creating-content-principles

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

1. Audit existing content to identify patterns (good and bad)
2. Interview stakeholders to surface implicit principles
3. Draft 5-7 principles with clear behavioral definitions
4. Add decision-making guidance for each principle
5. Create conflict resolution rules for when principles compete
6. Test principles against real content decisions
7. 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

• Templates: TEMPLATES.md
• Rubric: RUBRIC.md
• Examples: EXAMPLES.md