A TABLE AT THE BACK

Our first guest for Season 2 is Melbourne-based UX writer Patrick Stafford. Patrick is an ex-journalist-turned-UX writer, content strategist and podcaster. With almost a decade of experience with online news outlets like Smart Company, Rolling Stone and Vice, he’s been a UX writer for MYOB for over 4 years and has a freelance writing business called Stafford Content. He also runs UX Writers Collective, which is a UX and CX writing course and produces/hosts the podcast Writers of Silicon Valley. Here's what we covered in this episode: - How Patrick broke into UX writing via journalism (and the many different backgrounds of UX writers!) - What it takes to become a GREAT UX writer - How to impress UX hiring managers - An indication of UX writer salaries (based on a recent survey the UX Writers' Collective ran) - The differences between UX writing in-house vs freelance - What it's like interviewing some of the biggest UX writers in the world in Patrick's podcast: Writers of Silicon Valley Our recommendations: - Endorsal: https://endorsal.io/ (really great and easy way to collect testimonials and embed them in a cool/interesting way on your site with no IT help) - UX writer jobs newsletter by Gordon Macrae: http://www.uxwriterjobs.com/ - Radical Candor by Kim Scott: https://www.amazon.com.au/RADICAL-CANDOR-KIM-SCOTT/dp/1250103509/ref=asc_df_1250103509/?tag=googleshopdsk-22&linkCode=df0&hvadid=341744909748&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3762038390647270709&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9072357&hvtargid=pla-432939647199&psc=1 Aaaaand here's where you can find Patrick and his projects: - UX writers collective: https://uxwriterscollective.com/ - Patrick’s website/s: http://www.staffordcontent.com/ http://pdstafford.com/ - Writers of Silicon Valley podcast: https://www.writersofsiliconvalley.com/ - Twitter: @pdstafford

This week we're talking all things content, comms, brand voice style guides. We cover things like: - Why these guides are the actual best things since sliced bread - How to create one - What should be included (we pull apart actual guides we created) - Who needs buy-in (and how to demand respect for the brand voice)! - Why we need to change the message for different audiences / formats Laura's articles we mentioned: UX writing terms: https://lauraluck.com.au/2019/03/22/a-checklist-of-ux-writing-terms-for-time-poor-humans/ Tone of voice: https://lauraluck.com.au/2018/01/06/why-tone-of-voice-matters/ Our recommendations: - The Elements of Fucking Style: https://www.amazon.com/Elements-cking-Style-Helpful-Parody/dp/031258377X - One link sharing platform: https://narrowr.com/ - JP Morgan Chase using machine learning AI to write ad copy: https://qz.com/work/1682579/jpmorgan-chase-chooses-ai-copywriter-persado-to-write-ads/

Yay! We're back! We had a short hiatus, but season 2 is here with a bang. This week we're talkin' bout Collaboration: how to work with different departments towards a goal. In this episode, we'll cover: How to start relationship-building (especially if you're remote!) • What kinds of departments we should be speaking with • How to set up regular communication • What roadblocks you might come up against • Why collaboration is especially important if you're working in customer comms Links to recommendations: • The day-to-day life of this UX writer at Capital One - https://medium.com/capitalonedesign/how-i-work-as-a-ux-writer-2b4312b01fa0 • User Guiding tool for putting together user guides within products – https://userguiding.com/ • The event Branka went to by 2aT - http://2atstartup.com.au/ • Girl Friday IP - https://www.girlfridayip.com/

SEASON FINALE! Thanks so much for joining us for Season 1 of A Table At The Back. We have loved creating this so much, so if you loved hearing it... please leave us a review and rating :) For our last episode of Season 1, we spoke to the inimitable Ami Williamson of Damn Write. Ami focuses on personality-driven e-commerce copy, plus she’s a wildly talented writer, strategist and extremely funny human being. We like her. She gets her rocks off on consumer psychology and neuro-marketing and she’s got one of the best damn websites we've seen in a while... Here are just some of the things we covered: Her new website rebrand (it's soooo beautiful) Personality-driven copy doesn't mean you have to be loud and bold How the personality of a brand impacts our purchase decisions Ami's process to extracting your voice (mad scientist, perhaps?) Why we can’t all sound like Go-To Skincare (wahhh!) How CX plays a HUUUUUGE role in eCommerce (and how to improve it) How to grow an eCommerce business by focusing on more than just getting new customers The different types of emails you should write for your eCommerce businesses Why horoscopes are our guilty pleasure Listen to us struggle pronouncing Enneagrams The power of repelling customers that aren’t for you Here are the links to our recommendations: Ami's website: www.damnwrite.com.au Friction by Roger Doole: https://www.amazon.com/FRICTION-Untapped-Force-Powerful-Advantage-ebook/dp/B07HRZ7PDJ How UX influences sales: https://uxplanet.org/ux-is-all-about-sales-db659a1fd853 ALPHALETE eComm growth hacking article: https://www.veeqo.com/blog/alphalete-ecommerce-teardown

At the time of recording this episode, the world is experiencing a one in a hundred year event with the global pandemic that is COVID-19. Businesses all over the planet are struggling with many things – the most noticeable from the outside being their communication. So this week, we invited a crisis comms expert on the podcast to guide us all through approaching business comms when things get turned upside down. Anna Rogan is a foolhardy olive farmer and stubbornly creative copywriter who specialises in personality-driven website and email copy for small biz owners. Anna has a BA in psychology, a post-grad in writing and a decade-long career in comms and media roles for some pretty big brands under her belt. And though she hails from a background in crisis comms, these days she mainly writes for purpose-driven, heart-led, socially-conscious small business owners and entrepreneurs. In this episode we talked about: • The standard format to follow when crafting crisis comms. • Tapping into empathy to guide communication during a crisis – especially for businesses that tend to be more transactional. • Finding the balance in your comms between business as usual and ‘business unusual’. • Respecting brand tone of voice during a crisis. • Tips for communicating with teams and stakeholders when you’re working remotely. Find Anna here: • https://www.annarogan.com/ • https://www.instagram.com/annaroganwriter/ • https://au.linkedin.com/in/anna-rogan-a7349624