Processes, Workflows & Documentation
Sample projects
Style guides
While I do have a good memory, it's implausible to retain everything—every client preference, every editorial idiosyncrasy, every choice made internally that we don't want to have to make again in the future—without documenting it. Furthermore, I don't think job security comes from having a lot of institutional knowledge locked in my head, and I do think my coworkers should be empowered to easily find information (even though they still often just ask me, and I am happy to oblige them with a quick answer).
I should have expected this, given that my senior capstone project in college involved comparing key AP and Chicago style guidelines, but it still always surprises me how often I find myself creating and maintaining editorial style guides for projects and accounts that don't have one and clearly need it.
Agency workflow
Soon after I started my last job, I caught wind that there was a consultant who'd been brought in to assess the company's creative team workflows. It was a response to an increased number of errors happening in a different account than mine, an issue that jeopardized the client relationship. When I expressed an interest in the initiative, my manager sent the consultant on his way and set me loose.
I interviewed everyone in the agency; drafted workflow diagrams that went through several rounds of reviews and iterations; broke out the workflow into a defined basic set of responsibilities for every role; and, most time-consuming and challenging of all, managed to make "the workflow"—a flexible, technology- and project-agnostic set of steps with certain nonnegotiable checkpoints—more than just a document. I trained all existing and incoming employees, including contractors, in the workflow, and it paid dividends: error-free work, happy clients, well-equipped employees.
How-to documentation
Partially because I want my coworkers to feel empowered and partially to make my own work life easier (i.e., reduce my need to clean up challenging messes), I document stuff, and I try to do it well. No single effort felt worthy of spotlighting on its own in this space, so here are a few:
A guide, in narrative, slide deck, and video formats, to writing alt text for websites and digital documents.
A QA checklist so everyone performing the "QA" role is paying attention to consistent things.
Clear and consistent folder and file naming conventions (I don't believe in _final-2-edited-reallyfinal-forrealthistime.doc).
Agreed-upon best practices and norms for using our agency project coordination software (especially good for new hires!).
Pages from one account's style guide.
From back to front: Excerpt of general tasks per stage by role, excerpt of workflow stage detail, the one-page workflow diagram.
From back to front, excerpts from: guide to alt text, a QA checklist, a file naming document, a software guide.