains the guide
how frequently they update the guide (approx. monthly)
the organizational structure of 18F and how it fits in the GSA
how well-followed their content guide is (pretty well)
the benefits of their "co-design" process, involving collaborators of all kinds from day one in all parts of their process
gets buy-in
streamlines and accelerates their process
how there is no "typical" project in their portfolio
how scope change from project to project while principles remain the same
their belief that "involving content from the start is a really great way to go"
how they work with stakeholders to organically uncover the right solution
the role of research throughout their content strategy process
highlighter testing, for example, having users highlight paper print-outs of content to let readers show how clear they find the content
how their focus on cross-functionality and drawing together folks coming from different backgrounds creates an awesome team
about 18F's huge number of open-source resources, including:
more than 1,000 repositories at GitHub
their collection of technical guides
Kate's Bio
Kate Garklavs Saul is a content team lead at 18F, where she helps federal agencies with strategic planning and crafting impactful, user-centered content. She has worked on my.uscis.gov, standards.usa.gov, usaspending.gov, and more.
A longtime lover of language, Kate earned her MFA in fiction writing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and had her first chapbook ("Diffusely Yours") published in August 2018. Before joining 18F, she led editorial and education strategy at Scripted.com, and also designed online fine arts coursework. Find her on Twitter as @ueberkatester.
Andre's Bio
Andre Francisco is the Acting Director of Outreach at 18F, helping the federal consulting office better communicate with other federal agencies. A graduate of Northwestern University, he’s previously worked at a government reform non-profit and as an English teacher.
Video
Here's the video version of our conversation:
https://youtu.be/uuJnYkJyBJ0
Transcript
Larry:
Hi everyone. Welcome to Episode number 32 of the Content Strategy Interviews Podcast. I'm really happy today to have with us Andre Franciso and Kate Saul. Andre is the head of outreach at 18F. It's a digital... I'll let them describe it. I understand 18F to be sort of like a digital services company within the Government Services Administration and the US Government. And his college, Kate, Kate Saul, is a content strategist there. And I what I want to talk to them about today is the content gu...
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By Larry Swanson
4.9
2222 ratings
Kate Saul
Kate Saul and Andre Francisco work at 18F, an internal government agency that helps other federal agencies improve their digital services, including web content.
Soon after the agency's founding they discovered that they would benefit from having a reference guide - the 18F Content Guide - for both their organization and their clients.
Andre Francisco
We talked about:
Andre and Kate's backgrounds
the origins in 2015 of the 18F Content Guide - driven by their need for a standardized resource for their team
how their content guide serves as a "ready-to-go" resource for their clients, as a template for their clients' guides
how clients adapt and customize the manual for their needs
the content guide's adoption beyond federal government websites
the composition of their team at 18F, and the group of them who created the content guide
the "Content Guild," an internal working group that offers content guidance to the rest of the organization and maintains the guide
how frequently they update the guide (approx. monthly)
the organizational structure of 18F and how it fits in the GSA
how well-followed their content guide is (pretty well)
the benefits of their "co-design" process, involving collaborators of all kinds from day one in all parts of their process
gets buy-in
streamlines and accelerates their process
how there is no "typical" project in their portfolio
how scope change from project to project while principles remain the same
their belief that "involving content from the start is a really great way to go"
how they work with stakeholders to organically uncover the right solution
the role of research throughout their content strategy process
highlighter testing, for example, having users highlight paper print-outs of content to let readers show how clear they find the content
how their focus on cross-functionality and drawing together folks coming from different backgrounds creates an awesome team
about 18F's huge number of open-source resources, including:
more than 1,000 repositories at GitHub
their collection of technical guides
Kate's Bio
Kate Garklavs Saul is a content team lead at 18F, where she helps federal agencies with strategic planning and crafting impactful, user-centered content. She has worked on my.uscis.gov, standards.usa.gov, usaspending.gov, and more.
A longtime lover of language, Kate earned her MFA in fiction writing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and had her first chapbook ("Diffusely Yours") published in August 2018. Before joining 18F, she led editorial and education strategy at Scripted.com, and also designed online fine arts coursework. Find her on Twitter as @ueberkatester.
Andre's Bio
Andre Francisco is the Acting Director of Outreach at 18F, helping the federal consulting office better communicate with other federal agencies. A graduate of Northwestern University, he’s previously worked at a government reform non-profit and as an English teacher.
Video
Here's the video version of our conversation:
https://youtu.be/uuJnYkJyBJ0
Transcript
Larry:
Hi everyone. Welcome to Episode number 32 of the Content Strategy Interviews Podcast. I'm really happy today to have with us Andre Franciso and Kate Saul. Andre is the head of outreach at 18F. It's a digital... I'll let them describe it. I understand 18F to be sort of like a digital services company within the Government Services Administration and the US Government. And his college, Kate, Kate Saul, is a content strategist there. And I what I want to talk to them about today is the content gu...