{"id":183367,"date":"2022-06-20T14:22:56","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T14:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.rm.gfolkdev.net\/?p=183367"},"modified":"2022-09-26T13:46:11","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T13:46:11","slug":"excerpt-chapter-one-of-our-newest-title-from-solo-to-scaled-by-natalie-m-dunbar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/excerpt-chapter-one-of-our-newest-title-from-solo-to-scaled-by-natalie-m-dunbar\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt: Chapter One of our Newest Title, From Solo to Scaled by Natalie M. Dunbar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h3>\n

Chapter 1<\/h3>\n

The Content Strategy Practice Blueprint<\/h4>\n

I\u2019m fascinated by buildings: single family structures, high-rise dwellings, and especially office towers. As such, I\u2019ve always had a healthy curiosity about the construction process. For example, Figure 1.1 shows a Habitat for Humanity building that I worked on. From the initial breaking of ground to the completion of a building\u2019s fa\u00e7ade, I find comfort in both the art and order of construction\u2014how foundations support columns, columns support beams, and beams support floors. When the building plans are followed as written, every element comes together perfectly to create a strong structure that is capable of withstanding natural elements like wind and earthquakes.<\/p>\n

In my career as a content strategist, I\u2019ve heard colleagues speak about \u201cstanding up a team,\u201d or \u201cstanding up a practice.\u201d<\/em> There was familiarity in the concept of building a figurative structure that had a specific function or purpose. And, of course, that familiarity stemmed from my fascination with buildings, so the construction metaphor made sense to me.<\/p>\n

That metaphor also reminded me of one of my favorite books, Why Buildings Stand Up<\/em>, by Mario Salvadori. Before writing and content strategy became my full-time job, I worked in various roles in residential and commercial real estate. All of those roles exposed me to various phases of building construction and tenant improvements, and reading Salvadori\u2019s book helped me understand construction and architecture in an engaging way.<\/p>\n

The familiarity I felt when hearing the phrase \u201cstand up a practice\u201d in the digital experience world often stopped short of the idea<\/em> of the building metaphor. For example, practices were \u201cstood up\u201d with no attention to order. Foundations were poured before soil tests were completed, often resulting in skipping the addition of the footings that might be needed to support the foundation, or in the case of the practice, doing the work to ensure that the practice followed the necessary processes to create digital experiences that met the needs of users as well as the goal of the client or business. And inevitably<\/em>, the structure\u2014or the practice\u2014began to crumble.<\/p>\n

And sometimes those practices failed completely.<\/p>\n

From the Ground Up<\/h4>\n

Having had the opportunity to build an agency-based content strategy practice from the ground up, and later expanding and maintaining an existing practice within a mid-to-large sized organization, I began to see that failures often happened because steps crucial to supporting the structure had been skipped. Or perhaps the structure had been compromised because the framework used to build it\u2014if one was used at all\u2014couldn\u2019t withstand the constant stress of tension and compression.<\/p>\n

When I started to think about what caused these seemingly strong practices to crumble\u2014I returned to the building and construction metaphor to look for possible answers. That\u2019s because it\u2019s sometimes easier to, er, construct a mental model that\u2019s more tangible than the nebulousness nature of digital information spaces.<\/p>\n

If the building metaphor still feels a bit weird to you, then try this: think of the last time someone asked what you did for a living. If you\u2019re a UX practitioner, or if you collaborate with members of a UX team, you\u2019ve likely experienced the feeling of the listener\u2019s eyes glazing over as you tried to explain the concept of user experience\u2014or as I once saw it described, \u201cmaking websites and apps stink less.\u201d Then think of what might happen if you described the user experience using a more relatable metaphor, such as one of the following:<\/p>\n