The Content Strategy Podcast

Kristina Halvorson chats to Sara Wachter-Boettcher about the challenges content professionals face in the workplace. They discuss the need for validation, the importance of setting goals within your control and explain the window of tolerance. Sara also introduces a new workshop series, the Manager's Playbook, which focuses on improving relationships and communication in the workplace.

Kristina Halvorson interviews Rob MacFie and Nikki Godley from Wise about their work in scaling content and design across the organization. They cover the challenges of rapid growth and the need to create a clear mission and principles for the team. Rob and Nikki explain the process of developing a career map and discuss the importance of creating pay parity across disciplines. The chat reveals how storytelling has played a role in communicating impact and creating influence to build a user-centred culture. It’s jam packed with advice and examples.

Kristina Halvorson interviews Trisha Causley and Maria Hofstetter, both content designers at Shopify. They discuss the role of large language models (LLMs) in AI, the importance of prompts and instructions in guiding LLMs, and the potential career paths for content designers in the AI field. There’s practical advice and examples, bringing clarity and valuable discussion to an ever important topic for those working in content and UX.

In this episode, Kristina Halvorson interviews Jeff Eaton, a partner at Autogram. They share the challenges organizations face in content production and management and discuss the importance of observability in assessing content quality and effectiveness. The conversation leads to the key roles needed in content strategy and to the importance of starting with small pilot projects to gather data and build confidence before implementing large-scale changes. Plus, Kristina and Jeff find time to chat about the role of storytelling in strategy and the need to articulate a theory of change.

Kristina Halvorson interviews Erica Jorgensen, a content designer and author of the book "Strategic Content Design: Tools and Research Techniques for Better UX." They discuss the role of content designers in organizations and the need to demonstrate the value of content. Erica emphasizes the need to use data and analytics to measure the impact of content work and provides insights and advice on documenting content patterns, collaborating with stakeholders, and leveraging data to drive business impact. She also shares her thoughts on the future of content strategy and the importance of content designers taking on leadership roles within organizations.

Kristina Halvorson and Meghan Casey, two of the field’s most experienced practitioners, interview each other for the Content Strategy Podcast. They discuss the importance of collaboration and fostering curiosity, effective listening and common points of friction within an organization. The chat also covers the challenges of working with non-content leaders, the current state of the content strategy field and advice and insights to help leaders evolve their content process maturity.

Kaysie Garza, Content Design Lead at Hotjar, discusses the role of content design within the organization and its collaboration with other teams. Kaysie delves into communicating research effectively, a collaborative approach to naming and offers advice for hiring content designers. The conversation delves into the structure of user experiences at Hotjar, with a focus on enterprise level customer journeys and the evolving nature of these journeys based on strategic research.

Mark McCormick, a retired content strategy and customer experience leader. He joins Kristina on the Content Strategy Podcast where they discuss the importance of content strategy and its evolution over the years. Mark shares his insights on the roles and processes of content strategists and emphasizes the need for content strategists to see themselves as leaders. They also cover the white paper Mark wrote on content strategy and its major sections, as well as discussing content as a strategic asset and advantage and enterprise content strategy.

Morgan Marie Quinn is a Content Design leader at Google where she oversees content teams across Bard and Google Assistant. Morgan joins Kristina to talk about all things large language models (LLMs) and generative AI. From defining LLMs, accuracy, vulnerabilities and governance, this episode has it all direct from someone at the forefront of this new era for content design.

Keri Maijala has been in the user experience space for more than 20 years. Currently leading a content design team at LinkedIn, Keri has a wealth of knowledge and experience which she shares in her chat with Kristina. No topic was off limits as they chatted about content skill sets and roles, the evolution of content and UX terminology, the invisible work of content design and connecting the dots between business goals and content design.

Aladrian Goods leads the content design team at Intuit. Aladrian has lots of experience and advice for aligning content with other disciplines, connecting the dots between teams and getting people to experience the value of content design. As if that’s not enough reason to listen in, Aladrian also has plenty to share about the role of content in generative AI and how the field of content design is evolving. A must listen? You bet.

Chris Baty joined Figma as their first ever UX writer. Now he is the Head of UX Writing, leading a team at the intersection of content, UX and product design. Chris talks to Kristina about growing the UX writing team at Figma, the business value of UX writing and using data to inform your work and decisions. He also accidentally founded National Novel Writing Month, which you likely know as NaNoWriMo and used to work at Dropbox. All of these experiences are connected and discussed in the latest episode of the Content Strategy Podcast.

Peter Merholz works with organizations of all sizes across different sectors. He sees first hand how they are unique and where they are similar when it comes to design, content and UX. Peter joins Kristina to discuss the intersection of these disciplines, their maturity and how they are perceived by leadership.

Kara DeFrias has written for Vice Presidents, was part of the California Covid Task Force for the first 100 days of the pandemic and has worked on the Super Bowl, Oscars and Emmys. And that’s not the full list of accomplishments and career milestones. With so much experience, it was inevitable Kristina would invite Kara to the podcast. Plus they first became connected in quite extraordinary circumstances that forged a friendship of mutual respect and a shared love of Broadway.

Katherine Karaus knows what it takes to find your ideal job in content and UX and to know your own worth. Katherine shares lots of practical advice with Kristina Halvorson about competitive differentiation when job hunting, building and maintaining a strong personal brand and content and UX portfolios. They also cover salary negotiation, cover letters and elevator pitches. It’s jam packed with tips to help you and your career.

Ann Rockley is known as the “mother” of content strategy. She has an international reputation for establishing the field in content strategy. In her chat with Kristina, Ann shared some of her experience and advice from decades of experience in content including creating a methodology for content, ways of effectively communicating with people, content modeling, measuring content and so much more.

Are Halland is the inventor of the core model, a framework for working together to create better content for digital products and services. In this episode, Are shares the origins of the core model and describes the components of the model in detail, along with how it can be used. Along the way, Are and Kristina chat about getting alignment across an organization, how to stop jumping to solutions first and bringing research into content conversations and decision-making.

Noz Urbina has decades of experience in content. He’s especially interested in omnichannel strategies and how the sum of the parts work together to support the user's journey. In his conversation with Kristina Halvorson, Noz covers personalization, delivering effective customer experiences, customer journey mapping, content in the pharma sector and some quick but thought-provoking opinions on content, AI and the Metaverse.

Joanne Ward believes a good content experience is critical to the customer experience. In her chat with Kristina, Jo talks about leading content strategy at scale as part of Salesforce’s evolving content practice. They cover collaborating with other disciplines, advocacy, and the importance of technical writing. Across the entire conversation, there’s a focus on creating task focused and user centered content.

Corey Vilhauer shares with Kristina Halvorson how he moved from being a marketing and ad copywriter into content strategy and leadership. They pack plenty of topics into the chat including how to communicate with clients, driving meaningful conversations about content and aligning around a shared language and understanding. They also reveal their passion projects.