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Content strategist

Find out what a content strategist in government does and the skills you need to do the role at each level.

Last updated 30 August 2022 — See all updates

Contents

What a content strategist does

A content strategist takes an overview of content and how it is produced.

In this role, you will:

  • design governance, workflows and taxonomies in a user-centred context
  • work with senior stakeholders, user researchers and content, service and interaction designers

Content strategist role levels

There is one content strategist role level.

The typical responsibilities and skills for this role level are described below. You can use this to identify the skills you need to progress in your career, or simply to learn more about each role in the Government Digital and Data profession.

1. Content strategist

A content strategist is an expert practitioner in content strategy and taxonomy design.

At this role level, you will:

  • develop governance, processes and workflows based on delivering strategy and policy intent
  • manage relationships and interdependencies with other content roles
  • shape and structure the architecture of content based on user-centred design principles
  • work with lead content designers to organise and manage teams to deliver outcomes

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • SEO (Senior Executive Officer)
  • G7 (Grade 7)
Skill Description

Agile working

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, including measuring and evaluating outcomes
  • help the team to decide the best approach
  • help teams to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and adhere to agreed minimum viable product (MVP), priorities and scope

Prototyping

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • understand when to use a specific prototyping technique or method
  • show the value of prototyping to your team

Stakeholder relationship management

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • direct the strategy towards stakeholder relationships
  • set stakeholder objectives and recommend that they’re met
  • influence important senior stakeholders and provide mediation

Strategic thinking

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met

User focus

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • give direction on which tools or methods to use
  • demonstrate experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels
  • bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure they're met by the business
  • apply strategic thinking to provide the best service for the end user

User-centred content design

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show a deep understanding of end-to-end journeys and how content is affected within these journeys
  • identify where journey fixes or content improvements need to be made
  • take responsibility for assuring the quality of content from more junior colleagues, and coaching and guiding them to improve
  • ensure that content is regularly reviewed and evaluated, contributing to continuous improvements and iteration
  • encourage a continuous improvement mindset in teams and more junior content colleagues
  • deliver through others, and direct and critique their work
Role Shared skills
Technical writer

Agile working

Prototyping

Stakeholder relationship management

Strategic thinking

User focus

User-centred content design
Graphic designer

Agile working

Prototyping

Strategic thinking

User focus
Interaction designer

Agile working

Prototyping

Strategic thinking

User focus
Service designer

Agile working

Prototyping

Strategic thinking

User focus
Digital portfolio manager

Agile working

Stakeholder relationship management

Strategic thinking

Updates

Published 7 January 2020

Last updated 30 August 2022

30 August 2022

  • The 'user-centred content design' skill descriptions have been updated to ensure consistency across the DDaT Profession Capability Framework.

7 January 2020

  • First published.