Content Strategy
Created frameworks for how content is crafted, structured and implemented for six brands, streamlining work flows and redefining the contours of the role
Product Build
Collaborated with designers on new products and brand refreshes while managing content strategy and implementation process with cross-functional team leads
AI-Driven Guideline Hub
Built out practical guidelines for content strategists, writers and designers, aligned with a new design systems and integrated into a net-new WIP AI workflow
Team Leadership
Cover for the Associate Director of Content Strategy on request while she was out on maternity leave, stepping in to run the team and report directly to the department head
Telecommunications | 2025 - present
Verizon Value Brands are a portfolio of pre-paid, contract-free telecomm plans that run primarily on the Verizon network. Each offers typical wireless features like talk, text and data on a pay-as-you-go basis. Many offer additional services, like home internet, financing options and device protection plans. Since these brands also feature products through third-party partnerships (Disney, Walmart, Western Union, ID.me, AARP and others), efficient coordination across internal and external teams is vital to hitting target launch dates.
With the acquisition of 6 new brands in a short amount of time, and ongoing team restructuring, my job was initially presented as "bring order to chaos."
Within my first few months, I led a process that delivered:
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AI-driven Content Hub for Verizon Value brands to serve multiple teams through:
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Easily searchable content (using Google Gemini) that addresses content formatting, process, personnel, ongoing project assignments and more)
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Comprehensive, single-source-of-truth information to consolidate an unruly and sprawling collection of multiple guidelines that were confusing processes and reducing the quality and consistency of content for our brands
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Digital Writing Guidelines that would primarily serve our content team and secondarily serve designers, encompassing:
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Brand-agnostic UX Writing Best Practices
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Brand-agnostic Glossary of Terms
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Brand-specific Voice Application guidance
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Brand-specific Formatting guidance
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Component-level content guidance within a new design system
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Best practices rooted in the "why" of the use case
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Rules for formatting and punctuation
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Guidance on syntax
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Limits for character count
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...more
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These would go on to become sources for AI-driven work processes and a wider network of CX guidelines. This also helped break down silos and build bridges among designers, writers, business owners, brand marketing leads and off-shore developers who implement the work.
Personal pillars for this client
Increase stability by offering stability
Establishing trust and leadership to provide necessary frameworks for roles and process
In processes where the ground keeps moving, stability is hard to find. Being stable becomes the solution. I built relationships (and trust) with business owners, designers, writers, experience managers, off-shore developers and marketing leads. Everyone had visibility into the content process and that their needs were heard and addressed. With every project, I grew my approach to "show" more than tell folks what Content Strategy brings to the table. I did this through: - first-ever content strategy deliverables for Verizon Value to outline content needs, standards and cross-functional implementation roadmaps - expectations and ways of working that illustrate the distinctions between a Content Strategist and a UX Writer in the context of Verizon Value's unique challenges - project-focused Slack channels dedicated to content only for that particular product launch or phase This ensured all team leads were kept aware not only of content progress, but the complexities of content needs and timing (legal review, translation, testing and accommodation of functionality limitations). Ultimately, this helps everyone (including the customers who rely on good content to interact positively with our products and remain loyal to our business!). Simultaneous brand refreshes and new product launches were happening at any given moment -- some were complete top-to-bottom redesigns, while others focused on refreshing the value proposition. Just about everything needed guidance -- from content and design collaboration, to bridge-building with business and marketing, to brand playbook consolidation to the application of research, analysis and user testing. I embraced the macro and micro daily, diving in and taking initiative to build rapport and boost morale in vanquishing obstacles to our success.
Make it easier to make great work
Using AI to codify practices and deliver consistent brand experiences
I've built quite a few best-practice guidelines -- 13+ and counting -- ranging from brand voice to UX writing guidance. Verizon Value brands needed both to help codify as much as possible across all 6 brands, elevate the value proposition of each in distinct ways, express each brand's persona within the context of both and scale best practices for multiple channels There was a lot of content to be cleaned up (an ongoing WIP), and that clean-up started with simple guidance -- leaning out copy and ensuring we use the same, user-friendly terms across our experiences as much as possible.
Embrace building an airplane mid-flight
Leveraging resources for maximum efficiency within simultaneous product launches
There are unique challenges in building complex, tightly regulated products with fast turnarounds. The process itself must be highly responsive ("agile" doesn't quite cover it). Development can dictate scope and build changes, content can adjust to accommodate, business owners can push back and everyone can meet in the middle to come up with the right solution for the moment. Most of these user flows entail just a handful of actions, but hundreds of contingencies that include: - autopay enrollment - payment methods and payment app integrations - discounts that do and do not stack - add-on services that may or may not "play well" together - insurance and finance product partnering - taxes and fees that may or may not apply to all products - regulatory fees that may or may not apply to all states - FCC broadband requirements - up-to-date, iterative disclosures - back-end capabilities that vary based on launch phases - decision trees that impact products within products - rules and requirements for different plans on different networks - device-driven activation processes - simultaneous work streams that can render content obsolete within a year's time - cross-channel content strategies that must align web with chatbots, customer care, SMS messaging, marketing rollouts and more This doesn't call for heroism -- it calls for partnership, perspective and flexibility within fast-paced environments.