Can content teams learn from architects?
I think so. I read a book on buildings and was struck by the similarities. (Architects please weigh in—none were consulted in writing this 😆). In the diagram below, adapted from Stewart Brand's, you've got a system built of layers. Those layers evolve/degrade at different rates. Properly maintained, they are eternal. Most barely last a lifetime. Why?
- Unstable foundation
- People apply "fifty-year fixes to five-minute problems" and vice versa
- People end up working on layers that don't match their interests
- Nobody ever does the necessary but boring maintenance
- Few realize that for the building to adapt, you must leave some decisions up to future tenants (and build it to be extensible)
In content, what might we do to overcome those? To me, so much of it comes back to brand identity, content operations, and actually diagramming these things out so we don't all look like Charlie from It's Always Sunny when people ask us what we're working on.
