As part of Ubisoft’s Knowledge Management Team, I developed an Editorial Bible to guide creating and publishing knowledge-sharing content across the company. The Editorial Bible consists of three key documents: a style guide, an editorial book, and publishing guidelines. These documents set clear standards to ensure that all content published is professional, relevant, and aligned with Ubisoft’s strategic priorities.
This editorial framework was designed to ensure the content reflected relevant topics for all Ubisoft employees, from technical insights to industry-wide trends, and helped facilitate internal knowledge-sharing and personal development.
1. Style Guide
Purpose: The Style Guide provides a consistent framework for all blog contributors, ensuring that content across Ubisoft’s internal blog follows a professional and approachable tone while supporting learning and development goals. This was created to help teams maintain a uniform voice and tone across the platform.
Key Elements:
- Voice & Tone: The voice was designed to be informative but engaging, maintaining Ubisoft’s balance between entertainment and professionalism. The tone could shift based on the content’s subject, but the voice remained consistent across all publications.
- Content Goals:
- Inform: Provide knowledge that’s not driven by PR but rather focused on educating teams.
- Empower: Help readers gain actionable insights that can improve their work.
- Inspire: Showcase creative and innovative projects within Ubisoft to spark ideas and collaboration.
- Guide: Direct teams toward useful resources and industry knowledge.
- Structure: Focused on clear, well-structured content with the use of headings, images, and templates to improve readability and engagement.
How This Helps: The Style Guide ensures that all published content is professional, approachable, and consistently branded, regardless of who creates the content.
2. Editorial Book
Purpose: The Editorial Book takes the guidelines from the Style Guide and expands them into a more detailed reference for contributors, providing additional insight into how content should be structured and formatted for the blog. This was especially important as multiple teams across Ubisoft contributed content.
Key Elements:
- Voice and Tone: As in the Style Guide, the editorial voice is designed to be confident, knowledgeable, and approachable. Tone can vary based on the type of content (e.g., jovial for event debriefs, professional for industry insights).
- Content Formats:
- The Editorial Book details several types of content (e.g., case studies, event recaps, interviews, demos) that contributors could create. Each content type comes with clear guidelines on how to structure the material.
- Content Flow: Emphasizes the importance of breaking up long content with headers, images, and links to make it easier for readers to digest.
- Templates: Provides content creators with templates that help them adhere to the style and structure guidelines.
How This Helps: The Editorial Book ensures consistency in how content is created and makes it easier for teams across Ubisoft to produce material that meets the blog’s editorial standards.
3. Publishing Guidelines
Purpose: The Publishing Guidelines were created to establish a clear, centralized process for publishing content on The Collective blog, ensuring that all contributors follow consistent editorial practices. The document is designed to simplify the publishing workflow, from content creation to final publication.
Key Elements:
- Content Pillars: The guidelines define six core pillars that every piece of content must adhere to:
- Global: Content must be accessible to all Ubisoft collaborators.
- Expertise: Share expertise across different fields within Ubisoft, whether through experiences, research, or case studies.
- Examples: Include real-life examples or case studies to help others learn.
- Originality: Focus on internally generated content.
- Usefulness: Ensure that content provides practical value.
- Actionability: Content should provide actionable takeaways that can be implemented.
- Content Types: The guidelines specify eight types of content:
- Best Practices
- Case Studies
- Demos
- Events
- Explainers
- Lessons Learned
- Post-Mortems
- Research
- Publishing Workflow: Details the process for publishing content, including steps for drafting, reviewing, and finalizing articles. It also includes SEO and tag management strategies to ensure content is easily discoverable within the platform.
How This Helps: These guidelines provide a comprehensive structure that ensures high-quality, relevant content is shared consistently across the company while streamlining the publishing process for contributors.Conclusion:
The Editorial Bible, consisting of the Style Guide, Editorial Book, and Publishing Guidelines, forms the backbone of The Collective Blog at Ubisoft. These documents ensure that content is not only consistent and professional but also relevant and valuable to Ubisoft employees at all levels. Whether sharing technical knowledge or providing insights into industry trends, the Editorial Bible helps create a structured, collaborative environment for knowledge sharing within the company.