Advancing content governance
Process improvement
Leadership
Brand, voice and tone
Teladoc Health had no process to propose or maintain content guidelines. Discussions and decisions happened in isolated Teams channels and chats. Multiple teams developed rogue style guides, and our design system did not align with established content standards. Product and marketing content was inconsistent and quality was questioned.
I set out to fix these problems for everyone.
Situation
Teladoc Health is the world’s largest virtual care company. Its platform serves 80+ million members and 12,000+ clients in 130 countries. The company is proud of its 90%+ client retention and member satisfaction rates. That trust depends on quality content, but the company had minimal content governance.
Content guidelines lived in a lengthy PDF, hard to navigate and time-consuming to update. No process existed to maintain it. Many style rules were vague and left open to interpretation. Questions and style proposals were raised in isolated Teams channels and chats. Decisions were rarely documented or shared. Twelve rogue style guides existed, and our design system did not align with established content standards. Many people did not even realize we had content guidelines. This all created inconsistencies and inefficiencies.
Content processes and writing standards are the crux of quality content at scale. So I decided to tame our chaos.
Tasks
I dreamed of a true content design system. But all great things take time. I organized my plan into four phases:
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Process – I would create a better way to manage content guidelines.
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Migration – I would move our style guide to an online platform, easy to search and update.
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Standardization – I would resolve design system conflicts and augment component guidance.
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Consolidation – I would explore solutions to build one system that serves all stakeholders.
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Each phase required deliberate cross-functional collaboration.
Actions
1
Discussions and audit
2
Process and related assets
3
Platform exploration
4
Style guide migration
5
Design system alignment
1 — Discussions and audit
I organized biweekly discussions and one-on-one meetings with key Product Content and Marketing representatives, as well as a few technical writers and design system leads.
I proposed a set of questions that served as our discussion guide. Together, we defined our style guide needs and process.
Between meetings, I audited resources and collected asynchronous input from stakeholders. A feedback template I created captured team needs and opinions about the pros, cons, gaps and opportunities of existing and potential solutions.
I documented our goals, questions and process decisions in Confluence.
Stakeholders
Who should be responsible, accountable, consulted and informed?
Proposals
Who can propose an update to the guide? Should they use a template? How should proposals and decisions be tracked?
Cadence
How frequently should we review proposals? When will the guide be updated? How often will the style guide be audited?
Needs
What needs must the style guide fulfill? How do they differ by team? How well do existing guides, tools or processes meet our needs?
Communication
What tools will we use for communication and documentation?
Source of truth
How do we handle rogue guides? Is one solution feasible? What should our style guide not do? How will we address AP Stylebook alignment?
2 — Process
I completed phase 1 a little under a year after starting this work, by producing our final process and related assets.
A few tenets had emerged:
Inclusivity
A RACI matrix ensures representatives from all key business areas actively participate in quarterly discussions and approve style proposals: Content, Marketing, Brand, Design, Research, Clinical, Product, Legal and Compliance, and Member Support. Teladoc Health is a wildly complex organization, so we need context from diverse voices to make the best decisions. Responsible and Accountable stakeholders are expected to attend our quarterly proposal discussions, or delegate to a Consulted or Informed team member. We also encourage proposals from anyone in the organization, recognizing that good ideas can come from anywhere.
Clear documentation
A proposal template includes all necessary information and a section for final decisions and sign-offs. Proposals are now tracked in a shared spreadsheet, helping us plan meetings, provide status updates and keep a historical record.
Flexibility
We meet to review proposals quarterly, but Responsible and Accountable stakeholders from our RACI matrix can meet ad-hoc or weigh in via email for time-sensitive needs. These decisions are documented and revisited for final approval at quarterly meetings. Well-documented proposals may even skip the meeting discussion and be approved asynchronously.
Access to shared tools
Although tools like Airtable, Miro and Figma are great, we chose Microsoft Office products for our process documents, so anyone in the organization can use them.
2 — Related assets
The process is supported by five key assets:
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RACI matrix, listing key stakeholders and their role.
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Proposal template, standardizing how style guide changes are discussed, supported and documented.
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Proposal tracking sheet, noting proposal statuses and serving as a decision record.
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Microsoft Teams channel, serving as a cross-functional forum for questions, idea-sharing and inspiration.
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Style Guide Sharepoint, housing process and proposal documents.
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3 — Platform exploration
A PDF just wasn't cutting it, so I explored online platforms for content management and workflow enhancements, like AP Stylebook's custom guide, Acrolinx, Writer, Ditto, Frontitude and Knapsack.
Pulse, our design system, and a marketing standards site are hosted on Zeroheight. I joined our Pulse team lead to evaluate whether Zeroheight could serve broader needs. They share my vision for a design system that serves all stakeholders — Content, Design, User Research, Marketing and others.
I created an Airtable to document platform comparisons and how closely they align with our identified needs.
4 — Style guide migration
The evaluation and procurement process for many platforms would take time. I recommended AP Stylebook as an interim solution.
AP Stylebook’s corporate subscription is a low-cost option I knew well from my time managing content governance at OhioHealth. It’s simple to maintain, secure and accessible to all on our VPN, including contracted freelancers. It's also a quick and easy reference point for our default and custom guides.
After setting up our corporate URL, a teammate and I reconciled our style guide with AP Stylebook. Some of our guidelines were duplicates. Keeping entries in parity unnecessarily burdened our team.
We then migrated our custom guide to AP Stylebook. A term search returns a hierarchy of results, so teams don’t have to search multiple guides or sources for advice.
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Search results follow a governance hierarchy:
Custom rules > Custom notes > AP Stylebook entries > Dictionary entries > Ask-the-Editor responses
5 — Design system alignment
Phase 3 is underway. This phase includes a competitive analysis of leading content design systems and an audit of Pulse — our design system.
Some component guidance within Pulse conflicts with our style guide. And our foundational principles are in dire need of review. I will reconcile, refresh and recommend additions to our design system.
Phase 3 will also be an opportunity for us to create new standard content variants for common components, like errors, toast notifications and inline messages.
My pursuit of progress gave voices to all stakeholders and provided a reliable reference for content style.
Results
Phase 1 took nearly a year to complete, but the process has run smoothly ever since. In the year that followed, we socialized the process and funneled several style proposals through to our guide.
Phase 2 only required a few months. Our team now owns the style guide and can easily make updates. We’re not searching multiple sources or scrolling through a messy PDF. We get the guidance we need in just a few moments.
I formed tighter bonds with our design system team, and now routinely advise them on new components and design system updates. We still dream about Phase 4 and a true content design system, but are thrilled with our progress. We may even implement a new platform together!
