Mixed-methods research to uncover the current and future state of content orchestration
Client
Contentful
Timeframe
December 2022 - August 2023
Role
Principal, Lead Researcher
Engagement
60+ interviews and 1,500+ survey respondents
“Orchestration means having an integrated content suite. It’s crucial, or else you get bottlenecked: you’ll miss work, or there's double handling. It lets project managers, content writers, account managers sing from the same song sheet. ”
— Research participant
Objective
To enable Contentful to expand their product strategy by understanding the workflows, challenges, behaviours and opportunities for content orchestration among diverse content specialists.
Methodology
We adopted a mixed-methods approach, engaging over 60 professionals through interviews and surveying more than 1,500 participants globally.
Phase 1: We conducted 37 in-depth interviews with content specialists, operations managers, and leaders from healthcare, media, retail, and professional services. These interviews revealed current workflows, challenges and priorities, and attitudes towards content orchestration.
Phase 2: Building on our initial findings, we surveyed over 900 global participants to validate our insights, develop a persona framework, and prioritise critical tasks for content specialists. This helped us identify critical areas for technological innovation.
Phase 3: We created a Complexity Framework to map the responsibilities of content specialists, uncover common challenges, and propose scalable solutions. This framework guided the development of high-value product features for Contentful, along with value propositions that targeted content specialist personas.
Outcome
Our research identified four key personas: Content Specialists, Content Operations Managers, Technology Strategists, and Leaders. We detailed their behaviours, motivations, needs, and priorities. By analysing 25 key tasks, we pinpointed five high-impact areas for Contentful to focus on in their app strategy.
Guided by our Complexity Framework, we developed practical solutions to improve and enrich content orchestration workflows. Each of our proposed solutions improves content governance, streamlines processes, and enhances content quality for users. The insights fundamentally impacted Contentful's three-year product roadmap.
This project provided actionable insights, enabling Contentful to better serve the diverse needs of content professionals worldwide.
