Accepting That All Content Is “Imperfect” & Hitting “Publish”

It’s a common problem when writing that you can always do more - more research, more editing, more feedback, more pages. Ultimately, we’ve found that - if left unchecked - this can lead to the search for the “perfect” piece, which ultimately results in nothing being published at all.

It’s important to balance two things: the expectation that published work must be of a high quality, and the acceptance that nothing can ever be truly ‘perfect’.

One way we’ve found that resolves this issue - at least for us at OUTKOM Catalyst - is to create a timeline. By agreeing on a series of critical milestones along the content creation process, we limit the tendency to “do one more draft just because”.

This process is one that we use for both our own and client content. Below is a sample timeline for a content project that includes 3-4 articles that, when combined, ladder up to an e-book and 3 months of short-form, social media content. 

Note: the below assumes a POV content plan that is managed by a “content team” with access to the organization’s founders/leaders.

Week 1:	Onboarding session - founders/leaders to present technology, benefits, customer traction, sales deck, and any relevant supporting content (90 mins) Discovery session 1 - content team to guide ideation, discussion, data gathering, to get exposure to all relevant POVs (90 mins) Document sharing, review & discussion
Week 2:	Discovery session 2 - gap-filler based on synthesis of previous sessions (90 mins) Outline development and review: 3-4 articles (60 mins)
Week 3:	Optional: 2 x customer interviews (30 mins each) External research to support content creation
Week 4:	First draft: articles 1 & 2 Final draft: articles 1 & 2 (published in weeks 5 and 6)
Week 5:	First draft: article 3 and e-book executive summary and conclusion Final draft: article 3 (published in week 7)
Week 6:	Final version of e-book (published in week 8)