School of hard knocks: lessons in managing stakeholders throughout large content design projects
Jonny Vaughan and Claire Furnish
Head of Content Design for Digital User Experience & Content Designer working in Digital User Experience
University of Southampton
How much time do you allocate for stakeholder engagement on large, content-heavy projects? Double it, then double it again. It's still not enough and never will be... but you also need time to do the actual work!
In 2023, the University of Southampton began a year-long project to significantly refine and expand on its School and Department webpages. The project was not supposed to take a year.
Agreements were secured, the brief was signed off, and diligent preparations had been made, but the world of content design is fraught with unexpected twists. Ideas that sound great in a boardroom can take on a very different shape when the time comes to implement them. Nothing ever stays still and your ability to adapt, influence and overcome new challenges will be tested at every turn.
Claire and Jonny will share their experiences of managing a large stakeholder group in a complex, 'forgetful' organisation, including successful approaches and a few cautionary tales.
Can pair-writing help your stakeholders feel more involved in the process? Is content design as much about educating as it is about designing? Are shared Miro boards a blessing or a curse? All this and more.
Key takeaways
How to balance competing priorities quickly and deliver something valuable, even if it’s not perfect
How to prepare early and comprehensively for large projects, and the inevitable challenges once underway
How to maintain your personal wellbeing in moments of great uncertainty and stakeholder strife..
About your speakers
Jonny is the first Head of Content Design for Digital User Experience at the University of Southampton.
He is responsible for a team of content designers, who have a hand in practically all things content across the University website.
From managing corporate social media, to content design, to leading a team in this field, Jonny has made it his mission to redefine the Internet as an easier and more accessible place to be..
When he's not correcting typos and puzzling over questionable acronyms, Jonny enjoys building computers, annoying his cats, and playing guitar (to annoy his wife).
Claire is a Content Designer working in Digital User Experience at the University of Southampton.
She joined the team during a digital transformation project in 2020 and has worked on pretty much all products and services from research through to education.
Becoming a content designer was a career change from a marketing role within the University. In another life Claire was also a graphic designer, running a commercial design studio. She’s passionate about the value good design can bring to all spheres of life.