Name: Leading Content Design
Author: Rachel McConnell
ISBN: 978-1-952616-17-4

foreword by Kristin Skinner

Enhance your content practice and lead with impact.

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Content design teams need the right conditions to thrive—but when they’re hampered by bottlenecks or putting out fires, it’s hard for them to do their best work, secure support, and grow strategically.

Enter content operations. With smart, operational approaches, Rachel McConnell helps you identify and remove the barriers to strong, effective content work. You’ll learn how to create common standards, improve collaboration, iron out wrinkles in the design process, and build advocacy—so you can lead your team with impact.

This book explores:

What operations are and how they enhance your work
When and how to scale your content practice
Overcoming blockers and streamlining workflows
Building stronger bonds within and between teams
Fostering a content community of practice

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A guiding light for content leaders. I love that it’s filled with practical tools to solve real content problems, from breaking through organizational blockers to growing great teams. Page after page of wisdom, generously shared.

Candi Williams

Head of content design at Bumble and author of Iconic Women of Colour

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Leading Content Design presents ambitious but achievable ways to get unstuck from the trap of surface-level content work and start putting down strong content design roots in any organization. It’s practical, flexible, and really feels like I’ve just taken a shortcut to being a better content leader.

Jane Ruffino

Content designer, researcher, and UX writing course director

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Rachel shares a truth we often lose sight of: that operations is all about people. Whether or not you have a budget for dedicated content ops, this deeply humane book will help you work towards an organizational model that supports an effective and empowered content practice. Your team—and the people who use your products—will thank you for it.

Amy Thibodeau

Design director at Gusto

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If you’re trying to grow a content team or stand up a content design practice, this book is for you! Believe me when I say that I wish I had this book when I was starting out—Rachel’s tips and advice had me nodding along in agreement.

Andy Welfle

Co-author of Writing is Designing and senior experience content design manager at Adobe

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About the Author

Rachel McConnell is a content design leader and author based near Brighton, England, who’s spent the last decade helping teams (and individuals) improve their content maturity. Her content career has progressed from content strategy and design to operations and leadership, for companies such as Deliveroo, Clearleft, and BT. She’s currently head of UX content for Flo.

Before her tech career, she spent a decade in advertising and brand marketing—her commercial sense and creative problem-solving skills have proved very useful for designing product experiences and running content teams.

Rachel is also the cofounder of Tempo, a community for content design leaders. She’s curated conferences for both Tempo and Clearleft, and runs multiple community events and meetups.