WORK

I started working on digital automotive experiences in 2015 when Razorfish tapped me to write for the Ford account. I wrote articles to support the launch for SYNC 3, Ford’s in-car entertainment and navigation system. That effort launched a ton of other projects I was lucky to work on: the first-ever audit of the Ford Owner site, UX writing for the Owner mobile app and site redesign projects, and tightening up support content to help reduce calls to the help desk. It was a great run.

From 2019-2020 I was the content strategy lead on the Volkswagen account for POSSIBLE, now Wunderman Thompson. I was thrilled when they asked me to join the digital team since a bunch of us worked on the One A Day project together. I worked on tons of projects that kept VW’s site running while getting it ready for a massive re-platforming effort. Getting a chance to do interesting work with a fantastic team (plus my lifelong love of the VW Bug) made that project a treat to work on.

“Sparkle, content, SPARKLE!” This was my goal when I joined the One A Day site redesign project. One A Day’s site was woefully out of date in just about every way possible. They had a solid base of content to work from and needed help to make it all shine. I joined POSSIBLE’s ridiculously talented project team as the content strategy lead and am proud to say we hit that goal. This redesign was especially wonderful because I worked on the entire project. I was brought on early to do the audit and taxonomy, worked with my UX colleague in the messy middle to hash out the IA and menu design, provided direction to the writer during the design phase, and mapped the launch content for the dev team. It was a thrill to see the site go live.

FedEx’s ecommerce division is one of many that helps today’s I-need-it-NOW consumerist society take flight. I did a messaging workshop that uncovered how FedEx’s shipping solutions could help retailers alleviate the then-common “last mile delivery” pain consumers often experienced. Everything we talked about then is happening now (delivery lockers, choosing drop off times, etc.), but in 2013 shipping options were more limited. I remember bonding with one of the attendees over getting one of those dreaded “Come get your package in an impossible-to-reach location” notice drivers used to stick on your door if you weren’t home to sign for your package. How times have changed.

A few months later I did an omnichannel retail workshop with Wipro. Learning about what goes on behind the retail scene was fascinating and in writing this, it’s surreal to see how fast it’s all changing.

I have a lot of experience with financial services clients, especially in messaging and content strategy. Finance clients are usually pretty fun because they really only care about one thing: making money. They also care about not going to jail or getting in trouble along the way. Once you realize that, all finance projects take on a certain beautiful simplicity.

Some of my favorite projects include getting into the nitty-gritty of Basel III and the magic of high-volume transactions with J.P. Morgan, helping Massachusetts Financial Services migrate their content in a site redesign, freaking out about retirement savings with Vanguard and learning how their index funds can help, and doing a really interesting messaging project for XBTO, a cryptocurrency client blazing new trails in fintech.

I’m a big gym rat and am happy to have worked on projects for the fitness industry. One favorite was a messaging workshop for Purple Patch Fitness, which does performance training for time-starved people, especially triathletes. This was a fascinating workshop with really smart clients. They were getting into remote training and needed site content that showed how their programs worked. I created three videos they used on their You Tube channel as they redesigned their site. The videos aren’t around anymore but the seeds of that workshop are sprinkled throughout their new site’s look and feel.

Another fun project was working with Club Car, a golf cart manufacturer. I developed messaging that hopefully sped up the pace of play and got more millennials to try golfing in public courses. Dare to dream.

Learning all about off-kilter bodily functions, understanding how scary hospital machines work, and totally losing it (in a good way) to relieve the stress when the subject matter gets a little too intense. Yes I’ve got healthcare experience. My favorite healthcare project was a site redesign for Fresenius Medical Care, a big supplier of dialysis equipment. I was the content strategy lead and it was a biggie since we were asked to collapse 30+ independent sites into one. For me the trickiest part was figuring out the taxonomy, and I’m glad to say it all came together. When the site went live I got all teary-eyed when I saw how my UX colleague figured out how to translate the taxonomy through the site’s menus and related interactions. He came up with an elegant, intuitive solution that displayed a TON of product information without bogging the flow and words down.

Storage and packets and apps, oh my! I have written many a word about the high tech bits and bytes that power the magical internet. It isn’t easy translating all those complicated engineering concepts into stuff people want to read, but I’ve found a way. Hint: it helps if the client isn’t afraid to loosen up and have fun.

Acme Packet was one of those clients. In 2012 Acme needed messaging and writing help to bring their concepts down to earth. Their offers were highly technical and nearly impossible to understand but I figured it out. How? My Madame Defarge habit of taking incessant notes. One morning over breakfast one of the founders came over to introduce himself and we got into a wide-ranging conversation about whatever Acme did (best part: he confirmed that Bugs Bunny played a role in the company’s name). The notes I took during that breakfast came into play in the waning hours of the workshop and everything clicked. The messaging must have done the trick because I was thrilled to see Oracle bought them the following year for what I hope was a big chunk of change.

HR clients are fascinating because they’ve given me a peek into what happens on the other side of the job divide. HR companies have problems too, and I’m glad my messaging and writing skills have helped them out. I was in-house at Monster well after their “When I Grow Up” hey-day and left as upstart job boards started disrupting the very industry Monster helped shape. It was an interesting time and a really fun place to work. I worked on a lot of direct mail projects, and also wrote a ton of copy for emails and microsites. I’ve also created messaging for ADP, the people who probably have processed a paycheck or two of yours.

My very first indie freelance content strategy project was for a nonprofit, so I have a big soft spot for this sector. I’ve done content audits, gathered migration requirements, and helped nonprofits understand how to make the most of the content they have. It’s really gratifying to help them see where they can go with what they’ve got.

I’m always interested in adding nonprofit clients to my roster. In the spring of 2019 I volunteered for CreateAthon, itself a nonprofit that helps creatives use their skills on pro-bono marketing projects for other nonprofits. I was the writer on a team that created campaign materials for La Cocina VA, a bi-lingual culinary training center in Arlington, VA. It was a great project and I was thrilled the client loved the work we cooked up in 24 hours. Check them out and if their mission speaks to you, donate something. It will go a long way.

Is there anything more boring than telecom? No. I know this because I’ve worked at telecom companies as an employee and consultant and man, the industry is a bona fide drag. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make the work fun—it can even be interesting. One of my favorite projects was translating the physics of cell phone towers into messaging non-engineers could understand. Getting that right was equal parts challenging and rewarding.

The only reason I have telecom experience is that ages ago, the fun interactive agency I worked for was bought by a hosting company which in turn was bought by Qwest, a broken-up baby bell gone long distance whose CEO ultimately went to jail. Oh, the stories we former employees have. For all its insanity Qwest was ahead of its time. When I was there as a writer Qwest ran a wonderfully weird, Twin-Peaksy TV ad featuring Wilhelm Dafoe checking into a cheap motel. The amenities were sparse save for entertainment: guests could watch any movie ever made in any language, day or night. It’s fascinating to see how that loopy ad came true.

Yes. I worked at the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the infamous, vague entity that controls NYC’s subway system and other agencies I won’t get into here. I joined in mid-2018. They’d just launched a beta site and companion app and needed a content strategist to keep things moving. As a tax-paying New Yorker I couldn’t say no and off I went.

When I started, the MTA project sponsor told me I was like the guitarist in “Spinal Tap”—the latest in a string of content strategists—and he asked me how long I’d last. I made it until the week before Christmas when they lost funding for me and everyone else. Like the subway itself the project was great except when it wasn’t. All you need to know is that I audited the beta site and worked with a fantastic content development team in Latin America. We had a tiny, noble goal to improve the authoring environment with each release, and that’s exactly what we did. I’m most proud of the authoring feature that let people add subway icons into text as if they were emojis.

Turn off your lights when you aren’t in the room, call your plumber when pipes get leaky, and don’t throw stuff in lakes and rivers. These are just some lessons I’ve confirmed or learned while working for utilities companies. I’m happy that my content career has given me a behind-the-scenes look into how utilities deliver things we take for granted, such as water and electricity, into our homes. I’ve created messaging for Xylem, a water utility based in Stockholm, designed a little content for ConEd, and created messaging and sales collateral for Neptune Technology Group.