I turn your content into a business asset

Fractional content services to move your business up and to the right

Hi, I’m John Collins

As a fractional content expert, I bring 30 years of content experience, nearly 20 of which were transforming content practices at well-known global software brands Rosetta Stone and Atlassian.

At Rosetta Stone, I led the Technical Communication and Localization team through a move from managing multiple variants of technical documentation in InDesign to a single-sourced authoring tool that produced branded variants. I also guided the internationalization and localization of several products.

When I got to Atlassian, I started in a content design role on a now-retired product before carving out a specialty as senior content architect and moving the company to a headless CMS provider and making the case for a composable DXP vendor. My final tour of duty at Atlassian had me overseeing the localization of Trello and Atlassian Administration and shepherding the new Atlassian Guard Detect product through internationalization and localization.

I like to describe myself as the bridge between content, its meaning, and technology and systems. A passionate wordsmith and laser-focused editor, I’m still always thinking about how to scale content within an organization.

Get a content expert, without the hire

Engagement options: What level of content support do you need right now?

Think about problems you have with your CMS, your website, or your user interface text. What content work do you want off your plate?

Content & MACH architect

For enterprises and organizations undergoing a digital transformation

$21,000 (monthly)

  • Facilitate the design of composable application architecture to support needs of digital business users

  • Co-create the enterprise content model

  • Align stakeholders on a contribution model for evolving content models

  • Facilitate CMS and DXP selection process

Retained content strategist

For startups and organizations that need directional content guidance

$7,200 (monthly)

  • Align stakeholders across the organization on an overarching content vision

  • Facilitate workshops to define content strategies

  • Establish governance policies and mechanisms

  • Set teams on path to execution for the vision and strategies

Content design
advisor

For teams that need tactical help with user experience content

$1,400 (monthly)

  • Help team understand where weak points are in the user experience (UX)

  • Provide guidance for how to improve UX content

  • Serve as sparring partner for UX designers or content designers

  • Give occasional help writing UX content

A la carte engagements

  • Content model feedback
    If you have started on building content models, you can bring me in to assess your content model and help you refine it. I can point out where your model would hinder your content strategy, where engineers might struggle to build an experience from your model, where your model will run into scale and operational challenges, and more.

  • UX audits
    Includes feedback on visuals, user flows, and UX writing. Deliverables include: slides, video presentation, bug reports, report of findings

  • In-house presentations
    Perfect for “brownbags,” communities of practice, or team onsites. Topics include the content disciplines, content strategy, internationalization and localization, writing for localization, and more.

  • Thought leadership
    I can partner with product and services vendors to create thought leadership content about content strategy, tooling, operations, or emerging roles.

Not sure what you need? Let’s hop on a call and talk it out.