CNN Digital utilizes Stellar as their primary Content Management System (CMS). I researched and designed strategic improvements to Stellar to optimize the short-term content-planning workflow.
I designed improvements to Stellar, CNN’s primary CMS that powers CNN.com. I conducted research that uncovered a need for a streamlined content planning platform to exist within Stellar to make the workflow of writers, editors, and programmers at the company easier and more efficient.
As a Digital Product Design Intern...
Role & Timeline:
Digital Product Design Intern
January - April 2024
Scope and Deliverables
Problem discovery documentation and component list view UI designs
This journey outlines one process within the content planning workflow, the roadmapping process. This process is highlighted by the defining quote: “It’s not hard, you just have to know where to look and where everything is.” I divided this process into four key components:
Compile, where the goal is to gather all possible news stories that are coming the following day
Identify where the programmer is identifying key, important stories that would be helpful for other programmers to stay informed
Consolidate and format all relevant stories into a consistent, readable Roadmap document
Communicate, or finalize and send out the Roadmap for the next day’s content
In addition to defining each task within these components and the key pain points as mentioned earlier, I also included some key defining opportunities, the most repeated one being to “streamline this workflow by consolidating number of varying applications required into one tool.” I then summarized my research findings into into one key problem statement:
“How might we create a single planning tool that can simplify the current planning workflow and improve efficiency so that programmers can focus on story framing, which is where they can use their time more meaningfully?”
To do this, we’re aiming to improve editorial collaboration by creating a centralized planning repository in Stellar that will help reduce reliance on external platforms.
Outlining the content planning workflow
To facilitate this discovery work, I conducted 5 live user Interviews with programmers and editors, facilitated 1 card-sort activity, and engage in several brainstorming and problem prioritization activities.
1. The first is that there are SO many different tools and applications are used within the content planning workflow. I
counted 11+ different sources that programmers are using to pull information from.
2. Another key pain point is that content planning is a non-linear process. This means that, because hand-off notes from each team are sent out and continuously updated at different times throughout the day, whoever’s creating the roadmap has to continuously check and update the roadmap before it’s sent out
3. Another problem is that the format between each handoff varies significantly, which causes extra work into consolidating all of these budgets into a roadmap as well as reformatting the content to be clear and consistent
4. Overall, participants have consistently expressed that they struggle with a lack of communication and transparency in relaying important information
5. In this same vein, they face a lack of visibility on who exactly is running certain projects and initiatives
Discovery
that’s me!
Proposing a new user journey
To begin conceptualizing an improved content planning workflow through a centralized planning repository, I created an updated user journey to follow the steps that a programmer would take to create a roadmap within the platform. The user story that I created alongside this flow is that, as a programmer, I want to create a summary roadmap of all important stories as well as key events for the following day so that other CNN programmers can be informed regarding upcoming stories.
The steps within this flow go from opening a handoff, into adding stories from this handoff to the roadmap, into editing, rearranging, and adding notes to these stories, and finally, submitting the roadmap. Some steps have an associated internal process, highlighted in purple, and others might pull from internal data, which is indicated by the yellow cylinder.
Let’s deep dive...
Alongside each step of the updated user journey, I realized it would be important to consider the internal processes and data fields. I’ve highlighted a few key examples here:
For step 5, when the user is adding stories into roadmap directly from a preexisting handoff note, we are anticipating that these stories’ data will auto-import into roadmap. These data points might include the story URL, a linked calendar event, headline, byline, description, and the status of the story— so, whether it’s published, coming soon, etc.
For step 8, the user may want to add notes, annotations to stories as needed (ex: if a story is tentative). Relevant data fields here could include a custom status note, any additional staffing information, and a custom note.
For step 9, the user may want to add custom “stories” that might not have been included in the original handoff. For this step, relevant data fields could include the date, a topic or headline, description or key story highlights, the status, and any custom notes.
Defining the current system
The scope of my project involved two key user groups— writers and editors at CNN, as well as programmers.
Writers write stories for a division within CNN. Each division, which includes culture and enterprise, international, national, business, entertainment, and a few more, sends out a daily budget or handoff, which is basically a list detailing all upcoming stories, usually for the day but can sometimes be weekly or monthly.
Programmers take these stories and strategically curate and place them onto CNN.com. As a result, they actively rely on these budgets to inform their daily strategy. Typically, one programmer creates a daily roadmap for other programmers. This consolidates the budgets from all divisions into one, clean document. This is known as the roadmapping process.
Content planning is messy
Editors at CNN have difficulty finding the information that they need because of a lack of visibility, centralization, and simplicity resulting in duplicative work, wasted revenue, and missed content + programming opportunities. Editors are using more than a dozen different tools for content planning and budgeting, consequently creating a lack of transparency. During an interview, one participant stated that “I know the process is so messed up, but I’m so used to it now...” So, while users may be used to these difficulties in finding necessary information, we saw that there was definitely further opportunity to explore and address these inefficiencies.
This forces people to visit multiple places to hunt down basic information or coverage plans. It also makes them rely on email notes and outdated single platform meetings. This is supported by a quote from one of our users, which is: “By the time we get an email, BBC has already broke the news.” As a result, not only internal users, but end users (aka visitors of CNN.com) are being affected by these inefficiencies.
Reflections and thank you
I had such an amazing and meaningful time during my internship at CNN! I learned so much about product discovery, conducting user research, and design thinking throughout these 4 months. This includes me conducting my first ever in-person user interviews, which was such a cool experience for me! I also learned about balancing several intern projects alongside my coursework and extracurriculars.
