The problem
At a large organization with many teams creating content, consistency can be a challenge. Our team designed the website and app products, but a lot of the words come from systems and from writers on other teams. Sometimes they come from UI/UX or product managers or developers. We needed a home for the style guide that anyone publishing on a digital platform could access, not a collection of forwarded PDFs that would vanish at the whims of the data retention policy.
Inspiration on the run
A guest on Kristina Halvorson’s Content Strategy podcast mentioned that her team used a “white-label Grammarly” to automate their style guide and I knew that was exactly what we needed. Unfortunately, I was on a run so I forgot about it almost immediately. But I later attended the Confab content strategy conference, where WRITER was a vendor! My memory was refreshed.
Making it happen
I’d barely unpacked my bags before I started researching WRITER and comparable products. When I was sure I wanted to proceed, I made the case to my leadership and pitched the product to my peers on other teams. That was the easy part. As a newer manager, I got a crash course in procurement from statements of work to security review.
Soft-launched in late 2022, the style guide
- covers brand and marketing guidelines
- defines industry vocabulary
- sets standards for readable, usable, and accessible content.
Users could submit questions and suggestions via Airtable, and my team and I regularly deliberated on what should be included as products evolved and new programs launched.
Finding new use cases
In 2024, we expanded our relationship with WRITER to include its generative AI features for quicker content ideation, creation, and editing. We also introduced guidelines for internal-facing products that require specialized vocabulary and a more professional tone. These guidelines were socialized with product and business partners to help them better understand our methods.
Successfully scaling style
From June 2024 – June 2025, WRITER scanned more than 2 million words for our teams and offered suggestions for style, clarity, and adherence to brand guidelines. It has generated or rewritten 1.4 million words, saving countless hours.