Strategic Writing for UX, 2nd Edition

Chapter 9 A 30/60/90-Day Plan

[ 9 ]

A 30/60/90-Day Plan

Nobody plans to fail. They just fail to plan.

—Unknown, attributed to many

In this chapter, I distill and explain the plan I used as the first content design employee in multiple teams, of multiple sizes (from 20 to 400 people), at three different companies (Microsoft, OfferUp, and Google). Each time, I joined the team with some idea of the opportunity and a glimmer of the problems I would face, gleaned from the conversations in my interview. Each time, the team brought me in because they realized they 1) had a problem with words and 2) knew that they couldn’t fix it without extra help.

The actual number of days is an estimate, not a rule, but they have been pretty accurate for me. Most usefully, the 30/60/90 structure creates three phases in which ramp-up work can be done thoroughly but quickly—and definitely not perfectly. This method helps me to create a basis for collaboration and iteration from which I can not only do the content design work that benefits people using the experience, but also make broad impacts for the business.

Days 0–30: What and Who

The first 30 days are all about learning the experience, the people who will use it, and the team of people who will build it. To be successful, you need to know what’s important to each of them. At the same time, you need to build the team’s confidence that the time, energy, and money they spend on content will pay off.

Your first task is to find a few teammates ...