Lean simply means creating more value for customers with fewer resources.
It was originated and developed by the Toyota executive, TAIICHI OHNO (1912-1990) for lean manufacturing of automobiles. I am sure terms like Lean Manufacturing, Lean Organisation, Lean Production, Lean Process does ring a bell. You may be a pro and already using this in your organisation.
How about take a leap further and follow Lean in your day to day content?
Using Lean methodology, we let our content talk a lot with very few resources or in this case here text.
Can you imagine how much data are we creating on daily basis? 2.5 quintillion bytes.
This would fill 10 million blue-ray discs, the height of which stacked would measure the height of 4 Eiffel Towers on top of one another.
How much of it actually creates value for the customer or the target audience? Hmm tricky question!!
Life is busy, time is less. Customers don’t have time to read several pages of your terms, reports or what you did last summer (pun intended)!
This is the time for Lean transformation of your content!
Think how you can provide the same information with limited resources and limited text and minimising waste.
Here are some tips to streamline your content and make it lean.
Focus on audience: The audience of your content can be your customer or your stakeholders. Don’t lose the focus on them. What they need to see should be mentioned first and clearly.
Clarity: Be clear of your content and the information you wish to pass.
Prioritize: Identify the key areas of your content that are the major takeaways for your customer and make sure they are prioritized.
Curate: Don’t always try to write your own content. Reuse what is available. Curate wherever possible. It saves time also.
Story always win. Keep storytelling in your mind while you create your content. Write your content as if you are narrating a story. It is very important and will always help you to engage your audience.
Fit: Your content should be viewable on the single screen. If it is an email, there are higher chances that most of the stakeholders will read it on their phone. People lose interest if they have to scroll. Pass the most important message first.
Use appendix or detail page for all kind of information that is not relevant to the customer but important for further references or documentation purposes
In Time, On Budget: Content writing should not eat away lot of your resource time or your organisations budget.
Simple, clear and concise content. Don’t overcomplicate your content and make it difficult to understand.
Stick to Basics: Use short sentences, coma and full stops. Try to use bullet points and change paragraphs when the context changes.
Make it pictorial where ever possible and as much possible.
Your content must Intrigue your audience. Strive to write your content pretending you are writing for clicks and make sure that your message is so compelling that will force your customer click on it to know more and read more.
Put aside your technical or Experiential ego and dive in to writing lean content
Good Luck and have a great start towards your Lean Content.
References used: http://www.lean.org/WhatsLean/
http://heidicohen.com/lean-content-benefit/
http://www.stephaniehay.com/lean-content/
https://www.isixsigma.com/dictionary/8-wastes-of-lean/
http://www.vcloudnews.com/every-day-big-data-statistics-2-5-quintillion-bytes-of-data-created-daily/
TroublesomeTwo 