| name | creating-content-principles |
| description | Defines foundational content principles that guide all content decisions. Use when establishing content standards, aligning teams on content values, or creating governance frameworks. |
Creating Content Principles
Quick start
Collect or infer:
- Product/brand mission and values
- Target audience needs and pain points
- Content quality problems to solve
- Stakeholder priorities (speed, quality, consistency, etc.)
- Existing content successes and failures
Then produce output using TEMPLATES.md. Validate with RUBRIC.md.
Workflow
- Audit existing content to identify patterns (good and bad)
- Interview stakeholders to surface implicit principles
- Draft 5-7 principles with clear behavioral definitions
- Add decision-making guidance for each principle
- Create conflict resolution rules for when principles compete
- Test principles against real content decisions
- Run the rubric check. Revise until it passes.
Degrees of freedom
Freedom level: Medium
- Default: follow templates exactly
- Allowed variation: number of principles (5-7), examples per principle, specificity of decision guidance—as long as rubric passes
State awareness
- Greenfield: Create principles first, then derive voice/tone from them
- Existing chaos: Identify the 3 biggest content problems; write principles to solve them
- Merger/rebrand: Document competing principles; create unified set with migration path
- Scaling team: Prioritize principles that reduce decision-making bottlenecks
References
