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Playing a product design role as a content designer -- podcast with Jonathon Colman

by Tom Johnson on Aug 24, 2020
categories: technical-writing • podcasts • writing

In this podcast, I chat with Jonathon Colman about an innovative work model they implemented at Intercom with content designers. In their experimental model, content designers were allocated to one project only, and they expanded their roles to include not only content design but product design as well. These content/product designers engaged on a deeper level to help products succeed.

Background

In my series Reflecting seven years later about why we were laid off, specifically in Part IV: Engaging deep enough to blur the lines between content and product design, I explored a model promoted by content designer Jonathon Colman in which content designers are allocated to one project only. Because of their more specialized focus, these writers play roles that blur the lines between content design and product design.

Jonathon gave a presentation on this topic — titled How we destroyed content design — at the Design & Content Conference 2020 conference. I wanted to interview Jonathon to find out more details and insights about this topic, so I reached out to him for this podcast interview. The podcast is available as both a video and audio recording.

Video

Audio

If you prefer audio only, you can listen here:

Listen here:

Podcast topics

Here are some topics we chat about:

  • High-level summary of his presentation, How we destroyed content design
  • The impetus behind the switch to this new model (includes a story with a Shazam-like app from Facebook)
  • Feeling commitment to a product’s success even you aren’t the product owner/manager/designer
  • When and how to disagree and commit on a product’s features when you don’t necessarily buy into the point or purpose of a feature
  • Re-allocating content designers to one project only
  • Deciding how to focus resources and say no to projects that aren’t a strategic priority (and which might not need content design resources)
  • Expanding the role of content designers to include product-design roles, and what exactly that includes
  • Career trajectories and growth patterns, not only for content designers but also technical writers

Resources

About Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.

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