ONS Career Guide

Project: A high-quality oncology nurse–specific career guide was needed. Members, particularly student members, wanted career-specific guidance from people in the same industry of oncology nursing. The guidance needed to come from experts in the nursing field, but have an accessible voice that would be relatable to new graduates. 

Role: I served as project manager, art director, writer, editor, and designer. I ideated the project, partnered with subject matter experts for content development, assigned or wrote articles, coordinated review and iteration, art directed the cover, edited all content to ensure consistent voice, put all articles into layout, and coordinated with the printer.

Deliverables: A career guide for oncology nurses that was printed in magazine format and put online (full guide here)

Technology Used:  Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word

Problem

User research showed that members wanted career guidance from subject matter experts who knew the field of oncology nursing. ​

Goals

• Leadership hoped that this resource would help bridge the gap for students with a free student membership to convert to paid members as they finish school.
  
• The previous version of the guide was low-quality, had poor viewing data, and cost over $10K in external fees to produce. This version should be high-quality, have better viewing data, and be folded into current work with no overtime.

Initial Research

Discovery Research: While onboarding to the project, I read through content from the career fair held at the Oncology Nursing Society’s national conference. From this content that was already approved through user research, I created a content strategy and list of article ideas.

​Considering the Target Audience: Before starting, I identified the target audience and key customer segments. I wanted to target student members who would soon be graduating and entering the nursing field, as well as a secondary segment of current oncology nurses who wanted to uplevel in their career.

Project Initiation

Style Guide: For this project, I developed tone guidelines and a project-specific glossary that could be easily referenced. In addition, the journals team had a dedicated style guide for use alongside the Chicago Style Guide.

Visual Design: Visual design was based on brand guidelines and alignment with the two core products of the journals team. Colors, columns, and type were all taken into account. I created custom templates using InDesign for the articles, cover, TOC, and any other necessary pages.

Project Management: I managed the project and did much of the work independently. Other members of the team assisted with writing and reviewing assigned articles according to schedules I created.

Content Creation

After defining the topics and assigning articles, writers received content on the topic from a subject matter expert (SME). Writers were responsible for additional research and contacting the SME to refine or expand on specific points. Writers were given the project-specific glossary and instructions related to tone and voice, and all were already familiar with the style guide. 

Diverge, Converge, and Iterate

Each writer finished their assigned articles independently. I created a review schedule where each person’s article was edited by a peer for errors and consistency, sharing learnings with the group as needed. Iterative changes were made as needed. I then audited each article to ensure overall consistency of tone and voice throughout the guide, as well as visual consistency, which led to further iteration.

Final Product

The career guide was finished on time at a high quality with no overtime needed. The guide was sent directly to over 40,000 members of the association. In addition, it was distributed to schools of nursing and at the organization's national conference. 

UX Research

At the national conference after this guide was released, I conducted informal user research while working the career fair area, asking what parts members found valuable, what they would change in the future, and what content was missing. ​

What I Would Do Differently

• I would use Asana to automate tracking deadlines and delegating assignments.
  
• I would conduct formal user research before and after the project. I requested space for this from my company at the time, but was rejected due to budget issues.​

Business Impact

Member Benefit: I received positive feedback in the form of live verbal affirmations, positive emails, and positive feedback from leadership on the improved quality.

Cost Savings: Bringing this project in-house produced a higher-quality product and saved more than $10,000 in external fees.