I thoroughly enjoyed this week’s guest lecture from Val Swisher, Founder and CEO of Content Rules. Before I even get into the content of her lecture, I want to mention how much I enjoyed her spirit and passion for her work. Val is clearly an expert and an insider, and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn from her.

Val’s lecture was a gold mine, but a few things stuck out to me. First was the humbling reminder that our obligation to our clients or companies is to increase shareholder value. I interpreted this as a great piece of advice for self-preservation rather than something demoralizing. I can still strive to serve users/clients while catering to business goals to justify my job. I believe this is exactly what Val was getting at.

Val then expands on other goals of content strategy consulting, simply put as increasing revenue, decreasing expense, and decreasing risk. These are easy rules of thumb to keep in mind while doing this type of work.

I also found the distinction between content problems and process problems insightful. I think it’s easy to jump to labeling a problem a content problem, but treating a process problem as a content problem is like treating symptoms without searching for a diagnosis. This made me reflect on the content at my own firm and how we facilitate creating new content. I will not air out all of our business, but I will say I’ve been inspired by this lecture.

The section on the strategic road map and the whole idea of a business plan for content also made me reflect on my own work. As a proposal coordinator, my content directly serves the business purpose of pursuing more work. In Texas, public agencies are required by law to publish requests for qualifications (RFQs) to procure engineering work. Engineering firms must respond to these requests with statements of qualifications (SOQs). I am responsible for coordinating SOQs for infrastructure engineering pursuits in North and Central Texas. Without the content my team and I are in charge of delivering, my firm legally cannot win more business. But because the business purpose of the content is so obvious and shaped by the short-term goal of the RFQ itself, it’s hard to achieve long-term and broader business goals. This is something I regularly struggle with at work. I’ll let you know when I figure this out.

Overall, Val’s lecture provided great insight for my coursework and upcoming strategic roadmap assignment, but I was also inspired to apply the lecture content to my own job. I am excited to jump into the roadmap assignment this week.