I have worked with clients both as an independent, remote expansion for a team and as an embedded member of a project team. Whatever the needs of the client, I can contribute and provide insights into each step of the process.

Research & Discovery

At the beginning of a new project, I review any background materials associated with it, including product requirements or business initiatives, as well as user research, analytics, existing technical infrastructure and tools/systems, and most importantly, the content. I also use this time to interview key stakeholders to gain insights into all aspects of the project.

Design & Development

Working with cross-functional teams, I begin to design artifacts that reflect the problem at hand. This can include brainstorming sketches or opening up a spreadsheet to start structuring terms. In some cases, the development of navigation or categories can happen directly in a content management system (CMS). This phase can also include building requirements for the CMS or search solution.

Testing & Migration

During the testing and migration of content, I stay as involved as necessary to ensure the content mapped to the new system is migrated successfully. I also provide QA assistance to make sure content metadata is populated properly.

Training

I offer workshops or training sessions to help onboard team members who may not have been part of the design and development phase. This can include how to tag content, how to apply metadata, or how to understand basic information architecture practices.

Maintenance

While this can be the most difficult part of a product’s lifecycle, learning from what you build is essential for upkeep. I provide tools and guidelines to help support the maintenance of a solution. This may include recommendations for measurement plans to inform improvements to the solution, editorial and schema design guidelines, and governance guidelines for both decision-making and a change management process. I also offer hand-off plans for areas that were considered out of scope.