Building the foundations of an organisation-wide strategy for content at Shelter
Helping Shelter develop an actionable, measurable strategy to transform content operations through collaborative workshops and strategic recommendations.
We chose Content Design London to support the development of our organisational content strategy because we trust them to bring unparalleled expertise, clarity, and rigour to the process. Their user-centred, evidence-based approach helped us move beyond assumptions so we can create content that truly works for our audiences.
Amanda Collins, Head of Communications and Engagement at Shelter Scotland
The challenge
Leading housing charity, Shelter needed a structured, organisation-wide content strategy to improve consistency, governance, and measurement. With teams working independently and at pace, they faced challenges in aligning strategic goals, tracking meaningful metrics, and developing cross-team collaboration. Shelter engaged us to facilitate workshops and develop the foundations of a unified content strategy.
The goal
- Establish principles aligned with Shelter's organisational goals.
- Develop a proposition statement to guide decision-making across teams.
- Identify challenges and opportunities that will form the foundations of the content strategy.
- Show how to put the principles, proposition and strategy into practice to tell the right story of the organisation’s work.
- Bring leaders and content creators together from across the organisation to share ideas, build alignment and trust in the process.
How we helped
Content Design London led a series of co-design sessions with participants from across Shelter:
- Principles workshop: Participants shared successful content examples, identified common patterns, and collaboratively developed draft principles to guide future work.
- Governance workshop: Teams created an initial proposition statement, outlining what Shelter’s content should achieve and how to ensure quality and consistency.
- Measurement workshop: Participants reflected on past projects and identified the changes needed to integrate meaningful measurement from the start of every project.
Following the workshops, we conducted a detailed analysis of the discussions, identifying themes, challenges, and opportunities that will shape the foundation of Shelter’s new content strategy.
The results for the client
Since working with our team, Shelter now has:
- organisation-wide principles and a proposition statement that teams can use to create more consistent and impactful content,
- practical steps to improve governance, measurement, and collaboration that meet their organisational goals and form the basis of their new content strategy,
- clarity and alignment for transforming their content operations and adopting new ways of working,
- the requirements and support they’ll need from teams across the organisation to support their transformation.
The team didn’t just deliver the foundations for our strategy - they upskilled our team, challenged our thinking, and left us with the tools and confidence to do better content, long-term. We know its going to be transformative.
Amanda Collins, Head of Communications and Engagement at Shelter Scotland
About Shelter
Shelter helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness through advice, support and legal services.
Contact us
If you need help with your content strategy and content operations, email us at hello@contentdesign.london