In episode 55 of the Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Sarah O’Keefe discuss Scriptorium’s approach to content strategy.

Related links:

* The Scriptorium approach to content strategy

Twitter handles:

* @sarahokeefe
* @PattersonScript

Transcript: 
Elizabeth Patterson:     Welcome to the Content Strategy Experts podcast brought to you by Scriptorium. Since 1997, Scriptorium has helped companies manage, structure, organize and distribute content in an efficient way. In episode 55, we discuss Scriptorium’s approach to content strategy. Hi, I’m Elizabeth Patterson and I’m joined by Sarah O’Keefe.
Sarah O’Keefe:     Hello.
EP:     Sarah just recently finished writing a white paper and in this white paper, you mentioned that when you invest in content strategy you’re really committing to a major digital transformation effort. And with that, there are significant challenges, but that also brings great opportunity and I think that that’s something that’s important to note before we start going into some of these specific aspects of Scriptorium’s approach to content strategy.
SO:     Yeah, I think that’s right. I mean you’re making a big commitment, and you’re committing to what I’m afraid is going to be a lot of pain. So just be aware of that before you get started.
EP:     So in this white paper, the first piece that you really focus on is the current state analysis. Could you talk a little bit about what that looks like and some of the current states of content that you have seen along the way?
SO:     So current state analysis means that we go in and we figure out what exactly is going on right now in that organization with their content. How is it being created, how is it being delivered, what are some of the problems? And, of course, there are a lot of problems, right? Because if there weren’t a lot of problems we wouldn’t be there. So current state analysis is a matter of saying, “All right, what’s going on here? What is the problem that rose to a level where you are willing to bring us in? Where you were willing to acknowledge, we have a problem, we need help and we’re going to have scriptorium come in and help us fix the problem?” I try hard not to make 12-step analogies, but the whole thing kind of heads that way.
SO:     So first we say “All right, our content has a problem,” and then we have to figure out how to fix it. So the kinds of things that we run into are content that’s being created that doesn’t have a purpose. It’s just, “We’ve always done that” “But it looks terrible. Why do you do it that way? Why is it so ugly?” I have seen terrible, terrible things perpetrated in InDesign, which is known for allowing you to produce really attractive looking print. But I’ve seen some terrible, terrible print coming out of InDesign and being done in a way that takes enormous amounts of time and is completely unmaintainable. So if you’re going to use InDesign, at least make it look good if you’re going to spend all this time. And yet what we have is it’s an inefficient tool and it’s not being used well, so that’s always kind of a little disturbing.
SO:     Huge amounts of content that is just wrong. Either technically inaccurate or out of date or it’s in the wrong language. It’s being written in English and the primary audience needs Chinese and it’s not being delivered in Chinese, or you’re writing for a particular kind of audience,