Can you think of a time when your team was asked to distill 1,000s of pages of information into a concise training deck, brochure, white paper, or speaker presentation–on a topic that your team didn’t know much about? To me, these are exhilarating adventures where I’m offered the opportunity to get my analytical and problem solving skills firing on all cylinders.
Despite so many resources out there, someone is paying you to create a new piece to serve a specific purpose because it doesn’t exist in the public domain. How do you do it? Everyone has their unique approaches, but here I share the approach that works for me.
It’s time to make big strides and turn heads–let’s go.
How to create a killer piece from 100's of sources
Gather information
Before hitting the books, start by asking your team members or clients the right questions to understand the purpose of the project, the baseline knowledge of the audience, and any sources that they are already aware of.
Scour publicly available sources
Remember to only use reliable sources. If the information is relevant to your topic, pull it into your information management application (I prefer Zotero and OneNote over Word because they can categorize information so that it's easily retrievable via tags and bookmarks). More importantly, be EXTREMELY CURIOUS during this phase as this will enable to ask questions and seek out the right information. This step is the most time-consuming, so it's important that you stay focused and pace yourself.
Create an outline
Create broad categories and weave-in the information from your research into the outline (this is where you'll be glad you used Zotero or OneNote over Word, because retrieving the information will be a BREEZE). Once you've created broad categories and weaved in the information that you already have, take a second look and ask yourself what other information you still need in order to tell a complete story. Finally, re-shuffle the categories in an order that tells compelling and easy-to-digest story.
Socialize the outline
Two heads are better than one. Now it's time to step out of your vacuum and show your plan to teammates and/or clients.
Create a draft
Ideally, you should assign the writing to the same person who conducted the research and developed the outline, because it will buy you time and efficiency in the long run. In this phase, also have an idea of the graphics that you plan to use to convey your messages effectively.
Socialize the draft
Again, two heads are better than one. Ask for the opinions of your teammates and/or clients.
Refine and follow-through to the end
Usually 3 cycles of feedback-and-refining suffice in order to reach a place where everyone on the team is happy with the work. This is also where you introduce your design team and editorial team into the project. Finally, follow-through on the regulatory process in order to get your piece approved and ready for use.
