What to do when you’re the company’s first UX writer

Credit: Photo by NASA on Unsplash

You’ve just become your company’s first UX writer. Now what?

Write UI strings, right? Well, sure. There’s much of that, especially for revamping the messy old copy written before you joined. More on that later.

When companies finally decide to invest in content design, newly onboarded UX writers are in for a nasty shock. Many product owners aren’t aware of what UX writing is and, least of all, how much value it brings.

That means you’ll lack the tools, processes, and relationships essential to success as a UX writer from day one.

But you’re not set up for failure. Starting with a blank slate means you can build a UX writing foundation based on your strengths, know-how, and the company’s needs.

Without pre-existing frameworks that might box you in, you can experiment, make the rules, and set your own objectives. If you bring positive changes to your company, that's likely to get noticed.

You could even say you’re setting yourself up for success. Just follow these steps.

1. Explain what you do (and the benefits you bring)

Create slides that clearly explain UX writing and give examples

Most people in your company likely won’t know what a UX writer is because they’ve never had one.

Host an introduction workshop that includes product managers (PMs) and designers — the teams you’ll work most closely with. But keep the invite list open to everyone in the company. As a UX writer, you’ll cross paths with diverse teams, from SEO to branding, all of whom you’ll want to wow from the start.

Use this workshop to define your responsibilities, scope, and goals as a UX writer. Treat your audience like they’re the users you write for: Explain in simple language that you’ll create the text throughout your product’s interface that guides users.

Remember the “What’s in it for me?” factor. When explaining your role, highlight the benefits you’ll bring to your company through UX writing, such as increasing the product’s usability and engagement through clear and concise language.

Tip: You’ll also want to make clear what UX writing isn’t. If your company churns out other types of writing, such as blog posts, marketing emails, and product content, make it plain you’re not here for that.

2. Establish workflows

There are two parts to this: Establishing your workflow and establishing yourself within the product design workflow.

First, when a PM has UX writing needs, they’ll want to know how to approach you and how they can submit requests.

Create a submission form within your company’s project management ecosystem that includes these essential ingredients for a UX writing request:

• Project background

• All required UI strings

• Targeted users (For example, are they new or existing customers?)

• Figma file

• Expected launch date

Tip: PMs juggle a lot of things. Don't expect them to remember everything for each submission. But if you’re getting a lot of poor-quality requests, tell the PM that you’ve put their submission on hold until you have all the information you need to do your job.

Next, when you’re more established and familiar with your design team, make your input as a UX writer required early in the design process.

Get “UX writing feedback” added as an item on the project cycle checklist, and remind stakeholders to invite you to kick-off meetings, sprint planning, brainstorms, and UATs.

Even seasoned UX writers will tell you they’re included far too late in the design process (if included at all). The trick is to attend as many meetings and speak up as much as possible, to the point where people will notice you not being there.

3. Create a style guide

A style guide can empower new UX writers by setting rules to follow

Your role as a content designer is to deliver a consistent and cohesive user experience. And whereas other designers and teams might focus on one product, you’re uniquely positioned to take a more holistic approach and oversee all of your company’s products.

You’ll need a style guide to anchor your writing across these products and customer touchpoints and remain consistent.

This consistency in language helps users get familiar with your product. That familiarity, in turn, gives them positive expectations about your product, making them more likely to trust and use it.

Style guides are also a source of empowerment for newly onboarded UX writers, especially when senior management gives their blessing.

Whether you’re writing new content or revamping old, it’s normal to get some pushback from other stakeholders over your word choices. When I started in UX writing, PMs and marketers asked me to use old-fashioned Title Case or shouty ALL CAPS for buttons.

To make a case for sticking with a simple, easy-to-read sentence case, I referred these stakeholders to our style guide, which the seniors had signed off on. Sentence case won the day.

4. Start a clean-up project

Revamp your product’s UX writing and record the positive changes, like boosting open rates for emails

Your company has never had a dedicated UX writer before. So, who wrote all of the UI content before you joined? Seemingly everyone: PMs, designers, devs, and marketeers, each with competing agendas and little consideration for consistency.

Once you’ve created your style guide, start a clean-up project based on the new rules. Review your company’s website or app and edit the existing content based on consistency, clarity, and conciseness.

You can go the extra mile by setting up metrics that measure the success of your work. Make a record of pages before and after your clean-up project. Did rewriting buttons with engaging copy boost clickthrough rates? Did your more straightforward explanations decrease customer service queries? These metrics are essential to show the value you bring to the company.

Tip: Recording your changes also gives other stakeholders visibility on your changes. You’ll need the buy-in of product owners, too. Be careful when editing any SEO-sensitive content that might harm your company’s visibility on search engines.

5. Build relationships and collaborate

Collaborating with design and branding teams helped me push for better, UX writing-led designs

Many UX writers are former marketing copywriters. A critical difference between the two fields is that collaboration is essential for content design.

Naturally, you’ll build relationships with product management and design. PMs help you understand the user’s needs so you can align the messaging with the product’s goals. Working closely with designers ensures that the copy and design are in sync.

Collaborate outside your comfort zone, too. When creating my company’s style guide, I allied myself closely with our branding team so I could have a say in shaping our app’s voice. I also reached out to various other content owners, from blog writers to social media gurus, to make sure they were aligning the content around the style guide.

6. Advocate, advocate, advocate

Credit: Photo by Lucas Beck on Unsplash

All right, these steps can’t guarantee success.

Colleagues won’t always follow your workflows or style guides. Designers will forget to invite you to kick-off meetings.

Product leaders might not understand the value of UX writing. Even if they do, they won’t necessarily dedicate resources to it over other means faster at revenue generation.

From your first day until your last, you must advocate.

That means fighting for designs that accommodate your content, boost readability, and give users the smoothest experience.

You’ll need to explain to different stakeholders—who want you to write different things—why consistency in language gives users a cohesive experience and how that’s essential to boosting loyalty and retention.

And you have to persuade developers to spend time on implementing UX writing A/B testing so you can prove your word choices are data-driven.

These are just a few of the many battles you’ll face in a company that previously hadn’t invested in content design.

UX writers are a combat-weary bunch, and morale is low in our field. There’s no article with a quick-and-easy solution to make companies care more about our craft.

The best we can do is stay positive. Remember the mission: keep writing and fighting for people who use your product.