How to transition to content design when your org needs it but doesn’t know it exists?
Hi! I’m a UX writer with about four years of working experience, two in my current organization. Leadership is about to have a strategy workshop where they will discuss how best to grow the teams, and what roles to hire for in the next year.
Right now, my work is a bit of a mix. I work with three different product teams, and some of them include me early so I can help shape the content when we add new features, while others only loop me in at the end, at which point I end up in that frustrating place where you’re reviewing strings that don’t really mark sense because the setup is bad - and sometimes there’s time to rework the design, but sometimes there isn’t.
I’ve been trying to get a handle on what content design is and what the work is like. I went to a content design conference last year, and UXCC’s systems thinking for content design workshop this year. I’m starting to grasp what content design is about, and I really want to move in that direction because I can see how it would really improve our product. But since I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing and don’t have a mentor in this field (my direct manager is great and supportive, but she’s more of a content manager focusing on blog/did legacy product writing when she was the only writer), I’m wondering how I can make the case for content design and my transitioning into content design, so it can be on their radar while they plan.
I know they still need a writer, but it would help me to have a role that would sit closer to UXR and be included from the start, rather than the end. The product team whose work is most content-heavy is the one where one frantic product designer is trying to do everything and then asks me to review Claude-copy at the end, and I’m like…… this is wrong.
I know this post is a bit all over the place (I swear I’m more concise in my work 🙈), so I guess I’m looking for advice, experiences, and thoughts on transitioning into content design when it’s a bit of an unknown.