Establishing Collaborative Content Planning for Enhanced Efficiency
The design and facilitation of a cross-functional content planning workshop and framework to enhance collaboration, reduce redundancies, and shift focus from volume to value-added narratives.
The Background
A content services division, responsible for delivering scalable creative solutions across fashion and lifestyle categories noted growing demands and increasingly complex workflows. Specialising in combining storytelling with data-driven insights to create high-quality content for multiple brands, the team needed to transform its fragmented planning processes into a more streamlined approach.
The Challenge
Beyond the content services division, rapid growth had transformed the company into a complex matrix organization where planning, production, and publishing were conducted asynchronously by various teams. This led to inefficiencies, overlapping efforts, and inconsistent messaging. As the business shifted its focus from aggressive growth to profitability, coupled with an external focus on content as entertainment, it became critical to overhaul the internal processes in support of wider business strategies.
The Approach
Strategy
Regular Collaborative Sessions: Leveraging insights on current planning processes, introduced a new recurring session to bring together key content ideators across the organisation.
Integrated Planning: Designed these sessions to be informed by a higher-level forecasting process, ensuring ideation was trend-driven and strategically grounded.
Stakeholder Support: Socialised session design internally to ensure buy-in from key leaders in rolling out the new session.
Collaboration Over Competition: Focused on fostering an environment of mutual support, aiming to identify the most compelling, cohesive, and customer-first stories.
Implementation
Facilitated initial sessions, setting the tone for open dialogue and inclusivity.
Developed session outlines to align content ideation with forecast insights, creating a feedback loop where planning and forecasting informed one another.
Encouraged a test-and-learn approach to session structure, allowing teams to provide iterative feedback for ongoing improvement.
Direct feedback from participants highlighted the sessions’ openness, inclusivity, and supportive atmosphere, where all voices felt heard and respected.
The Results
Reduced content production requirements by 20%, enabling significant budget savings.
Improved communication and alignment between teams, sparking process redesigns for more efficient collaboration and maximizing opportunities for repurposing high-performing content.
Positive participant feedback on facilitation, noting an inclusive and engaging environment where everyone felt valued.
Key Learnings
Small, Engaged Groups: Keeping sessions concise and targeted ensured meaningful, productive exchanges.
Diverse Participation: Inviting a balanced mix of stakeholders from relevant teams created dynamic energy and diverse perspectives. Your content is as diverse as your teams are.
Iterative Improvement: A test-and-learn approach fostered openness, enabling participants to shape and refine the process collaboratively.
Transparency: Regular updates to a broader audience reduced feelings of exclusion and kept the wider team informed.
Trend-Driven Ideation: Grounding sessions in forecasting data ensured ideas were aligned with broader business strategies, minimizing later conflicts or misalignment.