Define and improve your content development process by starting with a map

Nobody wants to have an inefficient workflow. But when they slowly develop overtime, they can go unnoticed for years — especially when it comes to content workflows.

That’s where content workflow maps or diagrams come in handy.

In this article, you’ll learn the benefits of mapping out your content workflow and get a step-by-step guide on how to do it.

What is a content workflow?

A content workflow is the start-to-finish process a team follows to deliver content. This includes planning, writing, reviewing, editing, and publishing the content. You might also call this an editorial workflow, content production process, or content lifecycle.

This can be a complex process, depending on the size of your team and the scale of your content efforts. Typically, the more people are involved in the content production process, the messier it becomes. It’s often unclear who should be doing what, when they should do it, and how long everything should take.

Why you should map your content workflow

If you’re involved in an editorial workflow that seems complex or time-consuming, mapping the workflow can help. You can use the map to identify what parts of your process need to change, and what’s working well. The map also gives you a visual aid you can reference when talking to decision-makers or team members about the process.

Here are a few more reasons why content workflow maps are useful:

Analyze and view your entire editorial process in one place
Align your team on the current or proposed process
Find opportunities for improvement
Streamline your process before you scale, or to help you scale your publishing efforts
Make the business case for new content roles at your organization

Anyone can create meaningful change to an editorial process, even if you’re not a dedicated content strategist or content manager. If you care about great content and you hate wasting time, this is for you.

How to map your content workflow

No matter what the reasons are, anyone can create a useful content workflow map to share with their team.

You’ll need:

A pen and paper, or markers and whiteboard
Access to the people involved in your workflow
A tool or software to digitize your diagram, like LucidChart, Omnigraffle, Sketch, or even Google Drawings

First, research the current workflow

Before you start diagramming anything, you need to do some research first. It’s highly unlikely that any individual on your team really knows what every step of the content process really includes. The best way to get an accurate picture of what’s happening is to make a list of everyone involved in the process and chat with them.

Questions to ask your team:

What is your role in the content production process?
What are the stages in the process, as you see it?
What is working well in the current workflow?
What is difficult in the current workflow?
How long does each step take you?

Note: you don’t need to talk to every single person who has ever been involved in a content project. Just think about the key types of people, and pick one from each group. Such as, a writer, a stakeholder, an editor, and the CMS publisher.

Once you’ve talked to everyone, step back and review what you’ve learned. Are there any patterns? Any big red flags? Anything positive that stands out? It’s good to think things over before you jump into diagramming.

Map the key people and activities

Next, you’ll start drafting your map. On the left of your map, you can create a column for each person involved in the process. (Don’t use real people’s names, this can make it too personal; just list job titles). At the very top of your map, create a timeline so you can show how long each activity takes. In rows, you can create boxes for each activity that’s happening along the timeline for each person.

In this example, I used the “Service Blueprint Current and Future” template in LucidChart as a base.

Once you have a draft, you have a few options with how to move forward and add detail.

Highlight areas for improvement

This is where your observations come into play. During your interviews, you probably heard from people who said certain things work well, and other things are not working well.

To document this digitally, you can add an icon or colored circle to call-out activities that you want to “keep” or “discuss.” Just add a key at the bottom of your chart that explains what your color-coding or icons mean.

You can then present this more detailed map to anyone on your team who will listen. It’s a great way to get discussions going, or you may use it to make the case for a new role, propose a new workflow, or to get budget for a new content management system.

Host a content workflow workshop

At this stage, you can also use your draft diagram to host an interactive workshop with your team. If you have a big conference room, you can project the workflow map onto a wall or whiteboard. You could also print out a version.

Then, give everyone sticky-notes in a two different colors: one color for “things working well,” and another color for “needs improvement.” Ask each team member to add sticky-notes with their comments, in both categories, throughout the map. After everyone has left their feedback via sticky-note, you can review as a team and discuss.

This is a great way to get everyone talking about how the process is going and how it might be better. You can even use shift this activity into a brainstorm of the new and improved content workflow that helps avoids some of the pain points the team identified. It also helps create some empathy for each other. Most of the time, if someone is causing challenges for another person in the content process, they’re unaware of it. Just by having these conversations, you are clearing the path for improvement.

Moving forward with a map

Once you’ve created and shared your workflow map, there are a few ways you can continue to use it moving forward.

Add the workflow map to your content style guide
Use it to help on-boarding new writers or team members
Update and review it annually to maintain efficiency

I find the best maps or diagrams are the ones that are collaborative, easy to access, and highly visible within an organization. If you’ve got a team Confluence, Google Drive, or other shared space, that’s the best place for your diagram to live.

How and Why to Map Your Content Workflow