Taking content design center stage in a crisis

The following is adapted from my Confab 2021 talk.

Starting March 2020, content designers from San Francisco Digital Services were on the front lines of SF’s COVID-19 response. We sat with hundreds of other City staff, all recruited from other departments at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at the Moscone Center for 2-week shifts.

Initially, we were asked to publish health orders and other announcements on SF.gov, as soon as they came in. And they were coming in very quickly!

We started to earn trust by working directly with staff from Public Health, Emergency Management, and the Mayor’s Office. We extended that trust by having me be deployed at the EOC long-term. The initial 2-week shift turned into more than a year.

I became a familiar face and got to know many of our stakeholders.

Adapting our content design principles for COVID-19

As things began to settle a little in the summer, it was clear that we needed to rethink our content principles.

We always said that people went to government websites to get stuff done, not get information. But this situation was different.

People would be coming to us, not to get services really. But to get information…to get something done. Namely, information they would need to make a decision on a task they wanted to do. For example, “How can I protect myself when going to the store?”

We did not really have principles for this! What could I do in this ever-changing environment?

I did a bit of research. I figured someone must have come up with some content principles to use in a crisis.

Introducing crisis and emergency risk communications

Lo and behold, someone did. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, our beleaguered CDC, has a manual for crisis and emergency risk communications. Or, the CERC manual.

So over a weekend last summer, I sat down to learn just what CERC was about.

The first thing they impart to you, is that the right message, at the right time, from the right person, can save lives. The stakes couldn’t be any higher.

Crisis communications has special considerations

But what makes crisis comms different from the regular communications that we usually do?

There’s often an unspoken time constraint to everything. The response needs to be immediate.

The crux of the communication is that it should always help people make the best possible decisions about their well-being, often with limited information.

And it helps people accept the imperfect nature of choices, where the decision has to be made quickly.

So all the communication is informational, but it has to serve a task. It has to answer the question, “What do I do?”

Not to mention, users in an emergency are often in a very different mindset than most users of digital products and services!

You have to zero in on:

• What do they need now?
• How will they best receive the message?
• What are they concerned about now?

The 6 principles of CERC

And to lead the way, here are the 6 principles of CERC:

1. Be first
2. Be right
3. Be credible
4. Express empathy
5. Promote action
6. Show respect

All these principles are ways to promote trust in our constituents. That’s the only way this all works.

Use the CERC principles to elevate content design too

And then, I took a longer look at the CERC manual’s definition of crisis comms.

“Providing facts…about an unexpected emergency, beyond an organization’s control, that involves the organization and requires an immediate response.”

That means, working on the response is a crisis within a crisis! Doing crisis comms, is also doing crisis comms!

To truly promote content design in the COVID-19 response work, I would need to practice crisis comms with my colleagues.

So here are the 6 principles of CERC, and what they mean for content designers working with stakeholders.

1. Being fast is your best leverage

The very first CERC principle is to be first. For stakeholders, this means you have to know the landscape and get it done.

The CERC manual says, “Communicating information quickly is crucial. For members of the public, the first source of information often becomes the preferred source.”

In any emergency, it’s important to get your message out there as soon as possible. I found that being first, or at least being fast, actually became my best leverage in elevating content design.

Know the landscape

You have to know what’s going on in general. You don’t necessarily need to know the details, but at least you have to know it’s happening.

This is part of what SF’s COVID-19 response entails:

By knowing the landscape, you’ll know the players. To earn their trust, make their jobs easier, especially for the 311 and social media teams! I give them intel, they give me feedback about what’s happening on the ground. I can then take it back to the decision makers who can actually improve things. It’s a symbiotic relationship, really.

Even for the public health clinicians and lawyers, they write all that content so it’s out there for the public! If you help that content reach more people, everyone wins!

Especially when everyone’s in the middle of operations, nobody’s thinking about the website until the last minute. But you’ll be ready when they do realize it!

Get it done

After you learn about the landscape, then you gotta get it done.

Truthfully, everyone loves a thorough content approval process, until something has to be published “ASAP.” Then the process goes out the window. It’s happened on every single high stakes comms project in this pandemic—testing, reopening, now vaccines.

Getting it done will be your biggest lever.

I’m pretty sure that the biggest reason why I’ve earned so much trust is because I turn operational information into impact right away. Over the past year, I’ve been brought on to meetings where things are decided earlier and earlier. If people want something on SF.gov ASAP, I have to know about it ASAP. Stakeholders do come around on that!

To get it done, you have to know what you’re working with.

One of the first things I did was do a content inventory in Airtable. Yes, even when things are changing all the time, you have to inventory what’s there! You’ll never regret having one, I promise you.

This is only a tiny view of it, I’ve got around 5 views I use heavily, and about 30 columns. I maxed out at 260 pages that had anything to do with COVID.

I’ve got all the pages organized by status, public health subject, and reopening subject. And I have a Google Doc for almost each one.

Every time there’s an announcement on reopening, or some other public health guidance change, I can quickly find which pages I need to update.

If I need stakeholder approval, I can send them the Google Doc and tell them to make comments or suggestions.

Know your source materials

Another thing you have to do is know your source materials. What led everything was the health order. Written by the City Attorneys and the health officer, it told everyone in San Francisco, this is what you have to do. This is the legal bible of what is allowed and what is not allowed.

We also had public health guidance, written by doctors. Not quite a legal bible, but had lots of information about what you should do to stay safe.

Now, there was a time early on, where I was reading everything. Health Orders, directives, guidances, FAQs. That’s when everything was closing!

Turns out, it’s much harder to reopen businesses, given the specific public health guidelines for each one.

But it’s still important to know what each one was meant for, and where it came from.

To get it done, you have to be ready to get it done.

• Know your inventory inside and out.
• Be familiar with your source materials.
• Know your principles. Be ready to defend them. Or at least educate people on them!
• Recruit some backup when things get busy.

2. Be right, or at least honest

The next principle of CERC is to be right. I don’t think I have to explain why being wrong a lot would cause people to lose trust in you!

But when working with stakeholders, there are a few more considerations: Be honest, and give context.

The CERC manual explains that to be right, that “information can include what is known, what is not known, and what is being done to fill in the gaps.”

An interesting thing about pandemic work is that it has completely cleared my ego. I really stopped worrying about how I came off, and started focusing on the work. It was all about getting the info I needed. If I didn’t know it, I’d just start asking!

Tell people what you know. And tell them what you don’t know.

Give context

It’s important to give context because all the information is just blasting at everyone all the time. Make it really clear what you want people to do.

Dispel assumptions. Give your stakeholders a heads up if something involves them. They’ll be grateful to get that intel early!

Tell them if they need to do anything. That’ll be the first question on their mind.

And tell them if there’s anything at stake, especially if you need an answer or decision right away.

With these tips, it is possible to get a handle on a runaway train with an email!

There was one time where a few teams were working on 2 projects with a similar mission. One project was a quick fix, another was a better, longer-term solution that would need lots of work.

An email chain blew up, assumptions were made, a high-up stakeholder (that I’d never talked to, of course), got wind of some parts, freaked out, and wanted to cancel everything. On a Saturday.

I was like, “Whoa, okay, time to pull back and give some context.”

I literally wrote, “Bottom line up front: I can do Webpage A on Monday, but that’s a short term solution. The longer term solution is Website B, and this is why.” And then I explained who everyone on that email chain was, why they were there, and why both projects were valid.

That high-up stakeholder replied back, thanked me for the detail, and explained that of course, no one had explained the plan to her directly. And then we proceeded to decide how to go forward.

Whew, crisis averted!

I will say that even though I write in plain language for a living, writing that email was hard! It took me hours of wracking my brain! But it’s worth doing it.

3. Be credible by knowing your limits

The third CERC principle is “Be credible.” What this means when working with stakeholders is to know your limits.

The CERC manual says, “Honesty and truthfulness should not be compromised during crises.” Sometimes that means acknowledging that you are not the best avenue to do that work.

Know how to make the most impact with the channel that you have.

In my case, I acknowledged that the SF.gov website could not do everything. It’s taken me somewhat longer to admit that I couldn’t do everything either. But that’s true too!

Leave the personal entreaties to people, not websites

One aspect of crisis communication is what we call metamessaging. That’s where you say, “Times are hard, we feel you, we get you.” Or “I know it’s hard, especially around the holidays.” It’s when you use emotion to connect to people.

Websites are not good for that. Websites are words on a page. You can’t relate to that. It comes off extremely disingenuous.

You have to have a person look you in the eye, and say it. Ideally, it would be a leader.

Luckily, Mayor London Breed was already doing it in her press conferences. And she does it very well! She explained how we all needed to do our part to tamp down the holiday surge. And we did have a holiday surge, but it could have been a lot worse.

There is absolutely nothing I could write on SF.gov that connects to people like that.

So, I let our partners do that. The mayor does the metamessaging, and community leaders would have those more intimate 1-on-1 conversations with people. “This is why you have to stay home for the holidays.” “This is why you have to wear a mask.” One on one, human to human.

What SF.gov could do was tell the general public what they could do right away. Empower people with information.

Even further, SF.gov could be used as a tool for partners and the public, to support them while they have those conversations with people they know.

4. Express empathy by acknowledging struggles

The fourth CERC principle is to express empathy. What this means for stakeholders, is to acknowledge their struggles.

The manual says, “Addressing what people are feeling, and the challenges they face, builds trust and rapport.”

They go on further to say that people don’t panic in an emergency. People react in ways that make sense to them. Always.

This is where knowing the landscape comes in handy.

Everyone you’re working with is feeling pressure that you may not know about. From above, from the sides, from the bottom. Who knows!

To get stuff done, you have to work with that. Know that everyone has their own goal. Tap into that. You want something, I want something. Here’s how we can get there together.

Make it a win/win.

And really, keep in mind that it’s not about you. Everyone is stressed out!

Help everyone embrace the chaos

This is especially helpful when new people get tossed in the fray. Just acknowledge that things suck! Help them embrace the chaos!

Most folks in my regular Digital Services team were not directly part of the COVID response work. And then a good chunk of the team was pulled into vaccines. It was the first time that most of them experienced the frantic pace of changing priorities and information. Constantly pivoting, even when you’re trying to work in a proper sprint, can be overwhelming.

I kept on telling them, “You gotta embrace the chaos! It’s the only way I’ve survived doing this work for a year!”

Then one of our engineers added the Elmo fire gif as a Slack reacji, and I was like, “Yes! Embody the Elmo!”

So anytime we get a new piece of information that completely blows up our current plan, someone reacts with Elmo fire. We sigh a bit. And then we get to work.

Acknowledging all your struggles binds people together. You can show some vulnerability right away. The psychological safety that builds up will only make you more impactful.

5. Promote action by giving people options

The fifth CERC principle is to promote action. When working with stakeholders, this can mean giving them options.

The CERC manual says “Giving people meaningful things to do calms anxiety, helps restore order, and promotes some sense of control.”

When people are stressed out, the loss of control is the scariest feeling. So you always have to give them a path. Another thing I’ve found is that if I say if I can’t do it on SF.gov, they’ll often choose another option that is not as accessible or user friendly.

But you can delegate. If you know there’s another team doing something similar, make those introductions. Again, knowing the landscape is super important!

You can also offer compromises and win/win situations. The proposed content may not fit exactly into our strict content standards on SF.gov, but if we can nudge it that way, that’s still huge progress.

That goes back into knowing your tools. I had to know what SF.gov could do. I had to know what content types we had, their goals, what they were good for, and what their limitations were.

So when someone comes in with a solution or website copy for me to publish verbatim, I can go, “Hmm, well it won’t work quite the way you envision it, but here’s what I can do. It will be more readable, accessible, user-centered, all that good stuff.”

Everybody wins!

6. Show respect

The last CERC principle is to show respect. When working with stakeholders, this means acknowledging their expertise, keeping people updated, and asking for help.

The CERC manual says “Respectful communication is particularly important when people feel vulnerable. It promotes cooperation and rapport.”

Even in a crisis, people don’t want to be treated as if they don’t have autonomy.

Acknowledge others’ expertise

You have to work with everybody. It’s not about you necessarily being an expert in that exact subject. Everyone is an expert in their own field. That’s why they’re there.

You’re “translating” other people’s work to empower the public. They have a message they want to share. My job was to help them spread that message. I studied behavior change and emergency communications, not the details of how aerosols work.

Keep everyone updated

Another thing that the pandemic taught me, was to not be afraid to keep everyone updated on everything. Before, I’d be nervous about flooding someone’s inbox.

But really, it’s a lot better to have a message unread in someone’s inbox, but there (and therefore their responsibility), than having it be your fault they didn’t find out about something.

So, keep those lines of communication open. Keep people updated. Learn what they prefer. I have Slack, Teams, and Mail open pretty much all the time. And then some stakeholders, you can only reach quickly with a text message or phone call.

And if you’re unsure, just CC everyone!

Ask for help

Last, but surely not least, is asking for help. I’m still working on this, slowly but surely. It’s really the only way to scale.

What has been working for me so far, is bringing stakeholders directly into the process. Pair-write with them, even if it’s sending Google Docs back and forth.

Mentor. They’ll have questions about why you have the principles you have. They’re not trying to be annoying, they genuinely want to be a part of what you’re part of.

Give feedback. If they don’t know what they can improve on and why, they won’t improve.

And have a relationship with your stakeholders. It doesn’t stop with training. It takes time! You can learn all about content design principles but the only way to really learn it, is to do it. And then they’ll need help.

Again, we’re still working on this, but we’ve gotten a few allies in the public health department who write the long guidance. They know their PDF guidance can be more readable, they just don’t know how to do it. But welcoming them with SF.gov content principles means that they can start improving their own content right now.

The most important thing to remember is that everyone wants to make a difference. That’s why they’re there!

Conclusion: Work with stakeholders to elevate content design

So, here we are, at the end of the 6 principles of CERC, and how they can help you work with stakeholders to elevate content design.

1. Be first. Know the landscape. Get it done.
2. Be right. Be honest, and give context.
3. Be credible. Know your limits.
4. Express empathy. Acknowledge their struggles.
5. Promote action. Give them options.
6. Show respect. Acknowledge their expertise, keep people updated, and ask for help

How is it working so far?

SF.gov is now understood to be the destination for the general public on everything COVID-19. One of the most gratifying things in doing this work, is seeing strangers, reporters even, use content I wrote to help each other. People helping each other understand what masks to use, and how to have safer holidays. Helping each other understand vaccine eligibility.

Most importantly, I’ve gotten to be a part of making real impact.

Dr. Bob Wachter’s COVID chronicles on Twitter have been a constant source of hope when things were not looking great. And in March 2021, he calculated that if the US mirrored SF’s COVID mortality rate, more than 364,000 Americans would still be alive. (As of July 2021, that number is more than 400,000.) That is staggering.

What else can we do when we elevate content design? The mind boggles. I believe that using content design and crisis comms together, we can scale our work in magnitudes.