Understanding the content lifecycle

Developing and maintaining digital workplace content is a continuous process, much like your digital workplace! Each stage of the lifecycle focuses on different elements that ensure you have content that is: 

• Valuable 
• Relevant 
• Accurate
• Up-to-date 
• Easy to find and consume 

A lot goes into producing content that enables your employees. Remember that those efforts help your organization reach its business goals. In other words, the effort is well worth it! 

Stages of the content lifecycle

The stages of a typical content lifecycle within a digital workplace include:

	Assessment  What content do you have?  Are there any content gaps?  Is existing content performing the way it should?  Is existing content serving its intended purpose? Content audits Strategic analysis Performance of existing content
	Planning What content should be created and why? What are your content goals? What will the tone and style of content be? Who is the target audience and what are their content needs/preferences? What types of content should be created? Content strategy  Goals and objectives KPIs and desired outcomes Content guidelines (style guide)
	Creation Who will create the content?  How will the content be created?  What is the process for creating content?  Who needs to review/approve content? Research and information gathering  Subject matter expert input Writing and editing  Reviews and approvals
	Publication Where will content be published?  Where will content need to be surfaced?  Where will content need to be linked or link to?  Who will moderate content publication?  Who needs to be notified when new/updated content is available? (and how quickly should they be notified?) How will content be organized and categorized?  How will employees find content? Label strategy  Channel usage  Moderation  Notifications  Curation
	Maintenance How will content be managed and governed?  What is expected of content owners?  What is the process for retiring content?  How often will content be reviewed?  How will you assess content to identify areas for improvement? Success metrics based on KPIs  Formalized ownership of content   Review/update schedules  Archiving policies

Continuous improvement 

The content lifecycle is continuous. After maintenance, you'll need to go back to the assessment stage to identify areas in need of improvement, including changes to the type of content you're creating, updates to your processes and policies, adjustments to where and how your content is being presented to employees, and changes to how you're measuring the success of your content.