Hinrich von Haaren: Content Transformation at Content Design London – Episode 153

Hinrich von Haaren Content work is never done. Among the most common, and challenging, types of content work are big transformation projects that consolidate, reorganize, and re-conceptualize big web properties. Hinrich von Haaren has worked on many content transformation projects, including the famous GOV.UK website makeover in the early 2010s. His new book, Content Transformation, is a manual for managing these big, complicated projects. We talked about: his work as a content strategist at Content Design London his work on content transformation projects and how it led to his book on the subject unique stakeholder management challenges that arise in big government projects and how to manage them the preference in his projects for workshops over meetings how he and his team set intentions around, and prepare for, workshops how they measure customer satisfaction and progress toward business goals the way content strategy emerges from his content transformation work how content transformation and culture change go hand in hand three key take-homes that he hopes everyone gets from the book: the need to be simultaneously realistic and boldly ambitious the importance of being transparent with the team about goals and expectations the crucial role of communication his intent for the book to be more like a handbook for reference than a procedures guide the vital role of cross-disciplinary collaboration in any content project Hinrich's bio Originally from Germany, Hinrich moved to London to work in publishing and later in online content. Hinrich worked on all sorts of content from news to financial information before becoming part of the original Government Digital Service (GDS). Working within a small team and with hundreds of sticky notes, Hinrich helped turn the unwieldy BusinessLink website into easy and practical content for the general public. Subsequently, he worked on the NHS transformation and many other bigger and smaller transformation projects in the legal sector, the arts, academia and lots of other content areas. Hinrich is the co-founder of the Content Design Academy which offers training for people around the world. Connect with Hinrich online LinkedIn Content Design London Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/HnQ4A85z_pk Podcast intro transcript This is the Content Strategy Insights podcast, episode number 153. A content strategy career often includes big, transformative projects that serve a variety of customer needs and touch wide swaths of an organization. Hinrich von Haaren, a content strategist at the prestigious agency Content Design London, has worked on many of these projects, including the famous GOV.UK website consolidation in the early 2010s. His new book, Content Transformation, is a handbook for content practitioners tasked with managing these kinds of projects. Interview transcript Larry: Hi everyone. Welcome to episode number 153 of the Content Strategy Insights podcast. I'm really happy today to welcome to the show, Hinrich von Haaren. Hinrich is a content strategist at Content Design London, which has to be one of the coolest jobs in the world. But welcome, Hinrich. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you're doing there. Hinrich: Hi, Larry. Nice to be here. So yes, I'm a content strategist at CDL - Content Design London - and my job is sort of a mix of three things. I work on projects for the companies, so where mostly we do transformation jobs, which is what the book is about. And I also do training. We have training courses. I develop and run part of the training program, and then I also write about content design, write online and write books. Book so far. Larry: That's right. And I totally buried my lede I realized. The whole point of having you on the show is you wrote this great book. Oh, I've got my focus. Anyhow, so for folks watching on YouTube,