“I believe that clear, honest, thoughtful communication—online and otherwise—can make our lives better (and good businesses more profitable). I believe that poor communication wastes time and money, damages relationships, and hinders our ability to think clearly as groups and individuals. I believe we can do better.”

With a credo that reads like a project manager’s own personal diary, how could I not interview Erin Kissane?

Erin is a brilliant and sometimes pink-haired content strategist who lives in New York. She has worked independently on projects with Happy Cog for years and recently took a position with Brain Traffic where she’ll focus on major content strategy projects with many like-minded people. In her work, Erin helps companies and other organizations figure out appropriate online editorial strategies, create great content, and build sustainable publishing workflows. And she’s darn good!

Erin’s resume reads like one that most web nerds dream about: She was lead editor of A List Apart for 5 years, has edited books, including Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman with Ethan Marcotte, and John Allsopp’s Developing with Web Standards. And…her new book, The Elements of Content Strategy, is being released on March 8. On top of that, she blogs at Incisive.nu. I’m so happy for Erin, and really so selfishly happy for myself because I was able to work with her on a really great project.

Needless to say, I was ecstatic that she accepted my request for this Q&A. Continue reading →