How did a financial technology company get four business units and more than 9,000 employees to consolidate numerous content style guides into one powerful resource? This case study offers the answers and demonstrates how content teams can collaborate to find allies, extend their influence, and improve content across an entire enterprise. At the beginning of this story, the content designers working on TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Mint were miles apart literally as well as figuratively. Using content strategy and a healthy dose of people skills, the teams came together to publish a style guide all Intuit content creators can call their own: contentdesign.intuit.com. In this presentation: • Practical steps to take to unify a variety of voice, tone, and style guidelines • How to approach content teams across silos and transform team members from strangers into allies—and, hopefully, into advocates • How to use a design system and a culture of standards to win over other designers, engineers, product managers, and stakeholders • Ways of creating ongoing enterprise-wide communication about style, standards, voice, and tone • The two magic words that make all the necessary kindness and collaboration possible

1. Confab May 2020
Michael Haggerty-Villa
@HaggertyVilla
On the same page
Unify your teams with a powerful style guide

2. On the same page, a case study
The issues, problems, opportunities
First steps
• Voice
• Inventory and audit
• Process for standards
Principles
Iterating
People
Magic words

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Style guides 101
Starting from Scratch: Ingredients to Build a Useful Style Guide
https://qordoba.com/resources/webinar/ingredients-to-build-a-
useful-style-guide/
Apple Style Guide
https://help.apple.com/applestyleguide/
AP Stylebook
https://www.apstylebook.com
Yahoo Style Guide (now only in print)
https://www.amazon.com/Yahoo-Style-Guide-Ultimate-
Sourcebook/dp/031256984X
Mailchimp Style Guide
https://styleguide.mailchimp.com/
National Geographic (mostly a word list)
https://sites.google.com/a/ngs.org/ngs-style-manual/
Wikipedia Manual of Style
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3aManual_of_Style
Google Developer Documentation Style Guide
https://developers.google.com/style/
Readability Guidelines
https://readabilityguidelines.co.uk/
A List Apart Style Guide
https://alistapart.com/about/style-guide
Gov.uk style guide
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/style-guide/a-to-z-of-gov-uk-style
Salesforce Voice and Tone Guide
https://www.lightningdesignsystem.com/assets/downloads/salesforce-voice-and-
tone.pdf
Google Trends
Compare search terms over time
https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=US
Google Ngram Viewer
(compare word frequency from over 20 million books)
https://books.google.com/ngrams
Merriam-Webster dictionary
https://www.m-w.com
This is not that talk.

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A case study
ContentDesign.Intuit.com

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But first

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Editorial style (a lesson in abundance)

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Guidelines for a bunch of use cases
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Dueling checklists
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Complementary

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Voice and tone and voice and tone and voice and tone and voice

10. One1

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• Efficiency
• Authority
• Education
• Sharing
• Innovation
• Retention
Why unify your content guidelines?

12. How we did itContent strategy

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• Voice
• Inventory
• Audit
• Normalize
First steps

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First steps: Voice

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Voice

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The Intuit voice

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Intuit voice principles

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How the voice systems play together

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How to develop a voice system
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Voice and tone strategy

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• Voice
• Inventory
• Audit
• Normalize
First steps

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Inventory, audit, plan

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• Voice
• Inventory
• Audit
• Normalize
First steps

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• Get the right people (style council)
• Establish operating principles and processes
• Tell all the people
How to figure out company-wide content standards

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1. Analyze use cases
2. Understand business unit differences
3. Research better practices
(examples, evidence, testing)
4. Make a recommendation
5. Allow review, response, and suggestion time
6. Integrate reviewer responses
A process for content standards
7. Iterate (and possibly retest)
8. Get sign off from style council
9. Publish
10.Communicate
11.Be prepared for additional responses and change
12.Be kind

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1. Analyze use cases
2. Understand business unit differences
3. Research better practices
(examples, evidence, testing)
4. Make a recommendation
5. Allow review, response, and suggestion time
6. Integrate reviewer responses
A process for content standards
7. Iterate (and possibly retest)
8. Get sign off from style council
9. Publish
10.Communicate
11.Be prepared for additional responses and change
12.Be kind
Repeat any or all steps as needed.

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Breathe

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Operating principles for working on content standards
Be fair and transparent
• Do this in the open
• Invite lots of participants
• Share often
Be skeptical of all deliverables and guidelines (kill your darlings)
Respect all content creators
Collaborate
Celebrate

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First launch

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Make our own content findable and useful
Information architecture
fundamentals
Card sorting

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Rely on your experts
Why?
• Engagement
• Adoption
• Improvement
Involving people to make content findable and useful

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Navigation goals
• Make content findable
• Define content elements
• Show what we value
A new structure and navigation

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The people part
A new site for content and community

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An example: the dueling checklists
Compromise wins

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Compromise wins
again
Another example: introducing unfamiliar terms

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In this case, the C word is compromise,
not content.
But the former can make the latter better.
The C word

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PoliticsPoliticsPolitics

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People
are people

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Working toward shared guidelines
We have a lot in common.
Where we differ is where we find the opportunity to get better.
● Better design rationales
● More informed research and insights
● Deeper understanding of internal and external customers
● More thoughtful approaches to content creation and improvement
● Cooperative models of working and growing

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The magic words to make all this happen?
Yes, and

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Yes versus that other word
Say yes to the ideas and
collaboration, but not to
committing to new work.
The First 90 Days: Proven
Strategies for Getting Up to Speed
Faster and Smarter
Michael D. Watkins
Harvard Business Review Press

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This isn’t always Yes
This isn’t easy
It’s conversation
It’s human-centered design
It’s human-centered everything

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Failure is every day
Things happen.
People are people.

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Success is every day too
Keep going.
Express your style.

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Express yourself

45. Confab May 2020
Michael Haggerty-Villa
@HaggertyVilla
Thank you

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