Product Content Design at Scale

Kylie Hansen, of Microsoft, talks about taking product content big.

This is about how to design not only your product, but your team to scale (up). full-stack design requires collaborative problem solvers from diverse areas. Content designers are an essential part of success. We're all in this business to solve problems for users.

When you do scale, one of the biggest problems in keeping all of your content consistent across platforms. First, find your tribe. At scale, you need to be more efficient and intentional. You need a system--even if you're solo or siloed.

A "One Microsoft" design system. This gives teams of distributed content designers a shared vision and tools. 

Good writing is good design. At its best, good design feels like a conversation. Content design is about figuring things out and experiencing. Product designers need to start further upstream. Design is figuring out what a product does, which means no lorem ipsum.

Moving the needle involves, strategy, structure, and surface and includes empathy, craftsmanship, and user love.

Language is design material. Content is infrastructure. It's not a distraction, but the experience.

If you take the text out of the interface of any app, how confusing will it be. Text is more than a means of communicating messages. It is the interface itself. 

At Microsoft, they have data. Theory that content design improves satisfaction. Compared products with no product designer with products that do. They achieved +8 NPS points, 44% of task failures eliminated, and products were found to be 92% more usable. Also huge jumps in usage and satisfaction.

Quickest and most effective way to improve is to invest in professional product content.

We can solve the problems that only content designers can solve. Prioritize work that solves the larger good. Identify what you want to improve.

Then go do it.