Content designer

You can:

• demonstrate experience of working in Agile teams, including an awareness of Agile tools and how to use them
• advise colleagues on how and why Agile methods are used and provide a clear, open and transparent framework in which teams can deliver
• adapt and reflect and be responsive to feedback
• see outside of the process

You can:

• show an awareness of prototyping and explain why and when to use it
• understand how to work in an open and collaborative environment (by pair working, for example)

You can:

• understand who your stakeholders are, what evidence is relevant to them and the importance of managing relationships with them

You can:

• show an awareness of the strategic context of your work and understand why it is important
• support strategic planning in an administrative capacity

You can:

• show an awareness or understanding of user experience analysis and its principles
• see the purpose of user stories and focus on user needs

You can:

• demonstrate basic but decent editorial standards
• show an awareness of style standards
• work well under supervision

You can:

• demonstrate experience of working in Agile teams, including an awareness of Agile tools and how to use them
• advise colleagues on how and why Agile methods are used and provide a clear, open and transparent framework in which teams can deliver
• adapt and reflect and be responsive to feedback
• see outside of the process

You can:

• show an awareness of the different types of prototypes, from paper sketches to coded prototypes, and you can understand when to use them

You can:

• understand who your stakeholders are, and can work to understand their needs
• understand the importance of managing relationships with your stakeholders

You can:

• support the creation and development of strategies and policies
• contribute to iterating and improving processes and guidelines
• understand how activities meet strategic goals

You can:

• show an awareness of user experience analytics and principles
• understand the purpose of user stories and focus on user-centred design more widely

You can:

• demonstrate some experience in writing and editing digital content, and of using content management systems to publish content
• understand the importance of content standards and style guidelines and can apply these to your work
• understand the importance of using data and evidence to make content decisions, and you know the right questions to ask to use data to shape and iterate content
• work well under supervision

You can:

• understand and demonstrate awareness of Agile methodology, and can apply an Agile mindset to your work
• work in a fast-paced, evolving environment and use an iterative and flexible approach to enable rapid delivery
• appreciate the importance of Agile project delivery to digital projects in government
• be unafraid to take risks and willing to learn from mistakes
• ensure the team has a situational awareness of one other’s work and how it relates to objectives and user needs
• use a range of tools and platforms to plan and manage your work

You can:

• understand different prototyping techniques, from paper sketches to coded prototypes, and can use them to visualise content in context
• choose the best option to make content understandable to different audiences and to demonstrate a proposed approach to content changes or improvements
• show the value of prototyping to the team

You can:

• identify important stakeholders and communicate with them clearly and regularly
• tailor communication to stakeholders' needs and work with them to build relationships, while also meeting user needs
• build and reach consensus
• work to improve stakeholder relationships, using evidence to explain decisions made

You can:

• contribute to content strategies and policies
• create content patterns or standards
• provide support for content improvement projects
• effectively focus on outcomes rather than solutions and activities

You can:

• identify tasks that will provide insights into a problem
• formulate hypotheses, gain insights from data and user research and make decisions on findings
• understand the range of different users who might access content and services, and can identify their needs based on evidence
• translate user stories into content that meets users’ needs, and propose suitable design approaches
• use quantitative and qualitative data about users to turn user insights into outcomes

You can:

• design content to meet user needs and make complex language and processes easy to understand
• present the right information in the right format for what users need
• show robust experience in writing, editing and publishing digital content, and experience in using content management systems and content production processes to publish content
• write in plain language in a way that users understand, making information accessible to all
• understand government accessibility requirements and design content that works with common assistive technologies
• use data, research and evidence to review and evaluate content to make improvements
• consistently and effectively apply content standards and style guidelines to your work
• work to continuously improve content, and understand why content life cycle management is important
• work autonomously

You can:

• understand the role of content in multidisciplinary teams and can articulate and advocate it
• work collaboratively with colleagues from other disciplines in multidisciplinary teams
• identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, and can measure and evaluate them, helping the team to decide the best approach
• help teams manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work, define scope and agree a minimum viable product (MVP)

You can:

• build and create a variety of different prototypes, from paper sketches to coded prototypes
• choose the most appropriate option to visualise content in context for different audiences
• effectively combine prototypes with other content and design outputs to test with users and show to stakeholders
• establish content patterns, and test and iterate them

You can:

• negotiate with and influence stakeholders, and manage relationships effectively
• influence decisions, deal with challenging situations and remove blockers
• build long-term strategic relationships and communicate clearly and regularly with stakeholders, supporting mutual needs and commitments while focusing on user needs

You can:

• help lead the design and implementation of strategies, evaluating their impact and progress to ensure business objectives and the needs of users are being met
• lead and direct strategic content improvement projects, focusing effort in the areas of greatest priority and ensuring goals and objectives are met

You can:

• collaborate with user researchers and performance analysts to advocate effectively for users
• understand the different types of user research, evidence and data and how they’re used at different stages of product development (alpha, beta, live)
• formulate hypotheses, gain insights from research and make decisions based on findings, clearly explaining how decisions have been made
• evaluate quantitative and qualitative data and can prioritise and define approaches to best understand users
• champion user research to focus on all users
• put accessibility requirements at the heart of approaches to designing content, and encourage others to do the same
• guide others and make recommendations on the best tools and methods to use

You can:

• show a deep understanding of end-to-end journeys and how content is affected within these journeys
• identify where journey fixes or content improvements need to be made
• take responsibility for assuring the quality of content from more junior colleagues, and coaching and guiding them to improve
• ensure that content is regularly reviewed and evaluated, contributing to continuous improvements and iteration
• encourage a continuous improvement mindset in teams and more junior content colleagues
• deliver through others, and direct and critique their work

You can:

• coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean practices, determining the right approach for the team or the project
• evaluate and review the approach through the life of a project and can iterate and pivot accordingly
• think of new and innovative ways of working to achieve the right outcomes
• act as a recognised expert and advocate the approaches proposed, continuously reflecting on the work of the team and constructively challenging them to improve processes and delivery
• regularly assess and review capability within teams and ensure individuals have the skills needed to deliver

You can:

• explain and demonstrate the value of different prototyping techniques to teams, and encourage them to use these techniques in their work
• guide teams to build and create the most appropriate ways to visualise their work in context for different audiences
• direct the team in the creation, testing and iteration of content patterns

You can:

• manage long-term strategic relationships with stakeholders, identifying where new connections need to be made and existing ones nurtured
• direct the strategic approach for stakeholder relationships, establishing stakeholder objectives and ensuring these are clearly represented
• act as a point of escalation if stakeholder relationships break down or become challenging for more junior members of the team
• influence important senior stakeholders and arbitrate when blockers are escalated
• facilitate discussions across high risk and complex areas or projects under constrained timelines

You can:

• lead, design and implement strategies and policies in line with wider business and government objectives, without losing sight of user needs
• evaluate the implementation and rollout of strategies to ensure objectives are met
• take ownership of team and programme strategies and ensure they are iterated in line with business needs and objectives

You can:

• give direction on which tools or methods are best for teams to use
• demonstrate extensive experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels
• understand complex user journeys and can direct solutions to meet different needs within these journeys
• bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure these are still relevant and being met
• apply strategic thinking in how to provide the best service for the user while also considering business needs and the wider cross-government context

You can:

• direct the approach to content life cycle management to ensure content is regularly reviewed and evaluated by teams
• oversee teams’ work to ensure the right content is being produced to meet the needs of users
• demonstrate extensive experience in creating, iterating, managing and overseeing content across multiple channels
• encourage teams to review and evaluate the effectiveness of processes and systems, and support them to iterate for improvements
• be accountable for the production of high quality, user-focused content
• identify gaps in content design skills and capability, and can help teams to grow and develop

You can:

• coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean practices, determining the right approach for the team to take and evaluating this through the life of a project
• think of new and innovative ways of working to achieve the right outcomes
• act as a recognised expert and advocate for the approaches, continuously reflecting and challenging the team

You can:

• show an awareness of prototyping and explain why and when to use it
• understand how to work in an open and collaborative environment (by pair working, for example)

You can:

• direct the strategic approach for stakeholder relationships, establishing and promoting the meeting of stakeholder objectives
• influence important senior stakeholders and provide an arbitration function

You can:

• lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met

You can:

• give direction on which tools or methods to use
• demonstrate experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels
• bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure they are met by the business
• apply strategic thinking in how to provide the best service for the end user

You can:

• demonstrate experience in creating and iterating content across multiple channels
• be accountable for content decisions
• train and guide your team

User-centred content design

User-centred content design