Time to read: 2 minutes
Client: Wayfair
Industries: Tech, eCommerce
Collaborators: Product Managers
Tools: Google Docs, homegrown content management system (CMS), Hemingway Editor
Impact by the numbers
60%
average reduction in article reading level
45%
average reduction in article word count
The Problem
Wayfair’s supplier portal, Partner Home, is a complex system of multiple tools that suppliers use to manage their product listings. With a Help Center made up of outdated, redundant, hard-to-read articles, suppliers were unable to rely on help content to self-serve their Partner Home questions.
The Process
I was given two months to make progress on creating a sustainable Help Center ecosystem. Here’s how I did it.
Review existing articles – On a quest to make the Help Center more reader-friendly, I began by segmenting content out by tool. Within each tool, I reviewed all published articles, making note of unanswered questions and content redundancies.
Draft new help content – To provide consistent structure across all help content, I created templates for each unique type of article in the Help Center. Then, with Google Docs on one screen and Partner Home on the other, I began drafting new help content, focusing on actionability, clarity, and scannability.
Align with Product Managers – With drafts in hand, I met with each tool’s Product Manager, ensuring my proposed content accurately reflected the tool’s intent. I redrafted and realigned as needed until each article met both content and product standards.
Migrate content to CMS and publish – Then comes publication: I migrated content from Google Docs into Wayfair’s homegrown CMS, making use of the HTML editor to ensure article content looked and functioned as expected. One click later and the new help content was live for suppliers’ use.
The Product
✔️ 21 rewritten and 16 net-new Help Center articles
✔️ Help Center governance guide
✔️ Help Center article templates