Consistent, effective content doesn’t happen by accident: Clear strategy and strong supporting tools like content models, editorial calendars, and style guides all help us execute over the long haul. When change comes, though, our carefully constructed systems can lock us into approaches that are no longer effective.

Fortunately, there’s good news! Slicing your content plans into layers—like “enduring principles” and “fast-changing fashion”—can balance the need for evolution against the value of consistency. In this talk, we’ll study lessons from the world of architecture, examples from companies that successfully adapted, and steps you can take right now toward future-friendly content.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• How to identify messaging, processes, and content structures that are most likely to change over time.
• How to give your content room to flex without analysis paralysis.
• When to rebuild—rules of thumb for moving on from an outdated system.

Who will benefit most: This will be especially helpful for folks who are either trying to adapt an existing content system to a changing set of needs (an upcoming redesign, a new messaging initiative, a CMS replatforming, an emerging trend in audience tastes, changing resources inside their organization, etc.) or trying to account for those possible developments when developing a new strategy for the team. This is for those of us who wish to plan wisely for the future but need ways to triage the infinite scope of “everything our org will ever need or want to do” into realistic priorities.