The field is a mess, and it probably feels overwhelming.
There are so many existing books, blog posts, and code libraries.
Don't worry, we will add structure to this mess.
You don't need to cover the entire field, but we do need to select some portion and to have an edge or opinion. The opinion can come later.
We need to do three things to start to sort out this mess, they are:
- Design a high-level architecture.
- Record all questions.
- Record all strong emotions.
This means going through as much material as you can stand and add notes to these three areas.
In fact, you will continually add to these three areas going forward. This means you will want to have a system, such as a spreadsheet and/or google docs to record these elements.
The first round may take a few days.
Identify the main topics and subtopics in the chosen niche.
These will be the basis for the main themes, silos, and navigation on the website and products. It will also be the basis of your content and product roadmap.
Design 1 to 3 different architectures you could adopt, then select the preferred one.
It should be a hierarchy with the main topic at the top with 2 to 7 subtopics and the opportunity for many specialty subsubtopics under those.
There are many ways to break down a topic, some ideas might include:
- Topic complexity (e.g. easy, medium, hard).
- Developer skill level (beginner, intermediate, advanced).
- Platform type (web, mobile, desktop).
- Application type.
- Functionality or capability.
- And many more.
You can use a mixture of breakdowns. For example, a breakdown first by major topic and then by skill level for each topic.
It is important to test out a few different breakdowns of the topic to help flush out good ideas. It is also important to iterate the design as you learn more about the topic.
Consider adding high-level topics that are out of scope now but could be considered if you decided to expand the scope of the site in the future.
Perhaps use a mindmap or a google drawing to allow for the easy drag and drop of topics to different levels in the hierarchy.
Challenge the hierarchy to help to better define it. Go through topics listed in books, tutorials and APIs and ask where they would fit. What topic would it fall under, what would the subtopic be called, etc.
Record all questions a developer has and could have about each topic and subtopic.
These will be the basis of tutorials and tutorial sections in content marketing and products.
Create a Google Sheet and add one tab for each high-level topic. Then list all of the questions.
Draw questions from all of the resources you gathered previously.
Perhaps start with formal sources such as:
- APIs and documentation.
- Books.
- Jargon.
- Wikipedia.
Then less formal sources such as:
- Blogs
- YouTube
Then finally with real questions asked by people:
- Keywords
- Online communities
- Social Media
Phrase them as questions, not simply topic nouns or verbs. The question puts emphasis on helping readers. The question format will also help flush out perspectives that may not be obvious when looking at a technical topic that focus on "how", such as "when" and "why".
Consider simple questions of the form:
- Why use ...
- What is ..
- How to use ...
- When to use ...
Process one topic at a time and don't worry about duplicates, you can sort and prune the list later. Don't worry too much about the specific language used, we will create good names and headlines later. At this stage, we just want all the questions.
Continue with high-level topic until you have more than 100-200 questions (rows) per top-level topic.
You will continually add to theses lists of questions as you learn more and as you are asked questions later in blog comments and email support.
Somewhere in there you will identify pillar content.
These will be large pieces, 10k+ words or more, one per keyword or top-level topic. These are so-called hub pages or target pages that pages many other pages will drive traffic towards.
They will demonstrate you are an authority and will move up to the top of the SERP.
Pillars will likely cut across the topics and categories and may require their own tab in the spreadsheet to avoid confusion. Pillar content will also likely draw upon many individual questions.
Record all strong emotions a developer as and could have with regard to the topic and subtopics.
These will be the basis of marketing and sales copy.
Create a Google Sheets document to record emotions.
Each entry will have the emotion, the text and a link where it came from (if possible). You may want to have a column for the topic or use separate tabs, depending on how many entries you have. More is better. Even if they are saying the same thing with different language. It is the specific words used that matters.
The aim is to distill whether it is a positive or negative emotion first, then try to name it.
Some example emotions to consider include:
- Confusion (...not sure).
- Debate (...are you sure).
- Pain (...this is hard).
- Fear (...you can't).
- Doubt (...I don't think so).
- Excitement (...this is really cool).
- Relief (...thank goodness).
- Thrill (...wow, we could also).
- Curiosity (...this is interesting).
- Impressed (...wow, well done).
Also, take note of any strong opinions, even if you cannot name an emotion.
A strong opinion may or may not be correct, but there will be two or more sides and you may want to argue them in content later. If one person has the strong opinion, others will too.
The source of these entries will be:
- Blog comments.
- Social media comments.
- Online communities.
- Amazon and GoodReads book reviews.
That's the end of the deep-dive.