Prioritisation is an essential content strategy skill
Prioritisation and decision-making are two of the most important elements of my work. At both a macro and micro level content strategy is about deciding what is important and starting work based on those decisions.
While this might sound simplistic, these two skills are challenging. The good news is mastery of them brings enormous rewards.
Fundamentally, prioritisation and decision-making are very powerful antidotes to inertia. Inertia, the spinning of wheels, is a challenge that many content teams face.
At a macro level, this involves understanding business objectives and customer needs really well - with the intent of developing a plan of action that brings about favourable change.
At a micro level, a decision matrix to help people focus on their most valuable audiences and messages is super helpful.
Why is prioritising and decision-making hard?
Decision-making is hard. You only have to take a look at your personal life to figure that out. What hotel will you stay at while on holiday, will you take that new job, is it time to move?
Why is it so hard? It’s complicated, but often because we fear the consequences of a bad decision. The higher the stakes and the greater the moving parts, the less comfortable we are with prioritising and acting.
Getting better at prioritising and decision-making
One way to manage decision aversion is to think about a decision as an experiment and a commitment to movement rather than a commitment to a particular outcome.
Another way is to be honest with yourself and your colleagues about the likelihood of error. Clearly state what you are trying to do and why, and be open to flexibility and collaboration.
Thirdly, make sure you build in contingency to take the pressure off. If you make a decision and realise it was the wrong one, set yourself up so that you can make another one without too much cost.
Going back to the personal examples. When choosing a hotel, find somewhere with flexible cancellation or just book a hotel for half your trip so you can choose another one locally when you get there.
Prioritisation criteria
In content strategy, use the following elements to help you prioritise.
Aligned with business objectives
Your corporate plan (or equivalent) will outline what your business thinks is most important. Your job as a content strategist is to align those goals with content initiatives ranked by effectiveness and impact.
Impact on customers (outcomes)
Your UX and research team know what your users are trying to achieve and why. Again, your job as a content strategist is to align those goals with content initiatives ranked by effectiveness and impact.
Dependencies
What other initiatives are underway that will affect what needs to be done first or get the most attention?
Time and resources to complete
How can you balance the length of a content initiative and the skills and resources required to achieve it?
Seniority of person who needs task completed
You may not like it, but certain voices have more sway than others. Be ready to factor that in.
So if you don’t feel like prioritisation and decision-making are comfortable skills - now is the time to get practising :)
