iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Re-sharing my favourite news story of all time on it's fifth anniversary. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-e...

Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Many hiring panels also tend not to like being asked too many "tricky" questions. 😬 So, the level to which you want to grill them may depend on how badly you need the work.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Note: many/most hiring panels will lie to make themselves look better in these situations. Take everything they say with a truck load of salt and do whatever research you can on the org and the way it works.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Your receptiveness to their answers will vary. Maybe you're looking for an opportunity to build a CD practice from the ground up? In which case you'll likely be way more tolerant of obvious signs of immaturity than someone who wants to be empowered to hit the ground running and get shit done.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Q: Is content and user-centred design embedded in daily working practices in your org, beyond the surface level where Content Designers merely "polish" information that cascades down from higher up?

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Q: Can you tell me about the colleagues I'd be working with? What roles/disciplines are there, and what are those people's backgrounds? How long have they been in post? (Friends, I'm so tired of working under people who don't actually know what UCD or content design is. 😩)

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Q: Can you tell me about a recent piece of important content work that your team/org delivered? What problem were you trying to solve and how did you track the success of the work? (Again, maturity. Do they know why they're doing a thing and how to evaluate it? Or are they engaged in busywork?)

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Q: Who has ultimate authority over content decisions in your org? Content Designers or other business stakeholders? If a stakeholder wants to publish a piece of content that does not meet content design standards, can Content Designers over rule that person?

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Q: Can you tell me about a time that someone in your org wanted to publish a piece of content that didn't meet user needs or content design standards? What was the outcome and how was that outcome reached? (Who really holds the power? What does it look like when that power is challenged?)

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Q: Can you tell me about the steps you've taken to set content design up for success in your org? What steps do you still want to take? (Too many orgs hire CDs without having facilitated an organisational structure and culture that actually allows them to achieve results. Is that the case here?)

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Q: If I picked one of your organisation's senior management at random and asked them what a Content Designer does, would they be able to tell me? (I want to understand how well understood the discipline is throughout the org, particularly at higher levels.)

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Q: How long has content design been a recognised practice in your organisation? How long have you had people with the title 'Content Designer'? (Maybe you're looking to establish a practice from the ground up? But if you're one of the first CDs they've ever hired, be prepared for *a ride*.)

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Pay attention to how they articulate on their score. Can they explain their reasoning clearly and objectively? Or do they seem flustered? Does their reasoning make sense?)

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Q: On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the level of content/user-centred design maturity within your org? Why did you give this score? (Most orgs will score themselves somewhere between 4 to 7. They want to give some impression of maturity but don't want to over promise...

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Questions I like to ask during content design job interviews, a thread...

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"We'll fix the accessibility issues later."

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

A total disasterclass all over the pitch, from beginning to end. Hopefully a one-off brainfart, rather than anything bigger. But not fun to sit with that for 3 weeks now.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Worst performance in a loooong time. We're completely off it, all over the pitch.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Worry though, that we still appear to find scoring goals to be such a Herculean effort. But perhaps not surprising when you can reasonably argue that we actually weakened ourselves in attack over the summer.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Is this 2023 Odegaard I see before me?

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I've long argued that most orgs can't deliver fundamental UX transformation because they do not have controlled definitions of the things, names, properties and relationships in their operating domain. And that defining those will deliver far greater UX benefits than giving everyone Figma training.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Because certain factions believe that 1977 was a perfect utopia and that society should not change, adapt, learn or evolve from that benchmark. 😔

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I've been on both sides of the hiring table. I do way better with questions in advance, and I get way better info out of candidates who've had them in advance. It's really a no-brainer, but here we still are I guess. 🤷‍♂️

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I could compile an entire spreadsheet of civil service orgs who proclaim to be user-centred in their job ads, but then are anything but in their recruitment processes. 😔

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I don't see how this is anything other than an extra, unnecessary step? Couldn't I get exactly the same outcome as what is shown here by using Google or the GOV.UK homepage search?

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

This happens every year. I'm staggered people still cough up for it.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

And yet still no orgs are hiring IAs or building capacity in house. 🤷‍♂️

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Arsene transformed our club, but also always enjoyed the money and comfortable lifestyle. Too many people refuse to acknowledge it. It's why he stayed at AFC for so long when he was clearly done, and why he never went to Real Madrid or the French national team. Too much pressure & accountability.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Too much of what passes for "content design" in most orgs these days is merely fiddling while Rome burns. So I'm quite pessimistic.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

...can see content design as more than words and grammar pedantry. If it can embrace information architecture and a degree of technical content understanding. But that's not happening fast enough or on a large enough scale.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

"There is relatively little talk about what is, arguably, the fundamentally more important issue of trying to design and govern content so as to mitigate against machine failure and misrepresentation." 100%. There can be a strong future for content design if both the CD sector and hiring orgs...

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

This country needs to drastically reimagine what work is and how it gets done, rather than pretending it's still 1992.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Couple that with the fact that "work", particularly white collar public sector work, is still centred around The Big Office in The Big City. This despite the fact that people, especially single people, can no longer afford to live within a commutable distance of The Big City.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Have you shared these thoughts via the "3 minute feedback survey" linked at the top of that page? 😉

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

In my last role I gave more than one presentation to senior management with demonstrations of how their poor content ops were leading to users getting incorrect info from AI platforms. Lots of "oohs" and "ahhs" and "this is bad", but ultimately zero change to how the org worked. 😔

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Sony RX100 range. The newest models (7 I think?) are not cheap, but the older models are still very good and not quite as expensive. The Mk4 or 5 are a good middle ground of features vs price.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Ahhhh, yeah I don't think GMail filters allow you to get quite as granular as Outlook. 😔

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Make sure you configure the Outlook rule to mark them as read and/or delete them as soon as they land in your inbox. You'll never see them. 🤣

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I think you have to log in to your OneDrive account in a browser. Click the cog icon at the top, look for notification settings and disable "Email notifications when people reply to your comments". Something like that. But the Microsoft ecosystem is also baffling to me. 🤷‍♂️

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Vanity metrics everywhere. - 316k installs? And the uninstall rate? - People like to customise the home screen? And? What does this prove? - People return to the app? How do they know that's a good thing? None of these things metrics represent beneficial *outcomes* for people or government.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

You did say, back in about February, that this season would end in the Cardiac Care Unit.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

I've been pleased with what I've bought from them in the past. Enjoy (if you can dodge the AI shit, of course)!

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

I think the hardware recs others have given are sound. Best processor, most RAM, biggest hard drive your budget will allow. Then you'll have to tinker at the OS level to block all the bloatware. Have a browse of; microdream.co.uk Always some good deals on there, they sell via eBay too.

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Dan @dandoescontent.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Trouble is that as soon as you run Windows Update, it will force all their AI bloatware on you. You will have to use stuff like... github.com/zoicware/Rem... privacy.sexy ...to remove it.

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