Storymapping: A MacGyver Approach to Content Strategy, Part 3

What We Learned

The entire experience was full of learnings, both large and small, but in this article, our aim is to tell you about our most poignant takeaways and powerful insights that can, hopefully, help you in your work.

The first thing that we learned was that the EASE team actually got way more value out of the week than they or even we had expected. In fact, we got much more value out of the week than we had expected! Basically, we had hypothesized that the week would be successful, but we did’t fully foresee the impact that we’d have. We had assumed that, walking away from the week, the EASE team would have a better understanding of their content and how to go about prioritizing it, which, in fact, did happen. But going beyond that, the team actually learned to think about the content that they already had and that they needed in a different way. We observed them actually rethinking many of the program’s content decisions that were already in place and changing them based on their new understanding of their program’s narrative.

Because of the team’s having a better understanding of the program’s story, they started to rethink who their content partners are. One quote: “Wow, I never realized how much we rely on them for content! Why am I not having a lunch meeting with these folks next week?” This statement and others showcased the team’s newfound understanding and their willingness to work hard to meet their new goals.

Our second big takeaway was that the key to understanding the entire program started with the content. For many UX professionals, this would not be a new realization. We live and die by the idea that content is king. But, for our clients, this was a huge learning—and our seeing this in action reminded us, in a big way, of the reality that it’s hard for clients to focus on the content.

Eventually, the program team wanted to create a sort of digital presence for their content—whether an application or a Web site—and everyone wanted to go straight to designing that digital presence. (Who has’t been there before?) However, as many of us know, content must sometimes come first because, as in this case, there often is no product without the content.

To define what a digital product for the program could be, we first had to understand what the program’s story was and what content we needed to tell and support that story. Knowing this helps a team to define any digital product. And, although it was hard to focus the team on the content, by sticking to our guns and making sure that content was their focus, we set the program team up to create a killer product that supports their program and takes the users through the intended narrative.

The third main takeaway was our learning that it does’t have to take much to make a big impact. But it does take attention to detail in the moment. Yes, we know it’s a cliché at this point, but this takes knowing the arc of the story that you want to tell to your users. In this case, the EASE program leaders and staff were our users. So, to figure out what the content should include, we mapped it out as a story, as Figure 1 shows. Doing this let us see how the week would need to play out for us to reach our goals:

• creating a prioritized list of program goals
• establishing a baseline understanding of user needs and goals
• conducting a content audit
• creating a well-organized and prioritized list of content needs
• planning our next steps

Because we had mapped out our approach at such a high level, when in the moment, we were able to stay super focused on the details of what the client needed, what they were saying, and what the outcomes were. This focus let us move forward very quickly because we were’t expending time on tasks that did’t contribute to our goals.

The best part, perhaps, is that we were also able to ensure that our engagement was exciting and engaging for all participants—by definition, it should be, right?—addressed problems early on, got more interesting with each passing day, culminated in several aha! moments; and concluded with clear calls to action, solutions, and a roadmap. As we saw in action, the elements that create a good story also engender deep engagement, making all parties involved—especially us, the consultants—want to come back for more. We all want to see what happens next!

Moving Forward

Given all that we learned, our advice for trying the storymapping method—or anything like it—is simple: First and foremost, when attempting any short-term activity like this one, you need to stay focused. So you should start with a very well-defined plan that you’ve really thought through, but not adhere to it rigidly. Your plan should set the high-level milestones and goals, but also allow you to be flexible in the moment and shift paths slightly while still maintaining your focus.

Second, keep in mind that the grand UX process we all know and love—or one of the many subsets or offshoots of brand-name processes that pop up every year—is not set in stone. Our UX process is only a guide—a toolbox from which we can select the right tools, at the right time, for the right users or clients. By setting clear, overall goals and maintaining your focus, you should be able to choose the correct tools for whatever mission is at hand.

Third, do not work in a silo. For this method to be successful, you need to include the team whenever possible. And by the team, we do not just mean the executives and decision makers—although it is, of course, important to include these people as part of the team. But we are also talking about anyone who can contribute to the success of a project. On this project, the people who were working on or with the EASE program were able to come up with needs, goals, and features that it would have taken us months of research to discover. If we hand’t had so many team members with knowledge of the EASE program and its users’ needs in the room, we could not have succeeded.

Last, but certainly not least, map the story. Map the story of the project, of the product, of client relationships. Map anything whose direction is unclear. User experiences exist everywhere—not just for products, but for our clients and our projects. And there is no such thing as a user experience without a story. Just make sure that the story that an experience tells is a good one. The best way to do this is to use this simple process to map the story! You won’t be sorry that you took the time to do this.

In Conclusion

Thank you for traveling along with us on this MacGyver-style journey! We’ve enjoyed sharing our process, learnings, and thoughts with you. Hopefully, you’ll find this information useful in your own UX practice. If you have any thoughts, learnings, or new process points to add, we’re all ears!