Digital Strategy, Content Design, & UX Writing Training

Level up, get unstuck, and build your team’s writing and design skills with online training from a leading voice in UX content.

Format | Pricing | Descriptions | Calendar | FAQs

👯

Being User-Centered

Bring the team’s focus back to what matters: your users.

🗡

Clarity Through Content Strategy

Stop tolerating ambiguity. Start kicking its ass.

🧭

Mapping Content Ecosystems

Conquer content chaos and create strategic alignment.

📝

Writing for Designers

Get the writing done on your design projects, every time.

Hello, I’m Scott! I’m a bit of a UX and content nerd, and love sharing my enthusiasm and knowledge with people who are trying to plan, write, and design better digital experiences.

I’ve been focused on the content side of UX and digital strategy for over 12 years, and have led over 100 talks, trainings, and workshops on the topics you’ll find here.

My goals as an instructor is to empower people with whiteboard-friendly frameworks for approaching difficult content, design, and strategy problems in new ways.

I hope you’ll consider joining me and your future fellow learners for one of the sessions listed here. We can’t wait to meet you!

Scott Kubie, Instructor

Format | Pricing | Descriptions | Calendar | FAQs

Interactive Online Design and Content Training

Each workshop consists of two online training sessions lasting four hours each, held on consecutive days. Here’s a pictogram:

🗓1️⃣ | ⏳⏳⏳⏳
🗓2️⃣ | ⏳⏳⏳⏳

The training is live and interactive, delivered via videoconferencing and an online whiteboard space. It’s a similar experience to an in-person training, except you don’t have to travel and can wear comfy clothes!

Each session is a mix of lecture, activities, breakout discussions, and Q&A. And of course, some breaks — one long break of ~20 minutes and several shorter ones.

No additional work is required before, between, or after the workshop sessions. An optional list of recommended reading & media is provided, as well as optional pre- and post-workshop surveys. An attendee that completes both training sessions and all optional work will spend between 10 and 12 total hours.

Attendees will receive a template for sharing takeaways with their team, making it faster and easier to put the learnings to work.

A maximum of 24 total participants will be in each workshop; typically fewer.

Format | Pricing | Descriptions | Calendar | FAQs

Pricing, Discounts, and On-Sale Dates

The standard price for a seat in any workshop is $895 USD. Seats are $695 with early registration, which ends 5–6 weeks before the start date. (See individual workshop listing.) A total of 24 seats are available in each workshop.

	Standard	Early	Sliding	Equity
Individual	$895	$695	$250	No Cost
Group	$745	$545	n/a	n/a
			4 available.	2 available.

Pricing table. 4 sliding scale seats and 2 equity seats are available in each workshop.

Reservations

Need to make a budget request and worried about a session filling up? Want to be the first to register for a session not yet on sale? Use Save My Spot to stay in the loop on availability and be among the first with an opportunity to register.

If your preferred workshop is not yet on sale but you’ve got budget to spend now, just send me a note and I’ll get you sorted.

Tentative dates for Q1 and Q2 2024 workshops should be available by September 2023.

Group Pricing

Groups of two or more registering together can request group pricing, which reduces the cost of each seat by $150. This makes standard registration $745 and early registration just $545. You don’t have to be coworkers to request group pricing. Freelance friends, mentor/mentee, contractor/client teams, even accountabili-buddies are all fine. You just need to have your party assembled, so to speak, before you register. Group pricing is not available on Sliding Scale seats.

The best price for large groups (10 or more) is a private workshop for your organization. Contact for details. Private workshops can be lightly customized and the timing can be adjusted to fit your schedule.

If you’d like to talk directly about group pricing, private workshops, or similar, book a chat!

Sliding Scale Seats

Four sliding scale seats are available in each workshop for $250. These are intended for people experiencing individual economic hardship or disparity against the U.S. dollar, or otherwise in need of affordable training for a good reason, no questions asked.

Equity Seats

Two no-cost equity seats are available for each workshop. A simple application is required, and will be available on a rolling basis as workshop dates near.

Being User-Centered | February 2023 | Equity Seats Filled
Mapping Content Ecosystems | April 2023 | Equity Pricing Request

Non-Profit, Government, Higher Ed, and Other Discounts

I do not offer discounts for specific industries. Folks working for mission-driven organizations with limited professional development funds are welcome to register for a sliding scale seat.

Flash sales and discount codes are occasionally made available through my newsletters, social media, and partners. I’m always experimenting with these, so don’t set your watch by them, especially if you’re planning a team or professional development spend. Solo practitioners looking to catch the occasional deal should subscribe to the Content Events newsletter.

Add-On: Expert Lunch & Learn

Since “Bring Your Workshop Instructor to Work Day” is not yet a thing, I’ve got this instead! Any organization that sends someone to a workshop in 2023 can add a private Q&A or lunch-and-learn session at a discount of over half my in-house speaking fee. You could schedule the session before the workshop to help your team map out learning goals, or schedule it for after to add an expert perspective during your after-action planning. Please contact me if you’re interested in this opportunity.

Takeaways, Recordings, and Materials

You should plan to attend the workshop live.

The lecture portions of workshops are recorded for the benefit of the individual registrant, in case they need to step away for work or personal reasons, to catch up on later. To encourage more open sharing and learning during the session, recordings of small-group activities, Q&A, and breakouts are not provided. Recordings are sometimes plagued by technical glitches out of my control, which may degrade the quality of the final videos and/or necessitate providing a substitute from another session.

At a minimum, each workshop registration includes a readings and resources list, access to the “slides” (typically a Miro board, also available as a PDF), and copies of any templates or worksheets taught in the workshop. Some workshops include additional materials, like ebooks or bonus videos.

Format | Pricing | Descriptions | Calendar | FAQs

👯 Being User-Centered

Journeys, Stories, Maps, and More!

Don’t spend months on a big plan to fix everything at once. Start being more user-centered right now.

You’ll learn how to take apart popular tools for describing users and understanding their journeys into common patterns and components. See the method behind the UX magic and leave equipped to choose, adapt, remix, and/or invent just the right tool for focusing your experiences on the people who really matter—your users!

Great for: intranet/content/knowledge management teams, marketing/copywriters trying to be more “UX-y”, product marketers, junior & mid-level content designers and UX writers, UX designers and researchers looking for a fresh framework or tired of overly-complicated, multi-month UX deliverables

Topics: facilitating user-centered design and content planning, what it takes to become a user-centered organization, design processes, editorial processes, storytelling and storymapping, journey mapping, strategy and content gap analysis

Sample slides and testimonials

🗡 Clarity Through Content Strategy

Where Product and Content Meet

Ever worked on an unclear project? Stuck trying to develop messaging for something that makes no sense? “Redesigning” a website without any clear goals or outcomes? Sometimes we have to carry on and hope for the best on, but it’s a frustrating way to work. Good news: There’s a better way. Learn a simple and powerful framework — and the key tools — for clarifying the vision, voice, mission, message, targets, and tone of the brands and business units you support.

Workshop Details

Great for: mid-level+ content designers and UX writers, marketing leads, UX leads of all backgrounds who want to learn more about content, brand and product strategists, product owners, product managers, new content strategists, comms teams at large organizations with a consumer-facing brand

Topics: strategic alignment, content strategy fundamentals, VMT framework, brand strategy, organizational strategy, project charters, voice architecture, mission statements, voice vs. tone, topics and messages

Related article: The Elephant in the Glovebox

Based on presentations delivered at Confab 2016 and Button 2022.

🧭 Mapping Content Ecosystems

Map Your Reality & Design Your Future

Content ecosystem maps are snapshots of your digital strategy and what the heck is going on with content in your organization: where content is coming from, high-level processes, internal and external audiences, business objectives, technology—and how it all interacts. The mapping process reveals where people have different ideas about reality, giving you a chance to work out these differences before they derail your projects.

Great for: agency strategists and consultants, in-house content strategy teams, website design and build teams, anyone working on complex information spaces, teams planning website migrations or redesigns, strategy-minded OOUX’ers

Topics: strategic alignment, current state analysis, future state design, governance, content models, visualizing strategy, concept modeling, mental modeling, discovery, stakeholder management, cross-functional collaboration, website redesigns, website consolidations and migrations, rebrands

Learn about content ecosystem mapping

📝 Writing for Designers

How Design and Product Teams Get the UX Writing Done

Based on Scott’s book of the same name, this is a foundational training on workflow-based writing as part of a larger design or content project. This is not a workshop on the “rules” of UX writing, at least not directly. We’ll be focused less on the mechanics of writing well and more on what it’s like to deal with UX writing and interface copy as part of your larger design and content processes.

Workshop Details

Great for: UX designers/researchers, design managers, technical writers, service designers, product managers, project managers, developers, newer UX writers and content designers, anyone who works on projects that involve writing and content planning with a team

Topics: writing workflows, collaboration planning, stakeholder management, discovery work for content, key inputs for writing, scoping writing/content work, managing approvals and sign-offs, types and categories of UX content

Format | Pricing | Descriptions | Calendar | FAQs

UX & Content Training 2023 Calendar

Workshops are scheduled for either Americas/Workday or APAC/Evening. Use New York / Eastern as primary reference; there may be timezone quirks. Workshops will always start at either 11am or 6pm for someone in New York City, USA.

Americas/Workday
New York: 11:00am to 3:00pm

If none of the listed dates or times work for your team, consider a private workshop.

Format | Pricing | Descriptions | Calendar | FAQs

Common Questions About Workshops

What payment methods are accepted?

Payment can be made directly via credit card via this website once the workshop is on sale. Payment can also be made via PayPal, ACH, or wire transfer; contact Scott for details or if you need an invoice or similar.

How do I register multiple people at once?

Once you have your discount code (ask Scott!), you can either have everyone check out and register themselves with that code, or else add multiple seats to your “cart” and check out with the code — in that case, please send Scott a list of names and email addresses for all registrants. (You can send this list as late as one week before the session if you need time to confirm attendees.)

Are refunds available?

Refunds are not offered for training workshops unless canceled or rescheduled by Scott.

If you find you’re unable to attend, you can ask to:

Transfer registration to a colleague in same organization.
Transfer registration to a future workshop (pending availability).
Donate seat to someone who’s requested financial assistance.

What is needed to participate in a workshop?

You’ll need a fast and reliable internet connection, headphones or earbuds, and the ability to access Miro and Google Meet, both of which can be run in a web browser.

You will not need your own Miro or Google account.

Invitations to the online meeting space and whiteboard will be part of a calendar invitation emailed to registrants, so an email address that you check regularly is also necessary, I suppose.

Do I have to have my camera on the whole time?

Oh God no, no no no. There will be some quiet individual activities and a healthy amount of breaks. You don’t have to be faux-extroverted online into a web camera for four straight hours, I promise.

“Cameras on” will be requested for portions like introductions, Q&A, and breakout discussion rooms. But you can always choose to turn your camera off as needed for your comfort or privacy.

Are these workshops appropriate for beginners?

Generally, yes. But that doesn’t mean they are “beginner level”. These trainings are based on frameworks of my own design. Frameworks are organized sets of ideas that help you navigate a complex topic more easily, and more readily remember key concepts and how to apply them.

A framework isn’t useful if it’s too complex or advanced. I think my frameworks are very approachable, even for beginners. It’s kind of my thing.

However, digital strategy is a complicated animal, and applying some of the tools, especially from Mapping Content Ecosystems and Clarity Through Content Strategy, might prove challenging for a new zookeeper (though really, all of this stuff is kind of difficult, isn’t it?).

Writing for Designers and Being User-Centered are both good starting points if you’re completely new to UX design, content design, or content strategy but have some sort of writing or marketing background.

Do you offer any in-person workshops?

I’m open to travel for private in-person training events and conferences. Mapping Content Ecosystems is particularly fun to do together in a physical space.

I also teach about similar topics at web and UX conferences, which often have workshop days.

Do you offer workshops on any other topics?

Yes. Additional topics and themes are available on my speaking page, in case you’re brainstorming for an internal conference or just need some inspiration.

Some of my other topics — e.g. Communicating Change, Designing Friendly Experiences — may find their way to the Lightning Learning 90-minute format, which will be marketed through my other channels and listed on the events page.

I have a quick question that’s not answered here, can I email you?

Of course! I’m at scott@kubie.co

Note that it’s .co, not .com — no ‘m’. If you’re writing me from a phone, it might try to add that ‘m’. Don’t let it!

A LinkedIn message works fine, too.

Can you help me select workshops for my team or otherwise navigate this process?

I’d love to! Book a time and let’s chat.